On 18/05/2021 22:21, newshound wrote:
On 18/05/2021 21:39, wrote:
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.

I don't know whether you have ever run your own business, but many
people who have not significantly underestimate the overheads for firms
like these. You may be right, this firm could be taking the ****. If you
actually used them, you might find that they "round down" their hours,
or are scrupulous about stopping the clock during tea breaks.

While I am pretty skeptical about TripAdvisor and the like, it is
interesting to see what reviews firms get on social media. To my mind,
there is nothing to beat a personal recommendation.
The overheads should be adequately covered by the call-out and hourly
charges - assuming 3 small jobs a day and 6 chargeable hours means
£420/day. Marking-up parts by more than 3x is taking the proverbial