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Is this a tradesman trick

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Zimmerman
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Is this a tradesman trick

Post by Zimmerman »

We're currently having some work done (both gardens).

Price came in very good (reasonable amount cheaper than other quotes).

Guy calls me this morning saying he's dropped a bollock and under quoted.

Says it's his fault and doesn't expect me to pay, but...
'If' I could find my way to paying a bit more "no pressure" but he'll leave it with me.

Admittedly we're happy with what's been done so far.

My conscience feels that they done a good job (so far) they've been decent guys (three of them)... sort them out maybe?

Shortfall is around £750.

But I'm wondering is this an old trick? Secure the job with the cheap quote, manage to get more money out of us retrospectively?

Or is it a case of tough %^*#, get better with your quotes... not my issue?

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unc.si.
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Re: Is this a tradesman trick

Post by unc.si. »

I've just had front and back garden done as well. Meeting them tomorrow to sign off on the job.

Agreed price up front. Changed 2 or 3 things but agreed variations each time (in writing). If the price he invoices is any different to the original quote plus / minus variations then tough shit.

I went for a middle quote though, not the cheapest. Mainly for that reason - I've got a long misttrust of any quotes that are significantly less than the others as they frequently try and claim EOT's / overruns.

Up to you though, only you know how fair the price is, what job they've done and how significant the extra cash is to your budget. if you do decide to give him more cash I'd try and get something back as well. Pick something that's valuable to you but low cost to him - I'm sure a maintenance visit or two in the Spring and Summer wouldn't go amiss. Or some garden furniture at cost price. Obviously don't pay the ferryman until he gets you to the other side though....

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Re: Is this a tradesman trick

Post by pulpfiction »

Let's say you bought a really smart telly plus state of the art computer and you have a till receipt.

Then the salesman phones up and says it should have been £750 more. Would you pay it Zim ?

I wouldn't.

You have a contract.

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barry
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Re: Is this a tradesman trick

Post by barry »

pay the agreed price unless you plan to use them again, if so pay what you think is right for all concerned NOT what he's secondary quoting - I'm so happy with the work done, so here's another £50 each etc

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Re: Is this a tradesman trick

Post by Striker »

My own approach, which you'd probably be wise avoiding :wink: would be as follows;

1. Tell him now that in principle I'd be willing to pay a bit over the quote.
2. However I'd also tell him that before I consider how much of the £750 I'd be willing to cough up;
(i) the work has to be completed to my full satisfaction.
(ii) he needs to produce a cost breakdown - so many man days at so much etc
(iii) he needs to explain where he went wrong in his estimate and why.

If all three conditions were fulfilled to my complete satisfaction and the new total cost wasn't more than most other quotes, I'd pay up, probably less than £750, but possibly the full amount.

I always try out tradesmen initially with small tasks and we have built up a group who we trust. Then life is easy, except when they retire/move etc. We have a tree man (forgotten the right term) who've we've used for several years, cutting back a 50 year old Himalayan Birch right now even as I type this. These days I don't even bother to get a quote when I book him as experience shows that he does a great job and the cost won't be more than anyone else would charge. People like him benefit from building up a trusting client base and so he never needs to spend any of his working time "marketing".

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ChrisD
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Re: Is this a tradesman trick

Post by ChrisD »

Think you answered your own question when you mentioned quote was fair bit under others.

Couple of years ago had some work done and got a fairly vague (but cheap) quote. Chap basically under-priced, needed an extra thing here or skip there, ended up paying the top price anyway, so in short he did similar to your lot.

Since then had some garden work done last month. One quote was cheaper but very much vague, another more expensive but was fully itemised, every item costed. Went for that one.

At least your chap's been honest. Did you get other quotes? Why not agree to make it up to the next best quote as a gesture, as you'd have only paid that anyway?

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Zimmerman
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Re: Is this a tradesman trick

Post by Zimmerman »

did what any proper man would.....





got my mrs to tell him we weren't paying :)




In reality, we've bunged him an extra £120, he didn't do something we had asked for in the initial quote (and agreed to drop out before this price thing came up) so that was probably another £100-£200 worth... so he's had an 'extra' £2-300 out of us.

Overall, we're very happy with the work, with the additional cost the price is still a little cheaper than the other quotes.

I don't have any guilt, i think he's still more than covered his costs.

There are are a couple of niggles i need to get him back round for though.
Wish me luck!

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Re: Is this a tradesman trick

Post by Surprised »

Had a quote recently and included in the quote was 3 hours time for him to make the quote

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Re: Is this a tradesman trick

Post by Vid »

Surprised wrote:Had a quote recently and included in the quote was 3 hours time for him to make the quote
what's the hourly rate for scratching your head and picking a random number?

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Re: Is this a tradesman trick

Post by Striker »

Surprised wrote:Had a quote recently and included in the quote was 3 hours time for him to make the quote
Did the quote also include his other overheads, item by item.

He clearly showed himself to be such a d*ckhead that those three hours will now need to be included in his overheads charged to other customers. :wink:

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Re: Is this a tradesman trick

Post by Surprised »

Vid wrote:
Surprised wrote:Had a quote recently and included in the quote was 3 hours time for him to make the quote
what's the hourly rate for scratching your head and picking a random number?

200 Euro he wanted for the quote even after I said his quote was 3 times the size of others

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Re: Is this a tradesman trick

Post by Surprised »

Striker wrote:
Surprised wrote:Had a quote recently and included in the quote was 3 hours time for him to make the quote
Did the quote also include his other overheads, item by item.

He clearly showed himself to be such a d*ckhead that those three hours will now need to be included in his overheads charged to other customers. :wink:
Included his time for gong to buy the paint, a 10% extra on hours in case he went over plus 10% contingency plus 10% sundry costs he could not identify.

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Re: Is this a tradesman trick

Post by Zimmerman »

Going off at a tangent, but in a similar vain;

A new racket employed by mechanics is charging you to diagnose faults?! ie they hook it up to a computer that tells you what PS03 means.

I understand them charging you if you don't get them to fix it. But charging you to diagnose then charging you to fix it? Come off it.

What next, charge me for spanner use?

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Re: Is this a tradesman trick

Post by Ashers »

Zimmerman wrote:Going off at a tangent, but in a similar vain;

A new racket employed by mechanics is charging you to diagnose faults?! ie they hook it up to a computer that tells you what PS03 means.

I understand them charging you if you don't get them to fix it. But charging you to diagnose then charging you to fix it? Come off it.

What next, charge me for spanner use?
Tell me about it. Took my car into Halfords the other week for a MOT and Service. I had a depollution warning message which they checked on their computer and advised that it needed fixing by Peugeot. I took the car to Peugeot with the report from Halfords and they wouldn't accept it and wanted to charge me £99 to stick it on their computer.

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Zimmerman
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Re: Is this a tradesman trick

Post by Zimmerman »

Yep... same for me.

Got a warning light.
Audi wanted something like £99
Rang up a local (family type gaff) garage I've used in the past... wanted £60 - they did suggest putting some top fuel in and giving it blast before having it done) as this can sometimes clear those type of errors.
Ended up taking it to another family garage who charged me £45 to diagnose :twisted:

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