Custards are cheeky!!!

Post new thread

Currently reading:
Custards are cheeky!!!

Discuss Custards are cheeky!!! in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

Status
Not open for further replies.
L

lucas121

Plumbers Arms member
Plumber
Messages
100
So about six months ago my boss did a boiler replacement for a church going lady. She was a real decent customer to work for and she was extremely pleased with my boss and his work.

She then decided she wants a new bathroom. So my boss went round one evening with some brochures and helped her out briefly on what she wanted/needed.

She then phoned up saying she was all confused and didnt know what to do, so my boss went round again and spent 2 hours going through what she wanted and left it with her to order the sanitary ware.

Then, she phones up again in a state saying she doesn't know what shes doing, so my boss went down to the local plumb merchants/showroom on a Saturday for 1-2 hours helping her order all her stuff, on top of this my boss managed to get 25% of her order through his account. (She paid for it directly though)

A few days down the line she sends my boss an email asking for his price to install, as she is getting quotes from other tradesman. My boss was very miffed with this email as he thought he had the job. He gave her a price, not sure what he gave her, i know he is at the expensive end, but for return custards he tends to price accordingly.

Well he got an email this morning saying she given the job to someone in her church.

To say he is fuming is an understatement.

I guess there's a lot to be learnt from this situation!

Oh, and she always wants him round as she needs to make an adjustment on the heating and doesn't know how!
 
next time she calls for a heating adjustment, if i were your boss i would say i was too busy. or go and give her a bill for his time sorting the bathroom suite out.
 
Your boss should bill her for all the time wasted when she asked him to help her. He could say it was part of his quote he give her that she rejected.
Legally, I think your boss cannot get money for consultancy if she decides not to pay for that.
For her to get his discount on the stuff is not fair.
 
A "church going lady" doesn't mean anything. Sounds like she likes money. There are very few people who actually consider other persons much. That's my experience anyhow.
I had very similar experience where a lady I was extremely friendly with wanted a bathroom & I spent several times over perhaps a couple years showing her what could be done.
Suddenly she got a builder in with loads of tradesmen (most not needed for job). The plumber who did it charges big money, uses plastic etc & she never met him in her life!
Then she rings me when anything happens!
 
Last edited:
That's crazy to know people like that are about, to be fair though, I would still go if she had problems and charge her accordingly.
However I would scrutinise the other tradesman's work and try to find things that they have done wrong, bound to be a few things that you could get more cash from.
 
I have had a couple of similar experiences in the past when I was somewhat naive..

One potential customer actually wrote down all the sanitaryware/materials we were going to use for the bathroom onto his computer as we went along with the quote. I thought it was a bit weird at the time. A day later I got a call from him, my handyman is going to do the install instead. Clearly he was just using me to get a professional designer for free..

Second one, actually spent time helping her choose tiles etc in person in a couple of shops. Promised me the job, then got someone else in last minute. Was also fuming!

I am a bit tougher now and try to suss people out as soon as I meet them!
 
the nicer you are to customers the more they take advantage of you
i would always keep the relationship with cust freindly but professional and make them aware that your time is not free
we all have family and inlaws for that ****
 
Ive had loads of customers like that. Part and parcel pf the job im afraid.
Just before xmas, I had one that I did an price for on two full bathrooms, all the works. They also had me pricing for kitchen taps and various other bits.
Anyway i never got the job. I spoke to them and they told me they would keep my number incase they.needed any other jobs doing. This annoyed me! It doesn't take much....
This week I've been trying to find an old customer. Looking through my quotes I stumbled across a name I recogised - the penny dropped that id already been and priced the same job up in 2010!!
What a dummy. So neither time they had me. I wonder if like me, they couldn't even remember me going round.
I wouldn't have gall
 
This where a system of working comes into operation. You have a price for parts and a price for youre time. That discount for example is based upon you buying alot of materials it was youre money and you just gave it away. Id have billed her for the time he spent aswell going through what she needed etc which could have been taken of the final bill had she had the work done through him. Its a tough world out there and time is money. Id bill her now anyway and say you will refund it if she changes her mind or is he concerned he wont get anymore boiler tweaks out of her?
 
