Labour only installations?

[Caittom]

Hi,great forum, loads of very good information on here. I would just like to get some opinions from installers in the trade. Do you ever do installations where the customer supply's the boiler,rads etc & just charge for your labour or do you generally supply & fit the products yourself. The reason I'm asking is that we need to have an ageing Baxi wall mounted heat only boiler replaced with something more efficient. I understand that the installer needs to make money doing a job so can quite appreciate any markup on parts add to this, with the availability of boilers on the internet or from local suppliers obviously if a customer supplies there own the profit from the job may be less . Does this put installers off doing labour only installations ?

 

[Dotty]

The installer would only guarantee his work, leaving you with a major headache and pocket ache should the boiler or any other component fail.

 

[kay-jay]

Hi,great forum, loads of very good information on here. I would just like to get some opinions from installers in the trade. Do you ever do installations where the customer supply's the boiler,rads etc & just charge for your labour or do you generally supply & fit the products yourself. The reason I'm asking is that we need to have an ageing Baxi wall mounted heat only boiler replaced with something more efficient. I understand that the installer needs to make money doing a job so can quite appreciate any markup on parts add to this, with the availability of boilers on the internet or from local suppliers obviously if a customer supplies there own the profit from the job may be less . Does this put installers off doing labour only installations ?

Most installers like to supply simply because if the customer supplies it the engineer doesnt know if its fell off the back of a lorry and registering a stolen boiler could result in problems.

Mark up is a standard thing on supplied goods and it protects the customer grom furthrr expense if the goods turn out to be faulty. If customer supplies then problems arising from faulty components are a chargeable extra

Notable exceptions are when a fitter is trying to avoid the vat threshold

 

[Chalked]

Wouldn't bother me if you supplied all the gear.

But!!

i will be putting £500 on top of my labour charge, as I have to guarantee it as you can't.
you will need me, to tell you everything that is needed material wise.

next time you go out for a nice meal, take a potato, carrot and a bit of meat. Just tell them to cook it!

 

[Ch4 plumbing]

As above if the customer supplies it and either it's wrong or it's faulty then it's down to them to organise a replacement and if there's nothing else on the job to get on with it's usually an extra charge.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Im quite happy these days for custs to supply , however i charge if the custs order turns out wrong and I'm sat around.

Besides custs supplying keeps me away from vat

 

[lame plumber]

I love it if a customer supplies as I charge for my time whether or not all the required parts are there as needed. Normally I make more on a customer supplied install than when I supply everything and the bonus is I do not have to warranty any of it.

 

[Ch4 plumbing]

It's a pain in the arris, I don't want to be sitting around I want to be finishing the job with a happy customer so I can move on and start the next job.

 

[plumben]

The majority of fittings I need are in the back of the van so if its a customer supply job instead of the two minutes to the van its a trip to the shop for you whilst I'm being paid to drink tea and read the paper

 

[Ermintrude]

I hate it with a passion. Had one bloke wanted to supply and hang 20 odd rads . Wanted to fit poofix cack. I simply explained if he drove his car into car wash and got out his own wax and polish the 25 Turkish migrants would stone him to death. Plus we wouldn't be liable for any failures or delays. Two lads on site doing jack..... £100 p/h soon loose a few rads

 

[lame plumber]

A while back a customer supplied their own bathroom, "Victoria Plumb", so in my best running away mode I dropped the name of a lad desperate for work, seems he had problems, mainly with the tap units for the bath- all posh and standing on their own, it all went wrong and I got the blame for giving them his name!!!

So I was more than ****ed off last week when I finished a boiler install to be asked to install a bathroom, that we've just ordered from victoria plumb!!, I might just finish a couple of rad moves I promised to do as well, then become ill or busy!

 

[SimonG]

I will charge more for labour only as I have to do more work to ensure what the customer orders is correct. Any problems, it's extra. Any problems after with the mats it's extra.

 

[IDCHAPPY]

You have had some wonderful and honest answers from the guys, we don't mean to come across badly it's just years of experience telling us that it can lead to problems

 

[Chalked]

Sorry to the op if my reply seemed rude or harsh.

 

[stevetheplumber]

it doesnt bother me if the customer suppliies it means the guarantee work is at his expence i would price the job and take of the cost of materials but not the mark up