I've been talking to a rural plumbing firm about a small job that I
could do, but didn't fancy doing, and had agreed their published rate of
£90 for the first hour followed by £50/hour thereafter. I guessed the
job would take between 1 and 2 hours. Today I found out they were going
to charge more than £150 for parts that I could easily buy for £50 at
retail prices. When they wouldn't justify the mark-up I cancelled and
will do the work myself when the warmer weather arrives. I was prepared
to pay the (OTT) labour rate but they blew it by putting such a huge
mark-up on the parts. Because of greed they lost the job.
I feel sorry for people who don't have the option to do things
themselves, or who don't know anything about the time jobs take and the
cost of materials.