Customer Expectations and “Know It All’s”

[Minster]

To get this thread back on track...

One poster said they‘d like to see the original conversation between us and the customer (the reason I started this thread).

“Since I accepted the quote I’ve researched and that boiler to the general public is around £150 along. Then £10/15worth of flexi pipes/copper pipe. I’m just wondering how the price got to £803? Say the flue is £40 that’s still £600 odd for the instillation which seems very high! More that an emergency call out in London....”

Firstly the customer didn’t notice that the high end model of the water heater (he’s calling it a boiler) was the one quoted for which was £350.00, the flue that he seems to think is £40.00 is actually £120.00 so that’s £470.00 for the water heater round up to £500 for the pipe and fittings. This leaves £136.83 for fitting and VAT of £166.17. So the part of the bill that we actually benefited from was way short of the £600 he calculated and the reason why he wanted a reduction. Having since explained that to him he’s understood and agreed to pay the balance.

The above was the most recent example of why I posted about this subject.

 

[Ric2013]

To get this thread back on track...

One poster said they‘d like to see the original conversation between us and the customer (the reason I started this thread).

“Since I accepted the quote I’ve researched and that boiler to the general public is around £150 along. Then £10/15worth of flexi pipes/copper pipe. I’m just wondering how the price got to £803? Say the flue is £40 that’s still £600 odd for the instillation which seems very high! More that an emergency call out in London.***”

Firstly the customer didn’t notice that the high end model of the water heater (he’s calling it a boiler) was the one quoted for which was £350.00, the flue that he seems to think is £40.00 is actually £120.00 so that’s £470.00 for the water heater round up to £500 for the pipe and fittings. This leaves £136.83 for fitting and VAT of £166.17. So the part of the bill that we actually benefited from was way short of the £600 he calculated and the reason why he wanted a reduction. Having since explained that to him he’s understood and agreed to pay the balance.

The above was the most recent example of why I posted about this subject.

I thank you very much for getting this back on track. The only thing I can suggest is that it might help to state the exact model of the higher-priced components on the paperwork, which might avoid the customer looking up the price of a product that sounds roughly the same?

And if you want a laugh, I had this with MY MOTHER. She said a glazing job only took me half an hour and I'd done rather well on it. Then I explained I'd visited the (rental) house twice, gone to the merchants in person twice, spent an hour at my own house working out how that type of door was glazed (the letting agent's glazier had said it wasn't possible which was why I took on the job!), driven xx miles, and was disposing of the old glass and being responsible for the new one lasting a reasonable time. So if we count expenses, and all goes well, I'm on £7.50 an hour. Then she apologised for not being able to afford to pay me extra.

 

[Ric2013]

I think I've understood Hometech's point, as I did used to work in a contract office.

Our company procedure was this:

Issue quotation subject to Ts and Cs, provided.
Customer expressed an interest. We'd say send us an order by fax or post.
Customer sent a purchase order document 'all as your quotation SExxxxxx and subsequent emailed correspondence' (subject to the customer's Ts and Cs that usually conficted with ours).
We'd send an acceptance of order subject to our Ts and Cs (as our terms insisted no order was an order until we had accepted the customer's order).

Despite the obvious holes in this procedure, this did basically work for supply to the construction industry. Not that court cases were not a common occurrence anyway. Our projects were in the £10,000 - £300,000 range.

In fairness to Hometech, there is a chance that emailed correspondence alone could leave scope for discussion. You only need to use the wrong word once. But we all do the best we can and it is questionable how many of us would be able to go to this effort for every single contract.

 

[Timmy D]

We get money upfront for all quoted works (not service etc) above £1k. Had a few people question the upfront and over the last 3-4 years, only 1 refuse, so we refused the job.

Haven’t got time to barter the cost/chase payment after the works been done

 

[Timmy D]

if its faulty within 6 months its classed as faulty from new and a consumer has the immediate option of a full refund from the seller..you. That is the bit your missing it would seem. So by having the consumer buy the expensive equipment themselves i.e. in their own name, you are hands up free and not your problem should they demand a full refund. They could easily argue for a refund on the installation cost as well, then you are loosing hand over fist. By structuring the legal contract so that you are the labour supplier, then only issues you face are against the quality of the install. If you feel the need to make margin on a boiler then you accept the consequences of being the seller.
These are no semantics, this is the law and it would seem that you are totally ignorant of it and the consequences it has. Ask a solicitor if you know one.

And this is why we mark up materials 50%-100%.