How does the customer know what the work should cost?
Probably by spending hours on chat rooms talking to others who think they can get a consumer unit upgade supplied and fitted to the correct standards by a qualified spark for 50p
Cheers Chris.
Absolutely spot on there,the interweb can be a dangerous place for these idiots.
I remember a mate of mine who was a keen "hobbler",fully qualified but doing plenty of extras back before part p etc raised it's ugly head going to a birds house to basically fit in a 2 way switch so she could turn the porch light on from in the porch and off at night from the main light switches.
Gives her a quote,she baulked a bit but agreed anyway.
Work commences and she signals she's off out for a bit,no probs.he starts channelling out the location of the new switch,drilling etc when he needs to pop to the lav.
He's startled by a blood curdling scream!!!
The birds back from tesco collapsed on the floor in floods of tears.
" what the hell are you doing,I only wanted another switch?why have you drilled my beautiful walls?".
Explaining electricity doesn't in general jump through 6feet of air to magically and accurately turn the light on,he'd incredibly stumbled upon what she thought would happen,that somehow the switches were linked wirelessly (I'm going back to 1999 now when there wasn't much wireless technology).
After a cup of tea,she calmed down,but questioned the safety of having electricity "running through her walls","will it be dangerous if I touch the cables" etc etc.
Reassuring her once more that after the work was complete,there would be no bare cables and that he'd plaster and redecorate as per price,she then said "ahh,I wondered why you were so expensive just to screw a switch on the wall!!!!!".
Perhaps more time spent in physics and less snogging boys and smoking would have benefited this lady in later life!!!!
But on a more serious note,if you watch that rogue traders program you've got to laugh at some of these so called "experts" who harp on about how much things should cost to get done.
Sure there's some horror stories on there,but does anyone in this day and age REALLY expect you to climb onto a roof and move an aerial,possibly go into a loft in an old terraced house that's sketchy at best and remove 300boxes to get at their 1974 booster box that's "worked fine for years" for ÂŁ30?
I wouldn't turn the key in my van for that!
Having run my own business I know for every pound you get you may as well throw half of it in the bin,so frankly even at a ÂŁ40 call out charge you'll be lucky to see ÂŁ20 in your hand,factor the 1/2hr each way traveling,then the time filling in the paperwork etc your probably putting a tenner in your bin.
Fork that!!!
For some reason electrical and in recent years plumbing trades as well seem to give an unfounded perception that were rip off merchants.
I found the bodywork game even worse,everyone who came in wanted a "quick blow over".
No such thing I'm afraid,unless you want me to get the aerosol out or the paint brush,won't take 5 mins then.
Everyone's an expert unfortunately,encouraged by people like that pr1ck Dominic littlewood and his band of merry men/women who think it's ok to continually try and barter you down on stuff,not realizing that just gets tradespersons backs up thinking "hmm,this guys trying to cut the price before I've even started,whats he gonna be like when the jobs done and they ACTUALLY have to pay?".
As you can see,I don't miss the public at all!!!!!
