is £40 callout charge too cheap for domestic house holder??

[egginyourface]

the new year is here and every thing is going up in price. are you all putting your prices up to??

ive been charging people £40 for the first half hour then 20-30ph after that.

i get good bit of work charging like his but have the feeling call out is on the cheap side.

recently people have been complaining its expensive...

what do the 1 man band sparks out there charge for a call out?

 

[egginyourface]

ive only been trading on my jacks for a few months now and get about 2-3 calls a day for easy call- outs. feel if i upped charge would lose work.

whats been your experiences with this

 

[telectrix]

perhaps stick to the £40 for easy ones but add £10 if you have to think a bit or get dirty

 

[Des 56]

Most of my call outs are for friends or people who are down on their luck,oaps or disabled etc
Its usually a thank you rate, with a cheap install or rectification if theres anything needed doing later
Its a downside of recomended clients who I have done work for and a very,very very, social community

£ 40 an hour is buisness rates and if I charged that amount,the good people would think they are being serviced by British gas not a perpetually poor spark

 

[ringer]

I charge £25 per hour with minimum charge of £50 - but they get me for up to two hours for that. So not really a call-out charge, just a minimum.

 

[malcolmsanford]

You really have to weigh up the sales pitch of the British Gas and to a lesser extent Mr Electric. Human nature always thinks that a tenner a month is far cheaper than a call out which could be 50 pound and hours after.

As a one man band 40 pounds in this day and age is quite fair and if it's getting you 2-3 calls a day then your not doing that bad really. I would leave well alone, do a good honest job and referrals would flood in.

 

[egginyourface]

thanks all, appreciate the advice

 

[telectrix]

You really have to weigh up the sales pitch of the British Gas and to a lesser extent Mr Electric. Human nature always thinks that a tenner a month is far cheaper than a call out which could be 50 pound and hours after.

British Gas hourly rate is £80 + Vat, a whopping £96 /hour as domestic customers can't claim the vat back. that makes our rates look cheap.

 

[smartspark]

The way I see it is your £75 for the first two hours, or £60 for the first hour as you have just got your tools out in the first half hour.
I charge min £40 for the first two hours, so I think you are about right there in London as I'm in the sticks in Suffolk.

 

[Octopus]

ive only been trading on my jacks for a few months now and get about 2-3 calls a day for easy call- outs. feel if i upped charge would lose work.

whats been your experiences with this

I charge £50 for the first hour - my only exception is if its an existing customer then its £35 - one way or another we've got to earn a living.

Around me other trades charge £45 - £65 for the first hour so given you're in London I'd up it to £50 for the first hour.

 

[Geordie Spark]

You really have to weigh up the sales pitch of the British Gas and to a lesser extent Mr Electric. Human nature always thinks that a tenner a month is far cheaper than a call out which could be 50 pound and hours after.

British Gas hourly rate is £80 + Vat, a whopping £96 /hour as domestic customers can't claim the vat back. that makes our rates look cheap.

.......... and it's also why I have renamed them British Grasp.

 

[LukeD]

£60 first hour £30 each hour on top. as above £200 over 4 hours as the day is gone .