Troublesome Customer

[highspark]

I have a customer who asked me to split labour and materials costs on quote which I did....I recieved a voicemail today saying she wants every single material itemised plus cost!!! Does she think I just sit round with all this free time? I've already done something I don't normally do because she asked me for a good quote as she has more work for me. That being splitting labour and materials costs on a written quote. I haven't even put a mark up on materials for her and I've knocked off 30% of my labour. Not my mates because he would work for anything less! Anyone dealt with one of these people before. I get the feeling shes the type to hold the money back because a socket is out by 0.0001 degrees!

 

[telectrix]

tell her you'll do it for £100, ( cash ), and will deduct that from her final bill if she accepts the quote.

 

[jumpin jax]

saying she has more work for you is a try on normally, stick to your guns on the labour and say she can supply materials, give her a list and she can price it up, then any thing faulty or wrong is extras

 

[Octopus]

Do you need the business? If not I'd walk away.

 

[brooky25]

Get a quote from wholesaler and pass it on, then they cannot argue. You could also ask wholesaler to alter quote to add a markup without her knowing
Or if you have plenty of work and don't need job, price yourself out of it

 

[tombennetts]

i have, steer clear!

 

[Guitarist]

Once you start itemising to the nth degree you are opening yourself up for "I could have got it for a pound less from B&Q, why didn't you go there?"

 

[alarm man]

a price is a price,asked if you can do anything with the price,stock answer should be.yes i can put it up..she's playing you off against others to save 50p,id walk away you will be fighting to be paid once the jobs complete..

 

[mackers]

walk on by! sounds like a hiding to nowhere
this job would be far easier if it wasn't for those darn customers! LOL

 

[Octopus]

I am about to give the details of a LED fitting to my customer so she can buy 12 off. She'll get my price from my local supplier and I've told her not to go buying off the internet as if any are broken/wrong the cost to get them returned etc will be too much hassle.

 

[plugsandsparks]

Only happened once to me so i listed the items so they could get a proper match and listed my margin separately. I think when they realise the complexity of selecting the right parts it sort of puts them off. Was a commercial client though. Domestic, my beef is when they say they will buy the parts, which i let them do and they buy awful stuff thats a real pain to work with.

 

[Guitarist]

I don't mind customer buying gear, but I state what brand it must be. Ultimately, if it fails after 2 weeks we will be expected to put it right free of charge.

 

[bugsy]

I would tell her that with the greatest respect you have provided a materials and labour breakdown and if she is not happy suggest she gets another quote we experianced a simular situation with a developer who's wife was acting as Q.S. COMPLETE NIGHTMARE.
every application questioned even though we were working from a schedule of rates

 

[HandySparks]

Ultimately, if it fails after 2 weeks we will be expected to put it right free of charge.

I don't. I had a customer ask me to replace two PIR 500W floods with another two which had been in her loft for some time (could have been several years). I fitted them and then received a call a couple of days later saying that they were both faulty. I offered to supply and fit two new ones at my standard rate but she didn't take me up on the offer.

If I supply and fit, I sort out any problems quickly and FoC. Anything supplied by the customer (and installed correctly) which goes faulty gets sorted as a new job. I now add a large margin to the price of any outdoor PIR to cover the time involved in a proportion of replacements.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

see this kind of thing gets me......its not just about what stuff costs or how much the labour was/is......what we offer is a service......from initial consultation and survay of the job....through the first fix stage...second fix and completion...then handover....all done in an orderly and smooth manner so as to cause minimum disruption to the client and other trades.....what the hells up with some folk??.....