what would you do?

[telectrix]

got a customer, bought a house. basically gutted, so asked me for a quote, labour only, to do some electrical work, extra sockets, etc. install new CU. now, technically, i have no problem. it's the financial side that buggers me. basically, i quoted £700 to do the CU and the bits and pieces. all good so far. now, he wants downlights throughout. i planned it out, 32 downlgihts in total. quoted £20 per fitting ( labour and cables), got knocked down from £640 to £450, now he wants 8 more fittings ( total overkill, 6 in a 3m x 3m bedroom and hall & landing) without paying any more. so far, i've had £500 out of the £700 initial quote which barely covers the time spent so far. my thoughts are to walk away, cut losses, move on. i can see future problems as he wants outside work and won't pay for safely installation. btw, he's just had all the front and back fenced and block paved... materials alone must have come to £5K. should i walk?

 

[LankyWill]

My mate threatened a client once, he replaced all the accessories in a small terrace property. He had a the kit spare from a job he did so the materials cost him nout. When he went to get the final bill the women started to haggle and re-fused the original agreed price cut it in half. He lost it, went to the van and grabbed his hammer and started smashing the sockets. Needless to say she quickly coughed up.. Sort of bloke you dont take the **** out of at the boozer..

 

[Leesparkykent]

I had similar on a load of extras on an extension I done....ended up cutting the installed downlights out....I made sure that I pulled all the slack out and cut the cables as far as I could fit the cutters up the hole lol.

 

[jackhammerJIM]

I had similar on a load of extras on an extension I done....ended up cutting the installed downlights out....I made sure that I pulled all the slack out and cut the cables as far as I could fit the cutters up the hole lol.

On large jobs for people i haven't worked for before I'm going to start fitting wireless relays that connect live to earth at the touch of a button . Which circuit though ? Kitchen ring ?

No pay

No power

 

[R G]

On large jobs for people i haven't worked for before I'm going to start fitting wireless relays that connect live to earth at the touch of a button . Which circuit though ? Kitchen ring ?

No pay

No power

Good idea that , wonder if it could be done by radio or mobile phone app maybe that could trigger the relay via a receiver , Hmm ,
be a good idea on jobs that are suspect...

Neutral to earth would be better though as live to earth would probably nacker the relay

 

[ruston]

Remote socket is all you need lol. Drive by, press button the lol Phone call , RCD has tripped....................

 

[jackhammerJIM]

Good idea that , wonder if it could be done by radio or mobile phone app maybe that could trigger the relay via a receiver , Hmm ,
be a good idea on jobs that are suspect...

It can be done with home automation products . hardwire link box hidden in loft to bt point . hide relay in ceiling void .

Download app to your phone and bobs your uncle , live to earth at the touch of a button . Make sure you always open relay after closing and no one is ever going to find it .

Remove link box and take to next job on payment

 

[tomspark93]

I had similar on a load of extras on an extension I done....ended up cutting the installed downlights out....I made sure that I pulled all the slack out and cut the cables as far as I could fit the cutters up the hole lol.

ahhhh the point of no return. Don't blame you though, hope you made the switch wires safe though after cutting through them lol

 

[telectrix]

ahhhh the point of no return. Don't blame you though, hope you made the switch wires safe though after cutting through them lol

if he thinks like me, he'd have cut the switch wires back in the switches as well.

 

[not clever]

PC or not it is unfortunate that the two customers who have ****ed me over were
1st Pikey family who bought a house just so they could register at a doctors & school, they didnt use the house but put the van on the drive & lived in that.
2nd pakistani ...........agree a price do the job they then want extras agree Then when invoiced they want to knock the fee.

Now Pikeys will not even get a quote if I suspect they are indeed from this section of society.
Pakistanis get a quote that is doubled with half up front payment request before work starts, if they then want to haggle the final invoice I'm still quids in.

Ferk all non payers shirkers & invoice dodgers

 

[Octopus]

PC or not it is unfortunate that the two customers who have ****ed me over were
1st Pikey family who bought a house just so they could register at a doctors & school, they didnt use the house but put the van on the drive & lived in that.
2nd pakistani ...........agree a price do the job they then want extras agree Then when invoiced they want to knock the fee.

Now Pikeys will not even get a quote if I suspect they are indeed from this section of society.
Pakistanis get a quote that is doubled with half up front payment request before work starts, if they then want to haggle the final invoice I'm still quids in.

Ferk all non payers shirkers & invoice dodgers

You need to take "legal" action against them both...... and learn from this. I avoid these groups of people UNLESS I have a good repor with them.

 

[Englishman]

if he thinks like me, he'd have cut the switch wires back in the switches as well.

Oh yes. I really can not understand people who have a non paying customer and simply accept the situation. In the unlikely event that I never got paid, the customer would end up shelling out a lot more money than they saved by not paying me. And they certainly would not get a functioning installation at the end of it either.

 

[Englishman]

You need to take "legal" action against them both...... and learn from this. I avoid these groups of people UNLESS I have a good repor with them.

Africans are the same, they usually try and bargain with every price, and then say that they haven't got enough cash on them, even though they knew the price beforehand. Two have tried this with me and ended up walking to the cashpoint. Cheeky *******s.

 

[davesparks]

Don't forget haggling is normal for a lot of other cultures and they expect you to have allowed extra in the price to haggle with

 

[Englishman]

That is a very good point, and the two I've worked for both came quite early in my career. And in all honesty, both paid without a huge amount of hassle, but they weren't overly happy about it either. I've avoided working for them ever since.

 

[telectrix]

they don't bloodywell haggle when they're selling tatty jeans and fake t-shirts on the market though.