Id say the main problem with a lot of customers is that price is there only thought. You have to get them thinking about something else, such as the quality of service, how fast you can get out to them, that you will be there for aftercare if anything ever goes wrong etc. Definitely never get in an argument about the price or you have lost before you start.
Welcome to the forum. Although you can post in any forum, the USA forum is here in case of local regs or laws
- Thread starter Mrs Tara Plumbi
- Start date
-
- Tags
- None
Andy j
This forum and others alike are riddled with people posting under titles such as am I being ripped off? Or disaster please help.
more often then not the disaster please help posts used the cheapest quote they had,
the am I being ripped off are rightly querying if the high price they were quoted was fair.
but we give advise and try not to pass judgement on their views of tradesman much as we would hope you wouldn't pass judgement on us for defending our prices.
the majority of us on the forum come here because we care, why else would we spend our out of hours time talking to other plumbers and general public. As a result you can be assured that we fit the best products we can for the clients budget and in the event that a problem should arise we will stand by our work and rectify it should it be needed. If not it would be easy to come here and shame us in front of everyone and that would be more then embarrassing to any of us.
i would suggest that perhaps you have a read back through the forum and read the advise given to people who have suffered the work of amateurs and weekend warriors.
in fact there are even a few posts where people have offered to attend elderly relatives of people posting for the price of a cup of tea.
Not such a bad bunch after all.
This forum and others alike are riddled with people posting under titles such as am I being ripped off? Or disaster please help.
more often then not the disaster please help posts used the cheapest quote they had,
the am I being ripped off are rightly querying if the high price they were quoted was fair.
but we give advise and try not to pass judgement on their views of tradesman much as we would hope you wouldn't pass judgement on us for defending our prices.
the majority of us on the forum come here because we care, why else would we spend our out of hours time talking to other plumbers and general public. As a result you can be assured that we fit the best products we can for the clients budget and in the event that a problem should arise we will stand by our work and rectify it should it be needed. If not it would be easy to come here and shame us in front of everyone and that would be more then embarrassing to any of us.
i would suggest that perhaps you have a read back through the forum and read the advise given to people who have suffered the work of amateurs and weekend warriors.
in fact there are even a few posts where people have offered to attend elderly relatives of people posting for the price of a cup of tea.
Not such a bad bunch after all.
P
PlumbBobBob
Yes, as you say, "not all of" you customers are "tight devils" - but how is a plumber to know which customers are not skinflints? A lot of people are very mean, whether on low or high income & will not sacrifice their lifestyles but will want tradespeople to work for very little.
"Mentally deficient, ....deceitful, ... thoroughly bad," is your words, but sometimes true of a lot of customers.
My experience of people is a lot are deceitful to some extent & only interested in themselves.
A lot try to avoid full payment if any at all. That I would call Bad.
As to mentally deficient, - many customers are lacking in basic reasoning or education sadly & that's a fact. They must assume us plumbers are mentally deficent to believe the lies they tell us!!
It's a pity that many of them can't work out simple maths & realise that costs for a qualified man in a van is more than £10 hour.
You say you are now going to treat plumbers with suspicion? - I agree you should & you should treat anyone in the future who is ever in any field, a customer of yours with suspicion also & be careful what every word they utter is actually leading to.
We have had the "heads up" about a lot of customers out there long ago, - it's called experience.
Last edited:
Interesting thread. Had an existing customer get in touch today. Have just quoted them for a replacement shower enclosure, tray and shower panelling. Amazing how his budget was a nice round figure just a bit lower than my quote.
Upshot of it was he was asking for around 16% off the bill which would have meant me taking a 50% cut in labour for the job. Politely declined but instead offered to fit a few lights for him around the house which he had previously asked me to do..
I was tempted to tell him, no worries, lets put the job off for another month or so so you can save up the extra and get it done then...
Will see what happens but for me I am in the lucky position of being able to say no to work. Times were not always so good, especially in 2009 when I started my business!!
Upshot of it was he was asking for around 16% off the bill which would have meant me taking a 50% cut in labour for the job. Politely declined but instead offered to fit a few lights for him around the house which he had previously asked me to do..
I was tempted to tell him, no worries, lets put the job off for another month or so so you can save up the extra and get it done then...
Will see what happens but for me I am in the lucky position of being able to say no to work. Times were not always so good, especially in 2009 when I started my business!!
just ask them if they can afford you, if not good by next to many chancers out there,wanting everything for nothing
M
Mrs Tara Plumbi
It has been said by others too, in my experience and in my opinion the majority of customers are decent people, respectful of tradesmen, honest, pleasant, etc. A minority aren't nice because they don't pay, haggle after the job, sabotage the work or their house after it is done so they can try to make an insurance claim - against our insurance! And create serious problems for our working futures that they never even thought of.
Some lie - they say something was working when we arrived so we must have broken it - but really it could never have been working for months - eventually they admit this when expert plumbers present them with evidence.
Now the vast majority are good but the tiny minority really create a big head ache for us - taking way too much of our time and costing us money. If we have never worked for you before we don't know if you are part of the majority or the minority. So with experience plumbers/ heating engineers and other tradesmen will enter your property with some suspicion and will do what they can to protect themselves.
Unfortunately programmes like Rogue Traders are all one sided - you would be amazed home many Rogue customers there are.
Even if they are only 5% of households that is still something like 1,000,000 homes out there with residents willing to rip us off!
J
jase158
Got a customer, agreed price for power flush, cylinder, boiler and 4 rads replaced and all new controls and pump.
Finnished job 2 days early and is now demanding discount!! Because I stated 6 x labour at £200. Apparently this automatically means days and automatically means I have to give him discount for finishing early? £800 for all that work, going to wickes later to buy post Crete!!!
