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When Customer Says You're Too Expensive

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jase158 said:
Hi Bert large, I am guessing you are a firemen, ever plumber I have met in southwest is a part time firemen!! Day rate can vary up here, from £200 to £450, depending on quality of work, customer base etc. I believe southwest (Cornwall and Devon) is maximum of £200 per day but as you say easier workload, less pressure. The big difference is the hourly wage, southwest is £20-£25 per hour, so still earning around £200 per day, up here you can charge £50-£75 per hour so potentially £600 per day. And emergency callout, you could get away with £150 per hour for out of hours emergencies. Depends how busy you are and how much you need the work
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Hi Jase,
Ha ha, no I'm a full time plumber not a fireman. I don't actually know any firemen
masquerading as plumbers.
You're about right on the day rate but not on the hourly rate here, its much higher.

I try to pick & choose my jobs as I enjoy working on my own, can't think of anything worse than employing a few blokes & having to be forever chasing work for them, consequently driving prices down.
 
Thats not London, I'm in bucks. I ain't bothered in telling people what I charge, why the secret?
 
The more I think about it, the more I want small jobs, better pay, less risk, more time at merchants having fun. Finnish earlier. Fed up of big jobs at moment. Been on big jobs for last 3-4 months. Might advertise with yell again as that's where I get small jobs from.
 
jase158 said:
Thats not London, I'm in bucks. I ain't bothered in telling people what I charge, why the secret?
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say a town over one of us quotes, slightly more expensive and they use your figures, decide we are ripping them off and then tell everyone we are cowboys.

i know we all charge different rates but what if someone in bucks posts up and are cheaper than you.
customer then quotes the other guys rates of pay and refuses to pay yours.

the annoying thing about the internet !!!!

i quoted to fit an outside tap.
person agreed, i turned up, they had read up on the screwfix forum it shouldn't be more than 25 quid.

hence why rates of pay aren't discussed, opens up a can of worms.
so please jase could you edit it out.
 
Killy Bing said:
say a town over one of us quotes, slightly more expensive and they use your figures, decide we are ripping them off and then tell everyone we are cowboys.

i know we all charge different rates but what if someone in bucks posts up and are cheaper than you.
customer then quotes the other guys rates of pay and refuses to pay yours.

the annoying thing about the internet !!!!

i quoted to fit an outside tap.
person agreed, i turned up, they had read up on the screwfix forum it shouldn't be more than 25 quid.
Click to expand...

Welcome to my world.
 
jase158 said:
Thats not London, I'm in bucks. I ain't bothered in telling people what I charge, why the secret?
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I'm not asking you to edit your post Jase. I'm telling you.

You know full well that we do not discuss prices in open forum.
 
bert large said:
Or move the whole thread to the Arms ?
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As long as prices aren't mentioned it's ok. It does the customer the world of good to know that there's a rationale to what we charge.

But no prices. Therein lies a bidding war.
 
I'm available my remuneration can be measured in jammy dodgers and wagon wheels. My work is so immense it cannot be measured and so grand that no price of less than a grand may be applied.
 
My diesel costs are around £20 per week, I'm lucky enough to have a good customer base right on my doorstep.
 
I say if you want a cheap job, get a handyman not a plumber. If you pay peanuts you get monkeys.
 
These people who moan about price because they saw it on he internet quoted as that are the sort of people that you don't want as customers, they are the sort of people who will ask for a complete breakdown of everything including how many elbows and how many screws etc. if you want to delete then fine but I ain't editing as I don't know how on my iPhone. Have enough trouble writing threads, let alone editing them
 
Yeah, got my greenhouse out in garden, doing really well this winter!! And then there's the attic, 1 guess at what plants I grow up there??
 
I wouldn't put them up here!! Too many snots and scorch marks, the perfectionists on here would have a field day!!
 
I think it's better to put more solder on then to have to go back and resolder a joint!! And scorch marks are from laziness, but I am out to make a living not do a perfect job!!
 
I do wipe the joint but solder doesn't move once it is on!! Too much flux probably!! The joints on here are perfect, just the right amount of solder, all shiny and clean. No snots, no scorch marks. Each joint must take about 8 minutes each!! I have used many heat mats and they all get burnt!! Heat mats burning??? Syrely they should be heat resistant. I don't have loads of scorch marks, mainly above boilers as the pipes are always so close to the wall you can't help but get scorch marks. I do have pride in my work but don't look for perfection. Mistakes happen and not everything can be perfect.
 
And then you look at BG installs and think they are charging £4-£5k for that terrible job, leaving it leaking and putting filling loops on mains inlet to combi's. Surely if people are happy to accept this then a few snots and scorch marks aren't the end of the world when I double check everything, do everything exactly how the customer wants it and to the regs and give customers the best solution to there problems.
 
Will try wiping it before soldering, good tip. I got taught at college to flux female end. But When doing gas course they say to do male end!! We got taught nothing at colleg, was taught by a bloke that came from a training centre, owned his own training centre and got sacked for having no qualifications. Absolute waste of time. Maybe I should have some more pride in my soldering, but I just want it to not leak. Nothing worse then a leaking joint at 5 pm!!
 
And no it doesn't drip after it's wiped, it drips and then it is impossible to clean it off
 
If your burning things then also look at your torch selection domestic really dosent need mapp gas unless your doing 28mm+ all day long. It burns the flux and the pipe making it difficult to get a nice run.

also rothy have two heads the super fire and the thinner sure fire much more precise I personaly use the tx504 it's flame is more adjustable and the head swivels for better access
 
Got rid of pro about 4 months ago and it made a massive difference, had the smaller nozzle, didn't find it made a difference, turning the gas down works brilliantly on 15mm but doesn't go all the way round for 22mm
 
Dannypipe said:
I did a big job this morning, believe me you don't want to see any photos.
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I've done a big job too. It's actually completely blocked one of our loos. Anyone know where I can still buy wire coat hangers? :(
 
Pardon me if I don't answer Simon but I am a complete idiot and shouldn't be a plumber and apparently my name is jarse, not that I take it personally or anything
 
Not every joint I do is perfect and no one here can claim that every joint they do is, but just limit the risk of a messy joint, I personally touch the solder at the rear of the joint to fill it where if it did run you wouldn't see it, it doesn't take any extra time to solder other any other method. But we all have different gripes and beliefs
 
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