On Tue, 18 May 2021 21:39:23 +0100, 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 had a rasiator installed in February. A big bugger. Too heavy for
DIY.
I found some plumbers, not vat registered, who quoted £180, which I
thought was reasonable. They (two of them) were here about three hours
and did a tidy job. But when they turned the water on they found that
the header tank float valve wasn't working. They had to go out for
their own purposes so agreed to get a new one and fit it when then
came back to tidy up, which they did.
The valve, which would have cost about £5, and fitting it (about
15mins) cost me £85, which i thought was taking advantage, and has
put me off wanting to use them again.