Finnished job 2 days early and is now demanding discount!! Because I stated 6 x labour at £200. Apparently this automatically means days and automatically means I have to give him discount for finishing early? £800 for all that work, going to wickes later to buy post Crete!!!
J
jase158
Customers are a pain in the backside!! It was an all in price, 6 x labour at £200 = £1200. Not hard. Not days, not minutes, labour. I said that this also included sourcing materials, guarantee, collecting materials, registering boiler, 2 visits prior to arriving and they said no!! They ain't gonna pay it!! Surely if you agree the price, you pay the price? Correct me if I am wrong??
I
IDCHAPPY
It could take you 5 mins, if you agreed on the quote then you are a total douche not to pay the cost IMHO 🙂
D
Dotty
Did you have your t&c's on your quote including action to be taken in the event of non payment?
Once the quote is accepted then so are the t&c's.
Had something similar before..
priced to change a diverter valve on a vaillant you know the big brass one at the rear said it would be £x.
Customer agreed
came back with the part a day later customer asks how long do you think it will take I said possibly 2 hours...
anyway this job went like a dream took 30minutes tops,
customer now wants discount as I'd said it would take 2 hours.
reminded customer that the price I had given was for "the job" not parts and labor not an open ended £x per hour. And had the job been a pig and it had taken 4hours would they have paid me more?
I then explained that sometimes jobs do go well but other times they go spectacularly wrong, for example had I of drained it then been unable to separate the valve from the boiler or re filled it and found the pressure gauge was blocked or that the servo had also blocked up I would have sorted it as it is part of the job.
Customer agreed and paid in full, we didn't fall out at all and I still do work for them only now they have the understanding of what I will do and how I work
priced to change a diverter valve on a vaillant you know the big brass one at the rear said it would be £x.
Customer agreed
came back with the part a day later customer asks how long do you think it will take I said possibly 2 hours...
anyway this job went like a dream took 30minutes tops,
customer now wants discount as I'd said it would take 2 hours.
reminded customer that the price I had given was for "the job" not parts and labor not an open ended £x per hour. And had the job been a pig and it had taken 4hours would they have paid me more?
I then explained that sometimes jobs do go well but other times they go spectacularly wrong, for example had I of drained it then been unable to separate the valve from the boiler or re filled it and found the pressure gauge was blocked or that the servo had also blocked up I would have sorted it as it is part of the job.
Customer agreed and paid in full, we didn't fall out at all and I still do work for them only now they have the understanding of what I will do and how I work
Did you title your breakdown of costs quote or estimate Jase? A quote is a fixed price whereas an estimate is of course not. If it was a quote then the customer has no grounds for complaint and I would suggest the usual small claims route.
In future I would just put down 1 unit of labour at X on your quotes, this stops customers trying to do this. Everyone of course asks how long a job will take (and claims it's not for price reasons) so I just give an estimate of time but say the price is a fixed price irrespective of how long it takes.
If it was a quote then stick to your guns and go to court if you need to, you will get your cash back and will lose the customer, whom I am sure you don't want to work for again anyway.
Dont think this is a really fair assessment Andy.
Most of my customers are lovely people, who I have known for many years now, and I hope they keep coming back to me because I treat them fairly. I too, like a lot of the chaps on here will help those who I feel genuinely need it.. like the old dear up the road who pays me in biscuits.
I do find it really hard when customers ask 'how much for cash?' like someone else pointed out it actually costs more in charges to bank cash, and its not like I can pay cash for materials and expect a discount. About a year ago I had a man in a really lovely area try and haggle over a power flush, I very politely said it was not possible for me to do it for any less - I anticipated him being a total pain in the backside, but in the end he apologised to me for trying to reduce the price as he didnt realise how much work was involved. Since then I have had lots of repeat work. Perhaps that is a lot of the problem, customers do not always realise how much work is involved, it seems harsh for you to call them mentally deficient, some just have no knowledge or experience of plumbing work.
Sadly your attitude would only make me hesitant to deal with a customer like you, thankfully I am busy enough that if I was to feel uneasy I would just pass the job on, not so nice for those who need the work though eh?
Most of my customers are lovely people, who I have known for many years now, and I hope they keep coming back to me because I treat them fairly. I too, like a lot of the chaps on here will help those who I feel genuinely need it.. like the old dear up the road who pays me in biscuits.
I do find it really hard when customers ask 'how much for cash?' like someone else pointed out it actually costs more in charges to bank cash, and its not like I can pay cash for materials and expect a discount. About a year ago I had a man in a really lovely area try and haggle over a power flush, I very politely said it was not possible for me to do it for any less - I anticipated him being a total pain in the backside, but in the end he apologised to me for trying to reduce the price as he didnt realise how much work was involved. Since then I have had lots of repeat work. Perhaps that is a lot of the problem, customers do not always realise how much work is involved, it seems harsh for you to call them mentally deficient, some just have no knowledge or experience of plumbing work.
Sadly your attitude would only make me hesitant to deal with a customer like you, thankfully I am busy enough that if I was to feel uneasy I would just pass the job on, not so nice for those who need the work though eh?
E
Ermintrude
Slap the muppet.Fine i will remove all my work and add the sludge back in to system. Had a woman complain about a megaflow - she asked for it. Snow outside and very cold. Said fine mate got in van drove round gave her cheque back and said we will have it all ripped out in 2 hours. Sorry for the trouble we have caused you. She soon shut up gave is the cheque back and managed to live with the oversized product she asked for.
[oops thought this was arms]
[oops thought this was arms]
Official Sponsors of Plumbers Talk
Similar plumbing topics
We recommend City Plumbing Supplies, BES, and Plumbing Superstore for all plumbing supplies.