The Holy Grail!!!!!!!!

[Sparky Ninja]

Widdler: I don't care how old the book is. Would you be willing to take some pics of a couple pages and PM or email them to me? I find it strange that you quote their hourly rates. I was under the impression that because they are American owned, they follow the flat rate pricing system that's big in the states. With flat rate there are no hourly rates (at least not shown in the price books). Tasks are listed with a one off price. In America electrical contractors offer service contracts, so each task actually has 4 prices attached to it.

It's in the garage, I'll take some scans from it tomorrow.

 

[Newsome3]

Share and share alike??

 

[dim_bulb]

It was the first electrical job i got, we worked in the south east but also worked in oxfordshire on RAF houses.

the work was quite hard but one thing i have learnt is never complain if youve got work.

I dont remember the price structure but it was a special pen with a camera that recorded things when you wrote special pad.

I left because he made me redundant and didnt pay may last wage so I got a bit upset.

Keith sims might know more regarding price structure as i worked with him.

 

[IQ Electrical]

Thanks for sharing the information.


I'm always curious how these franchises maintain their pricing:

A customer calls, they ask for a price to upgrade a consumer unit, they quote say £600.

Ok says the customer and then gets a price of say £400 from 'local spark from the paper'.

The customer then books the local spark and the job is done.

How then are these companies eliminating the above scenario and winning work?

 

[SPARTYKUS]

Only seen one Mr Electric job, it was in a flood damaged house.

the temporary board / DB was installed .... directly under the source of the flood.

So when I arrived (to rewire) the temp supply was soaking

Mediocrity and ineptitude!

Please excuse spelling 3+ Stellas.

 

[Voltimax]

IQ: I'm guessing it's like British Gas. There are hundreds of one man band operations that can easily undercut them, yet they still prosper. There are those customers out there that believe and trust in brand names. Their thinking is yes the local guy is cheaper, but will there be any come backs? This company is high profile, so they won't do a poor job.

The other reason is, the local one man band may only give an estimate to cover themselves if the circuits they're altering are not up to spec. If this is the case, the customer may be thinking, well the local guy said it will be £400 if everything is ok with my electrics, but how much will he be charging me if they're not? Another £400? That will be £800! At least they know with the franchise guy it will be £600, no more and no less.

I don't know for sure, I'm only guessing. I have researched flat rate pricing for quite awhile now and I've been speaking to American electrical contractors personally. I actually like what I've been hearing, but then their thinking is totally different to ours. One thing they quote alot with flat rate and I'm inclined to agree, is that someone starting out fault finding will take a couple of hours to find the problem and fix it. Five years down the line and more experienced he will find it in 15mins and fix it in about the same time. If he is charging T&M, then he was earning more when he had less experience. Now he's experienced he's earning less, in effect he's being punished for be good at his job.

Certainly makes you think.

 

[slelectricalhud]

My business partner used to work for the guy who owned Mr Electric round where I live. The guy that used to do the Mr Electric work for him used to take legs from the board and take them all into a big adaptable box where everything was jointed and taken to the points like a giant spider with a big grey plastic body, apparently he used to call it nerve centre wiring!