going rate?

[Ashley Burton]

@eLuSiVeMiTe A good job is never rushed!

What I don't get is people that do substandard work

 

[tom2207]

@eLuSiVeMiTe A good job is never rushed!

What I don't get is people that do substandard work

a lot of people who do substandard work , and charge the going rate , actually dont realise that their work is substandard
if they get paid , the job was great , at least to them
if they dont get paid , or part payment ,, the customer was at fault .
then its onto the next customer. the whole Karma thing is great , it just needs to work faster

 

[Ashley Burton]

@tom2207 I just couldn't do it, I have morals

 

[tom2207]

@tom2207 I just couldn't do it, I have morals

Fully understand , and I would follow the same path ,,, trouble is as I said , the guys doing the bad jobs just dont know they are , I really hope they dont do it on purpose ,, that puts them into a totally different category than just a simple bad tradesman.
gangster springs to mind.

 

[Screwdriver]

I will often "speculate" which if I understand the context correctly means do a loss leader job to get a foot in the door. So today for example a neighbour was in tears because the chain came off her bicycle and she couldn't get it back on. I have done that for her once before and I made it look easy because it took seconds. She had been struggling for some time and got covered in oil and in a bit of a tizz before she rang.

I said leave it outside I'll sort it out.

Nice looking posh ladies bike, mechanically a bit cheap but clearly an expensively finished machine. Brakes were shot, cables were a disaster (tangled in the front basket), crank was loose, bent steel chainguard, mudguard. Everywhere I looked it needed sorting. Spent 5 hours on it including a complete wash and oil etc. Left it out back. "Thanks" she said, "You're amazing".

No mention of money and I have done plenty of paid work for her before (CCTV, fix a new extractor, put up shelves etc.) so I assume she is either out of work or furloughed so if she doesn't mention it won't mention it. In fact if I get another text to say how much better the bike is, I might even tell her "by the way, I am not expecting any payment", and "I would be grateful if you would put some work my way in future".

What goes around, comes around. It is an unusual circumstance because I can only work locally at the best of times and by locally I mean walking distance from my house. So it pays for me to just do freebies whenever I am able. She will notice a huge difference when she uses it next and that to me is priceless.

In fairness, I ought to point out she is recently divorced and fit as f***. Obviously I don't let that influence me at all...

 

[tom2207]

screwdriver
thats not a loss leader ,,,, its an investment.

 

[indy4x]

you could work on charging them as follows

10 / hour if you do it
15 / hour if they watch
20 / hour if they help
25 / hour if they insist on telling you how to do it.

Local motorcycle workshop has something similar outside their shop

 

[Screwdriver]

screwdriver
thats not a loss leader ,,,, its an investment.

Yeah, I just thought it was a funny story. A very similar situation with the fork lift truck saga. it probably is a write off. I said I'd have a go at it, no fix, no fee. I meant it too but he gave me a really nice bandsaw as a thankyou. We assumed the warranty and specialist forklift truck engineer would ultimately fix it. They didn't, nor any of the other bike shop, car shop mechanics in that little industrial estate. In fact, the thing is more dead now than ever. So I have been invited to have another crack at it.

Meantime, on the back of that and having chatted up the owner (he's married, not my type!) I am now installing a massive extractor fan system and rewiring his workshop. Every time I see him now, he adds more jobs to the list, I have even persuaded him to let me install a dedicated CU for the single phase stuff and sort out the lighting (it really needs it!). Because of the current situation, I get the whole place to myself so I can self isolate and still work.

 

[zx9]

In fairness, I ought to point out she is recently divorced and fit as f***. Obviously I don't let that influence me at all...

Don't pay the bill though does it.

 

[tom2207]

Don't pay the bill though does it.

Ah , paid from the fury purse.
Hard to put in the bank , but then again its better than a bouncy cheque.

 

[roofman]

I will often "speculate" which if I understand the context correctly means do a loss leader job to get a foot in the door. So today for example a neighbour was in tears because the chain came off her bicycle and she couldn't get it back on. I have done that for her once before and I made it look easy because it took seconds. She had been struggling for some time and got covered in oil and in a bit of a tizz before she rang.

I said leave it outside I'll sort it out.

Nice looking posh ladies bike, mechanically a bit cheap but clearly an expensively finished machine. Brakes were shot, cables were a disaster (tangled in the front basket), crank was loose, bent steel chainguard, mudguard. Everywhere I looked it needed sorting. Spent 5 hours on it including a complete wash and oil etc. Left it out back. "Thanks" she said, "You're amazing".

No mention of money and I have done plenty of paid work for her before (CCTV, fix a new extractor, put up shelves etc.) so I assume she is either out of work or furloughed so if she doesn't mention it won't mention it. In fact if I get another text to say how much better the bike is, I might even tell her "by the way, I am not expecting any payment", and "I would be grateful if you would put some work my way in future".

What goes around, comes around. It is an unusual circumstance because I can only work locally at the best of times and by locally I mean walking distance from my house. So it pays for me to just do freebies whenever I am able. She will notice a huge difference when she uses it next and that to me is priceless.

In fairness, I ought to point out she is recently divorced and fit as f***. Obviously I don't let that influence me at all...

HaHa..i read all that sincere stuff and thought "that's nice"and then WHAM!! the bit that matters and i loved it more

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

a lot of people who do substandard work , and charge the going rate , actually dont realise that their work is substandard
if they get paid , the job was great , at least to them
if they dont get paid , or part payment ,, the customer was at fault .
then its onto the next customer. the whole Karma thing is great , it just needs to work faster

Unfortunately I believe a lot of them know but cut corners to keep the costs down to win the jobs
Worked for a few builders like this. Didn't stay long when I'd realised

 

[brightspark]

What I don't understand is why people let the customer know how long the job takes? It costs what it costs, You shouldn't have to state how long it takes imo

as said if a customer asked me how long I used to tell them then if I got done half a day earlier they would say that's allrite u got done quicker do I get something knocked off I then say if it took longer would u pay me more money and left it at that then they pay methats the idea of a price its fixed .an hourly rate job if they want to chance it can work both ways

 

[stuvy]

Unfortunately I believe a lot of them know but cut corners to keep the costs down to win the jobs
Worked for a few builders like this. Didn't stay long when I'd realised

iv worked for a dozen cowboys that did the same with cars

recently (before lockdown) the idiot I worked for asked me to make a 6 point harness bracket made out of 3mm aluminium

 

[Parm]

I’ve done a few quotes for silly money as didn’t want the job, only to be the least silly quote and got the job anyway ( in my area of work you don’t turn anything down as the customers don’t like to be told no. )

I did that for a job in Iraq a few years ago. Didn’t want to do it so quoted £3k a day plus expenses and first class travel

I was there for 7 weeks

I like Iraq

 

[Revs1972]

Ah, the old sprat to catch a mackerel scenario. Seen enough of those in the past to know that the sprats dont often lead anywhere.

The other thing I don’t do is budge on price . The price is what I quote you. That price has been worked out to pretty much the nth degree. That price allows you not to worry about whether things will be done right, safely and on time. I’m not going to come back and charge you for anything I have missed ( I can’t believe how many times I hear that my rivals want more money to put things right , or for stuff they have missed when quoting). That approach has stood me in good stead for the last 5 years. Had a tiny job last year where I quoted £12k, rival ( who had workshop on site) quoted £11k. Can I match it, NO. They got the job. I got 3 bigger sets right next to them, and supplied and installed around 25 ton of steel in the time it took them to do 6 ton. What started as a bit of fun watching them struggle, was actually quite embarrassing in the end.
Ours were spot on, whilst theirs was all over the place ( they positioned and site drilled angle cross bracing in situ for gods sake). Cost the client a great deal more than £1k sorting out the timber flattage to make it fit.
All good for me though , got the rest of the structures on the job. They don’t look anywhere else now either. Someone mentioned I should put my price up seeing as I’ve seen off the competition, but that’s not something I’d entertain as they are a great client who have seen me right during the time I’ve worked for them.

 

[Westfield-builder]

In fairness, I ought to point out she is recently divorced and fit as f***. Obviously I don't let that influence me at all...

Yes, right

 

[Revs1972]

I did that for a job in Iraq a few years ago. Didn’t want to do it so quoted £3k a day plus expenses and first class travel

I was there for 7 weeks

I like Iraq

what was it actually like out there ? I’ve only really seen what you see on the news and on dramas and from that I wouldn’t want to set foot in the place. But the reality is often quite different. Bit like St Paul’s in Bristol . If you are of the right age , you wouldn’t want to stop on your way through such as it’s reputation, but we’ve had some cracking nights there in the past if you know the right people

 

[brightspark]

I did that for a job in Iraq a few years ago. Didn’t want to do it so quoted £3k a day plus expenses and first class travel

I was there for 7 weeks

I like Iraq

bet it wasn't the year the war was on

 

[Parm]

bet it wasn't the year the war was on

It was when ISIS were flexing thier muscles. I flew in to Irbil then went to work at an oil place in the Shaikan mountains on the border with a Turkey. We were 30 km from Mosul and Sinjar where ISIS were busy killing people of the Yzidi Tribe

We had 24/7 close protection and the Kurdish Peshmerga with all thier big toys outside the installation.

It was scarry but fun, I’d go back in a heartbeat. People were excellent and food was awesome. Pretty good beer too