Ression Rates

[Hugh]

Hey all

I was wondering if many of you have droped your hourly rate to boost sales in the ression and have any of you tryed new things with-in your company to survive the ression? all I hear at the moment is cash flow has stopped and everyone making a loss, if so can we all get topped on cheap supplies from insolvent companies?

cheers all!

 

[REDSAW]

i dont consider the needs of others to save more money greater than to take home to my family the same if not greater income than the day before, so why do you feel the need to subsidise others you dont know?.
otherwise my bank details are................deposits welcome.

on the other hand i sometimes now charge by the half hour.

 

[Hugh]

Cheers Redsaw thanks for looking and and your totally right!

 

[stevetheplumber]

i dont consider the needs of others to save more money greater than to take home to my family the same if not greater income than the day before, so why do you feel the need to subsidise others you dont know?.
otherwise my bank details are................deposits welcome.

on the other hand i sometimes now charge by the half hour.

i suspect your doing call outs rather than pricing work ?ive dropped my prices and still cant get a job
example
supply and fit new vaillant pro 24kw boiler with integral clock existing boiler was in bathroom flue to be made good after removing boiler and the new one was to go below it in kitchen so pipework from above and needed a frame to allow pipework to run behind boiler about 4 m of new gas pipe externally powerflush system new stat and trvs in two beds i quoted 2400 and she said i was the highest quote and she was getting it done for 1650
im seriously thinking of getting a job in b and qs

 

[helpsy]

Hi Steve
She's probably getting it done by someone who's not qualified.
Cost savings obviously worth more to her than her life!!!

 

[david williams]

or she might not be ,i have found a lot of newly qualified plumbers who cant get a job with a firm due to lack of experience,are going self employed ,and working for just enougth to live.

 

[REDSAW]

yes steve i do both, but mainly call-out.
where are you based steve, thats a decent price for up here.

thing is a lot of plumbers are trying too much to get the next job and we are fighting amongst ourselves. therefore joe-public recognises this and are playing us against each other. if you are desperate then you have to do what you have to do. bearing in mind when the customer has been won by a silly low quote, when work is plentifull how can you justify hiking up your prices to your 'won' customer base, you have to start all over again finding new. its easy to lower prices but harder to increase without going out of business. does it cost less for gas, electric?. no.
give you an example:- v.a.t has been set at 17% for years and allways reguarded as a curse, recently lowered to 15% as you know.. when it goes back to 17% next year watch people moan again.
small plumbing buisness of 5 or less are the ones who set the plumbing prices as the more overheads the more is charged by bigger firms like pimlico, reactfast etc, so they are out priced by us mere mortals. if say the national rate for a plumber is £40 per hour then thats what it is, take it or leave it or get a student plumber to do it.

best thought yet is to get it regulated like electrical.

 

[HTB]

Both myself and my tiler buddy have dropped our bathroom refurb rates.

Our main problem was when the building sites closed and lots of semi skilled guys (mostly plumber's mates and labourers) started flooding the market with their poorly equipped estate cars or tatty old vans and undercutting the "proper" tradesmen.

We would turn up to put an estimate in (say in the region of £1800 to £2000) and be told that so and so was prepared to do it for £500 !!!! No exaggeration.

On further enquiry we would be told that "so and so" had a cheap advert in the local rag, mobile phone no only, no sign written van, no 3rd party liability and payment for job would be strictly in cash with 1/2 up front for materials. No landline and no address to complain to, no warranty. This was quite common for a while.

We picked up 3 jobs where these kind of guys had started a refurb and then either the completed job was rubbish and had to be done again, or they disappeared part way through when something had not gone to plan, or they didn't have the tools to complete the work.

This was not just a blip. This went on for months and we had no choice but to cut our costs to the bone just to bring in any work. In the area where we live we would chat with other tradesmen and be told it was endemic. The only guys who weren't so badly affected were the Gas Fitters, since it would appear people were not so stupid as to compromise on Gas Safety.

When the sites re-opened "hey presto" these clowns pretty much disappeared overnight, in some cases leaving people with unfinished projects.

However, its taking a little while for prices to recover, but it is happening.

 

[radswilldo]

i suspect your doing call outs rather than pricing work ?ive dropped my prices and still cant get a job
example
supply and fit new vaillant pro 24kw boiler with integral clock existing boiler was in bathroom flue to be made good after removing boiler and the new one was to go below it in kitchen so pipework from above and needed a frame to allow pipework to run behind boiler about 4 m of new gas pipe externally powerflush system new stat and trvs in two beds i quoted 2400 and she said i was the highest quote and she was getting it done for 1650
im seriously thinking of getting a job in b and qs

At that price the fella cannot be legit, I wouldn't be able to cover my overheads and household bills. Nothing wrong with your price, I fit Vaillants only. Also the customer could be upto banditry, forget about it they get what they deserve. Protect your name, as you have a long term career thats all that matters.