fixed price repair

[hammers4spanner]

Went out to a wozzie high flow 400 today , expansion vessel kaput and pump weak as you get . Got a price of parts and then added my labour would of come to about £300.00. In the time the customer just for a second quote decided to contact wozzie themselves and they offered a fixed price repair including VAT £252.00.

How do you compete with that? By the time i put a diagnostic , go pick up parts and then fit labour charge plus mark up on mats i'm dearer than the manufacturer .


Am sure the big boys want the small business out of the way these days .

 

[stevetheplumber]

hope you got paid for the dianostic visit

 

[tomplumb83]

Don't ever fit their boiler then. Mind you, no doubt they all offer that service.
Once they've paid you for diagnostic I hardly see how its worth getting the manufacturers in

 

[rocketmanbkk]

WB do it too. I was quoted £300 by a gas man to fix my boiler - heat plate at the back. WB did it for £240 with 12 mth warranty. What could I do? This was a good few years ago now.

 

[scorps]

I think the OP is talking about a WB

 

[Leo21]

It's great when you've got a crap job you can't be bothered with, or even God forbid, can't fathom it.

 

[rocketmanbkk]

& WB let you pay over 12 mths.

 

[Leo21]

You did charge a diagnostic fee, didn't you?

 

[hammers4spanner]

Yes it was a WB high flow 400 , it wasn't a difficult job but they were cheap .

In long run their was no decent money in it for me

 

[hammers4spanner]

It's great when you've got a crap job you can't be bothered with, or even God forbid, can't fathom it.

Was one of those can you service my boiler , oh you have faults.

 

[rocketmanbkk]

The WB chap that fixed mine said he had 8 jobs min per day.

 

[village idiot]

decided to contact wozzie themselves and they offered a fixed price repair including VAT £252.00.

How do you compete with that? By the time i put a diagnostic , go pick up parts and then fit labour charge plus mark up on mats i'm dearer than the manufacturer .


Am sure the big boys want the small business out of the way these days .

Doubt they actually want the small business out of the way. Besides, I can't blame the customer for getting a second quote from the manufacturer. Some months back, I was called to a faulty Ideal boiler. Turns out HE needed changing. My price to purchase one off the shelf, then fit it was £££ can't remember now, but when I phoned Ideal and asked how much they will charge for a 1 off replacement of the said part, it was at least £50 less than I waould have charged the customer. Plus manufacturers always give a 1yr guarantee. I phoned customer and advised them to get Ideal to replace the part. They have the parts sitting there on the shelve doing nothing, so in reality, their replacememt cost will be less than yours.

 

[Leo21]

Was one of those can you service my boiler , oh you have faults.

Not a total loss then, still got service money.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Yea got some money , been getting a lot like this lately tho ,

Ask them before if all o.k , customer says yes all good , start the service oh you have a fault
:censored:

 

[gassafe]

Always pricey when a boiler has multiple problems as the price escalates...

I didn't think Worcester warranted there fixed price call out on the older boilers such as floor standing 400 etc...

Cheapo external vessel & bog standard pump head might have been cheaper than genuine Worcester parts you quoted...

 

[lame plumber]

if the customer is old n poor, like I will be one day, I always suggest a manufacturers repair if one is available for horrible jobs, especially wb which I hate working on, still get paid for the diagnostics and normally cop a service next year on.

 

[woodsy]

As I've posted before, while on a boiler course before, the trainer happily told us that they pay £8 for a part which we all pay £90 for, - there lies the answer why we can't compete on anything but the smallest of repairs

 

[Millsy 82]

Always pricey when a boiler has multiple problems as the price escalates...

I didn't think Worcester warranted there fixed price call out on the older boilers such as floor standing 400 etc...

Cheapo external vessel & bog standard pump head might have been cheaper than genuine Worcester parts you quoted...

I didn't think Worcester worked on anything over 10 years old. Or at least they never did around where I used to live.

 

[gassafe]

I didn't think Worcester worked on anything over 10 years old. Or at least they never did around where I used to live.

Yeah Iv heard that too... I gues over 10 years it gets too expensive as there's more chance of multiple faults!