Am I ripping off an old lady?

[Puddle]

i have run my bussiness for forty years thank you ,and i am able to generate a good living and profit from it

You are making a good living and profit from it; therefore you should be able to afford a spigot trap and a tee’d washing machine valve for an elderly nieghbour

older than you i might be but obviosly not as rude

I am not being rude, just honest, 'the tight old git' was tougn in cheek, most would have taken it that way, the fact you did not....well

as for respect i have no problem with that either i have had some of my clients for 30 years pluss .i would not have kept them otherwise and they respect me as i them.

I am not referring to mutual business respect, respecting someone who is going to give you a big fat cheque after you have finished the job and respect from someone who has had a good job that is a completely different thing

I am sure your plumbing standards are very high and I have never questioned them and would not as I respect posts you have made
Although I disagreed with some

perhaps if you lived where i do where their is a very large population of old people and you hardley charged them the going rate for your services you may soon find you were not paying your way.

Now you are just taking every thing out of context, we are talking about an old lady , who wants a 1/2 hr to 1hr job, as and when with about £ 15 worth of gear if that
If you had to travel or she wanted a bigger job doing then you would charge accordenly, as you know, you are just expanding the discussion as you know you are on a sticky wicket

Lack of respect for older members of the community no ,I am one.

Well that does not go hand in hand does it?
Bit like saying I respect all tight gits coz I am one


also if you have a claim on your insurance you will soon find it costing you more.

Well touch wood I have never claimed on my insurance but if I did, thats what it is there for, I am not going to stop living and helping people who deserve it because I may be charged a bit more on insurance, taking that a step further ,I will never give my elderly neighbor a lift in the car anywhere incase I have a accident during the trip or I am never going to let them in the house incase they break something

i take it you are a youger plumber so you charge for parts but we older ones should not.

Actually you are wrong; I would come under the older ones who should maybe supply the parts
The reason I said young plumbers should charge for parts is because probably they have a young family and alot of outgoings and can not always afford to pay out on a few materials, I know when I was younger I couldn’t but I could give a bit of time. Now after plumbing for a good few years, I would probably have the items required in my store anyway gathering dust

I would add I do not think anyone was ripped off, the £70 is not over the top and take no great offence by her being charged that, not that I expect anyone to give a dam if I did
I am just saying what I think
If others think differantly, which obviously they do, fair enough but do not hide behind all those excuses of covering bussiness expenses and the need to make a good healthy profit on each and every job !!!

You are charging because you think you should get paid for everything you do, for who ever, in some cases because you can not afford not to or because......you are a tight git .....opps being rude again


Ps if you have been at it for 40 years and only have some customers from 30 years ago, does that mean you had a few insurance claims during the first 10 years

pps
Bet the old women will ring up next week and say she wants the fringe putting back as she keeps buting the frozen shopping in the washer and it ends up all soggy!! now then I would think of charging

 

[Phil]

"Hello, the old lady from over the road called me over today. She wants a dish washer installing.The dishwasher is to be placed in the space next to the sink where the fridge was.
There is no waste provision so she needs a Mcalpine type trap with a waste inlet on it to replace the existing P trap.The cold water pipe is directly behind so just needs a washing machine valve on it.
There is one of those DIY outside tap kits with the green flexi hose connected onto the cold water pipe, this protrudes out and will stop the washing machine from going back fully,so I offerd to alter this as she was concerned.
I said £70 including bits.
Her nextdoor nieghbour thinks i should be ashamed of myself for charging that much?, its given me a complex is this too much?. "

[DLMURL="http://www.ukplumbersforums.co.uk/report.php?p=26550"]

[/DLMURL]​

I don't think the dishwasher has been installed yet, he was just quoting. The neighbour sounds like one of those illinformed people who think £70 for a couple of hours work means £67,200 a year!

 

[REDSAW]

food for thought there phil, good point to think about.
on a good day it makes me on around £127,000 a year, good for training litrature eh?.

 

[leakylea]

the age, sex and relationship of any customer means nothing, they are employing you to do a professional job. If it went wrong and you had a leak they would expect you round pronto free of charge,
i got done years back, old lady calls with blocked sink, charged 20 quid for 1 hours work and new p trap, to find out that she was only the grandma of the woman who owned the house!!! who was sat upstairs waiting for me to go

 

[david williams]

One claim in 40 years.you ?. And yes i do think you are rude.i have plenty of custermers thank you i have never been out of work,some i have had for years and plenty of new ones all the time,no adds all word of mouth.and gear in your store gathering dust not very cost effective and toung in cheek or not in never feel the need to insult anyone.

 

[richie*is200]

**** the neighbour and charge what you want,

 

[Jason.S]

I wondered how long this thread would last before the insults started flying about.

Any more and it will be closed.

Be nice people.

 

[stiffee]

as my old service manager said to a customer, you pay me for what i know not for what i do

 

[Winston]

I dont think £70 is ripping your customer off, only you know what your costs in running youre business. I will admit though I have done the odd freebie where no parts are involved and ten minutes work, especially for the elderley. Some may critisize but its my choice and I like to think that, could be my mum, dad or gran.

We should respect our customers and our elderley some off them fought for in wars for us.

 

[stevetheplumber]

what we all ned to remember here is old people are the same as young people some are nice and some are not some have money and some dont and some are definatly well practiced scammers
if only the good die young it stands to reason theirs some very dodgy old people out there

 

[tonyn]

End of the day you charged what you thought was a reasonsable price youve bought materials spent time ect ect. I think your price was fair , If you had charged mates rates or whatever you want to call it you would never be out of work. Stick to your guns anybody can be a busy fool

 

[moorer]

Stiffee is right. Your customer is paying for your knowledge and skills, not the fittings. The whole point of skilled trades is that they are skilled - and skills take time and education and experience to get.
I charge for my skills and get charged in return by people with different skills. I have to pay my hairdresser £80 for a "do" and I'm paying for her skills and knowledge. Customers always have a choice and sometimes they base it on price and then sometimes they have to come back looking for someone who is more expensive but is reliable, efficient, cleans up after themsleves and knows what they are doing.

 

[HTB]

I've charged £90 for a similar job before,,,thats my usual "over the phone rate" for that kind of job,,some I make well on,,some its £90 hard earned,,somehow the tyres have to be paid for to go on the van,,the insurance has to be paid and deisel isn't going down in price. Oh,,,and Screwfix might be cheap,,but they don't give their stuff away.