Had a customer ask me for a quote to do work at one of her properties following a leak. I sent quote, didn't hear back.

Then she calls to say their is an issue with another of her properties and could I give a price to sort it?

My response?

"What's happening with the first job I priced up for you? Maybe whoever you used for that should sort the new problem out to". She quickly made her excuses and I've never heard from her again.
 
Have had this a few times, one quite a few years back involved re-planning rad positions etc (a couple of hours) was told l "No rush, give us a ring when you can book it in". phoned 2 weeks later to book a slot "We got my brother in law to do it"
Latest was an estate agents, hadalways provided them with 4 hour call out for rental properties; whenever boilers etc required replacing NEVER got thejob.............. xmas eve 2013 got a call at 10 past 4 in theafternoon to go to a leak, reply was "Sorry, but as you haven't phoned in 9 months best get whoever else you've been using". haven't heard from then since:hurray:
 
she was after the one thing ( a bargain ) at your expense,i often get calls from all n sundry asking how much for this and that and if you are daft enough or gullable you would end up giving all your prices away lots of companies use smaller companies to price jobs to give them a feel of costings and then try to undercut , but hey that was always an old trick to cut estimating costs
 
jim fennessey said:
she was after the one thing ( a bargain ) at your expense,i often get calls from all n sundry asking how much for this and that and if you are daft enough or gullable you would end up giving all your prices away lots of companies use smaller companies to price jobs to give them a feel of costings and then try to undercut , but hey that was always an old trick to cut estimating costs
Click to expand...

How do you guys go about pricing jobs now then? As I'm just about to go self employed and would like to use your experience to try and minimise the amount I get stung. Also on quotes how in depth do you show your material costs. For example on a full bathroom rip out and install it is hard to price for everything as plans change/ alter as the work is carried out usually, so you over estimate adding you 20%, But how do you show this on your bills without the customer seeing your mark up your adding on materials?

Thanks
 
itemise things for yourself to help with the pricing. give the customer a price for the job. no breakdown.
try and sell to them from a catalogue as your merchant should give ytou a decent discount
 
I show a breakdown of everything that is to be done, but with an overall cost for labour & materials. Not everything individually priced. That way it's crystal clear what you're quoting for but also doesn't give away how much for each bit of work.
 
Don't break anything down as you're just writing a shopping list for the diyer or the next guy. I just put "material "and "labour" down with the cost. That's all they need to know.
 
Unless they've specified an item, they don't get a shoping list. "Remove, suplly & fit new bath" is about as descriptive as it gets.
 
I generally list the works to be done in a:

'Scope of Works'

Then they get a total figure at the end of the quote.

The other 'rule' I have developed is the 3 quote rule.

If I have quoted someone, eg builder, 3 times, and haven't got a job, I don't bother quoting them anymore - and generally let them know the reason for not submitting a quote on the 4th project.
 
Her telephone number would be stored in my phone with an 'X' in front of it. X for 'never answer ever'.
 
oz-plumber said:
The other 'rule' I have developed is the 3 quote rule.

If I have quoted someone, eg builder, 3 times, and haven't got a job, I don't bother quoting them anymore - and generally let them know the reason for not submitting a quote on the 4th project.
Click to expand...

I do this as well - there's too many time wasters & twits out there
 
plumb_know said:
How do you guys go about pricing jobs now then? As I'm just about to go self employed and would like to use your experience to try and minimise the amount I get stung. Also on quotes how in depth do you show your material costs. For example on a full bathroom rip out and install it is hard to price for everything as plans change/ alter as the work is carried out usually, so you over estimate adding you 20%, But how do you show this on your bills without the customer seeing your mark up your adding on materials?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I agree with what the other guys have said. Don't give them a shopping list, you will get lots of people ask for a breakdown of items and even materials. Just makes it easier for them to go get Joe blogs from down the road to do it. Learnt this the hard way.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Reply to Custards are cheeky!!! in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

Tiling Standards BS5389
Plumbing Advice
Tiling Tools
Tilers Forums UK
Electrical Blog
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock