ad wrote:
On Nov 14, 5:02 pm, "The Medway Handyman" davidno-spam-

What I want is complete tranparency. I want to know exactly what a job
costs. If that means labour rates should go up - fair enough,
I don't think this is unreasonable. What is unreasonable is to told
that the 'list price' is £799 when the trader only pays £399.

A registered business can buy goods, claim back the VAT and not sell
them again - this is perfectly legitimate. If you buy a new computer
for your business you can claim back the VAT. What I am concerned
about is the people who just love to lie and bull**** to elderly
people
(who tend to be more trusting) and resort to any trick going to
overcharge them.

They are called conmen and the list price of an item has nothing to do with
it or what they do.


My elderly female neighbour was quoted an average of £2500 to have her
porch
and its outer door replaced with Upvc. The first quote I got for my
identical semi-detached half of the porch was £984. Why the
difference ?.

You didn't phone a conman?

The bloke she ultimately selected spent at least half an hour
bull****ting her with remarks like 'We' will have to check out costs
and price it up.
(for 'we' read one bloke, white van and a mate who he pays cash to) .
'It might have to be 18 mil plywood' (its a flat roof originally
constructed with
one inch chipboard in 1976, for christs sake how much does a piece of
18 mil plywood 1200 by 900 cost ?- even I know that a full sheet is
about £35 in wickes. then he spent the rest of the time going on about
his family - 'emily is going to college blah blah blah' - classic
rogue
trader behaviour. He finally did the job, used an angle grinder to cut
the original chipboard, didn't bother to replace a 3 by 2 noggin that
was growing
mushrooms - just nailed the 11 mil OSB (whippy as hell) into it. And
the new outer door hinged the wrong way !. The original was hinged on
the left
but the replacement required my neighbour to get right into her 4 foot
by 3 foot 6 porch with her sholley and then struggle to close the
outer porch door
before she could open the house front door. A few weeks later he was
back and changed it for a correctly handed door - hopefully she
refused to pay for the
first attempt. The replacement door has now sagged which makes it very
difficult to open or close. So he hasn't bothered to put the setting
blocks
in place - and I don't think that is down to incompetence, he has done
it deliberately. Hopefully he is now stuck with the door and frame he
initially
fitted.

Why did you not go round and stick up for her?

Oh, and AFAIK Wickes does not descriminate between someone spending
£6K a year and someone spending £20, so why use them as an example.

Should have used B&Q as an example. They have a trade card. So they must
discriminate against low spenders/non tradesmen.

Joe Public pays cash on the nail - something that even Travis Perkins
should appreciate. Who would you prefer, someone who pays immediately,
or someone who 'promises' to pay in 30 days and then goes 'bust'
without paying anything ?.

TP does not have the fancy showrooms like B&Q, nor does it have to deal with
Joe Public walking around for 30 minutes bothering the staff before not
buying anything (or shoplifting anything).

--
Adam