Do you have a minimum charge no matter what?

[turnpin]

Right. So thems your streetwalking rates.

What's your plumbing rates?

Made me laugh did that Croppie pmsl.......regards Turnpin:smile5:

 

[plumben]

You need to have a minimum charge no matter what, print yourself off a price list of what you charge and laminate it and stick it in your vans sun visor,
Its easy to question yourself on what to charge and lower the price because you think it sounds too much but your running a business not a charity, if your customers want a cheap job or don't want to pay top money for a quality job then you don't want to work for them,

And as regards to the elderly, some of them are the tightest people I know with money, asin have loads in the bank but still turn the thermostat down, so have a minimum charge for OAP's that cover all your expenses and a little for yourself

 

[Millsy 82]

Mines £40 and that is for everyone.

Not long ago I went to an old boy and his wife who had just come out of hospital, I topped up the pressure, then bled some air out and tightened a but on the pump and as it was only round the corner I said £20 cash, all worked fine for 2 days then the pressure dropped (there was still loads of air in the system that I couldn't get out so I told him to expect it) he topped up the pressure and left the filling loop open a bit he phoned me when I was at Cheltenham races and I said I will get round to him as soon as I get back. He had 3 other blokes go round and charge him a total of £280. When I got there 1 had slated me because I left the filling loop open and it was the bloke another fitted a new expansion even though there was a 2nd massive one in the loft, and the 3rd changed the prv. When I got back I went round to a very unhappy person found a leak and sorted it, I felt I couldn't charge him as of what had happened. So for that £20 I had to work 1 1/2 hours!

So moral of the story even little jobs can go wrong so charge normal rates.

 

[MarkAqua]

Mines £40 and that is for everyone.

Not long ago I went to an old boy and his wife who had just come out of hospital, I topped up the pressure, then bled some air out and tightened a but on the pump and as it was only round the corner I said £20 cash, all worked fine for 2 days then the pressure dropped (there was still loads of air in the system that I couldn't get out so I told him to expect it) he topped up the pressure and left the filling loop open a bit he phoned me when I was at Cheltenham races and I said I will get round to him as soon as I get back. He had 3 other blokes go round and charge him a total of £280. When I got there 1 had slated me because I left the filling loop open and it was the bloke another fitted a new expansion even though there was a 2nd massive one in the loft, and the 3rd changed the prv. When I got back I went round to a very unhappy person found a leak and sorted it, I felt I couldn't charge him as of what had happened. So for that £20 I had to work 1 1/2 hours!

So moral of the story even little jobs can go wrong so charge normal rates.

Sorry - reread post

 

[cr0ft]

£60 plus VAT for the first hour. Sometimes we show a bit of discretion if there's a larger job on the way from a customer and charge half that price. Only if there is definitely another job incoming from them though!

 

[tomplumb83]

Thats the thing, its never definite!

Ive never understood why people knock money off for an oap??!
Surely theyre the richest of the lot - after all, theyve worked the longest!
And they bought their house for about £800 so probably havent had a mortgage to pay since England won the World Cup.
Add to that a nice fat pension and a payoff when their old man died and theyre all minted. Compared to me at least.
Surely its the working man with 4kids whos hard up

As for Millsys post - I did a job last year and literally 2-3months later I had a call back to it but couldnt get to the house till the evening. I'd done a tap washer for a tenner, infact it didnt even need changing so I felt bad charging that.
Dyno Rod ended up going out and charging a fortune to repair a leak from the tap connector. Somehow it had dripped down a wall without them noticing, under a downstairs carpet and had made a right mess.
Luckily they thought it had nothing to do with me, which I agreed with.
Moral of the story is, for every 100 £10 jobs your bound to get one that doesnt end well. Same with most jobs but at least make it worth your while.

As for 'mates rates' dont get me started on that! If theyre a real 'mate', why arent they paying you the going rate?? You do them a brilliant job because theyre your mate and they pay you a good rate because theyre your mate. Agreed?

I think thats all....

 

[hammers4spanner]

pensioners can't take it with them so best off in my bank than theirs

 

[Leo21]

pensioners can't take it with them so best off in my bank than theirs

and they get confused.

 

[Best]

If you charge anything at all for a job, - even if it is only a fiver, then people can accuse you of being responsible for whatever happens then or later.

 

[tomplumb83]

Set foot in their house and they can accuse you of anything....

 

[Best]

Set foot in their house and they can accuse you of anything....

True! Really any job you go to you need 'risk' money because anything could happen - knock an expensive ornament down, walk some dirt into their white carpet, drop a spanner on their bath, etc.
I had one creep accuse me of being unprofessional because I fully serviced & repaired his faulty combi oil boiler, but ignored his increasingly rude demands for a receipt. He had part paid me the huge sum all of £45! It had lost me at least 5 hours in time & I had thought I was doing him a favour. You learn the hard way. :smile:

 

[Millsy 82]

Down here the pensioners are the ones with the money so you have to charge them the same.

 

[village idiot]

Set foot in their house and they can accuse you of anything....

I fitted a bath suite in croppie's old neck of the woods (New Addington) some years back. Got a call a week later: ''Mr Idiot, you better get down here ASAP.'' I asked why? and was told you will see when you come.
Got there and the chap took me into his kitchen and showed me a crack running all along the kitchen ceiling. ''See'', he said. ''You fitted the bath badly, now it has done damage to the ceiling and my wife is afraid of coming in here now to cook. We are having to buy food from shops to eat.'' I said ok, then walked into the corridor, looked up and asked him to come in there. Why is there cracke in here, I said? Its no where near where bath sits. Also in living room were more cracks. I politely informed him that the cracks must have been there all along but he didn't notice them. He asked if I was going to provide my Public Liability insurance details, I said NO.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Had a classic last year done a heat pack for someone and the house literally fell apart due to the sawing ,banging and drilling. They had a right moan at me because cracks appeared everywhere paint had flaked off all over . To keep the peace i gave them a number of a decorator who went around to touch it all up.

They were moaning at the decorator about what had happened however he wasn't so polite and basically told them their house was a new build nail and was never built properly in first instance lol

 

[quality]

£50 i charge to put the key in the ignition to go to any repair

 

[plumben]

If your going to knock money off because you might get a bigger job in the future, you should knock the money off the bigger job not the small job,

And people houses falling apart, I had a job where we had to replace a joist and managed to remove it without damaging the ceiling but it cracked a little bit and the customer tried to complain

 

[Ray Stafford]

If your going to knock money off because you might get a bigger job in the future, you should knock the money off the bigger job not the small job,

^^^This.

 

[cr0ft]

Agree with what people say about the knocking money off the job later. In this case it was someone who had already accepted the larger job and had a small job come up in the meantime. I would never knock cash off on the 'promise' of more work. Sometimes I've had people get me out to quote for a cloakroom and then show me the 2 bathrooms they are 'thinking' of having done down the line. Almost as if they are using that to try and screw me on the price. A simple 'so this is work down the line then?' gets the quote appointment back to the job in hand!