When Customer Says You're Too Expensive

[Centralheatking]

The most important part of what you are posting about is really - THE DEPOSIT !

For new domestic customers and small commercials I always write a contract and
have a deposit up front - boilers can cost £1000 - I dont leave them in peoples
homes without some commitment from them.

Its the best way - a deposit is a legal agreement for my outfit to complete
and the customer to pay the final - it also gets them into the idea that
we are working together - and real money has to change hands

Its just our way - under £300 no but above ALWAYS

centralheatking

 

[Centralheatking]

I have been known to drop £500 over a £7500 luxury bathroom ONCE then I got home and KICKED THE CAT and had a think and got it all back in spades on extras

More often than not though a little wheeling and dealing like that leads to more work in the future which more than pay's back that £70

 

[CXR100]

if the house isnt that nice, old tv, old clothes ect ect and you can see they are struggling i usually go a bit cheaper, because they are allways repairs , bursts leaks ect, i just cut £20 off for example, then the next huge house i get a bathroom job and a nice bmw outside and a huge plasma in the living room i just charge them a bit more!

 

[lame plumber]

if the house isnt that nice, old tv, old clothes ect ect and you can see they are struggling i usually go a bit cheaper, because they are allways repairs , bursts leaks ect, i just cut £20 off for example, then the next huge house i get a bathroom job and a nice bmw outside and a huge plasma in the living room i just charge them a bit more!

and guess which one will pay up immediately or before the jobs finished, not the beemer owner but those that are struggling along, so I dont mind doing a deal for people like that

 

[Wet dream]

We but this on are adds

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten

Says it all and filters out the divs you never wanted to work for anyway

 

[AndyJ]

WOW! Appreciate and understand the views expressed here about not dropping your prices or being asked to haggle in order to get the work but I'm shocked at the general attitude revealed in these posts towards your customers. Not all of us are tight devils looking for someone to work for slave wages .... but it seems, judging from this thread, that there exists in the plumbing world a widely held pre-conceived notion that the customer is in some way mentally deficient, naturally deceitful and an overall thoroughly bad lot. Heart warming!
Thanks for the 'heads up', I'll now treat all future contacts with the plumbing fraternity with a great deal more suspicion than has been my practice up to now.

 

[Dotty]

WOW! Appreciate and understand the views expressed here about not dropping your prices or being asked to haggle in order to get the work but I'm shocked at the general attitude revealed in these posts towards your customers. Not all of us are tight devils looking for someone to work for slave wages .... but it seems, judging from this thread, that there exists in the plumbing world a widely held pre-conceived notion that the customer is in some way mentally deficient, naturally deceitful and an overall thoroughly bad lot. Heart warming!
Thanks for the 'heads up', I'll now treat all future contacts with the plumbing fraternity with a great deal more suspicion than has been my practice up to now.

Are you reading the same thread? Where did a terrible attitude towards customers arise? You seem to labour under the impression we work for the love of the job.

We don't. There's insurances, trade registrations, tool upkeep, van upkeep, ongoing training, fuel, tax, registration body fees and so on. That's before we can consider our wages.

Please post up where you live as you actually drop into the small bracket of customers you describe us as viewing all customers.

And your first post too, digging up an old thread. Hmmmm.......

 

[kay-jay]

should have been in the arms croppie

 

[hammers4spanner]

i dropped my price for my girlfriends mate other daymoved some rads for here so drained system and refilled checked all rads and off i went ,

later that eve she phoned said i missed a rad and it was cold and she didnt know what to do so tried to explain and got no where .

so today i go back a 35 mile trip to do this no extra charge and price was cheap in first instance ,if i charged full rate i'd be happier but hey ho it happens no complaining to much

 

[cr0ft]

and guess which one will pay up immediately or before the jobs finished, not the beemer owner but those that are struggling along, so I dont mind doing a deal for people like that

Just finished my 2nd job for a really nice lady who lives in an estate in Lincoln that is known for being rather deprived to say the least. The lady is riddled with arthritis but couldn't be nicer. She has tipped me more in tips than all my other customers in the last year combined.

I am starting to agree that those with money are the least generous tbh.

 

[IDCHAPPY]

There's a lot of truly nice people out there that are grateful for our help and assistance and for us it's extremely rewarding to help these folk, there are a fair amount of snakes though unfortunately...

 

[Dotty]

should have been in the arms croppie

Probably originally yeah. But then no prices have been mentioned.

 

[kirkgas]

When someone tells me I'm not the cheapest quote I say "good because I plan to do it properly using good equipment and if there are any problems I will resolve them right away, if I was too cheap you wouldn't be getting good service would you, here's my card feel free to give me a call if you go for the cheap option and need it fixed if the original person can't come back"

 

[kirkgas]

The reality is "how much for cash" should be £20 more as banks now charge you to put cash in

 

[kirkgas]

I suppose it is a bit hypocritical to moan about them haggling as I'm sure we all so when buying cars etc, same with comparing quotes for flights and car hire etc, however when I'm getting work done I never haggle, but that is because I have used the same people for years, I tell them what I want ask for advice on the options if appropriate they get me price A and price B I decide and pay them, I wouldn't embarrass my self by asking if the could do anything with the price because I know their work and trust them to do a good job for me
If anyone asks me " can you do anything with the price" I say "yes I can add £50 to it no problem"

 

[acecharly]

Id say the main problem with a lot of customers is that price is there only thought. You have to get them thinking about something else, such as the quality of service, how fast you can get out to them, that you will be there for aftercare if anything ever goes wrong etc. Definitely never get in an argument about the price or you have lost before you start.

 

[gasmanrob]

Andy j

This forum and others alike are riddled with people posting under titles such as am I being ripped off? Or disaster please help.

more often then not the disaster please help posts used the cheapest quote they had,

the am I being ripped off are rightly querying if the high price they were quoted was fair.

but we give advise and try not to pass judgement on their views of tradesman much as we would hope you wouldn't pass judgement on us for defending our prices.

the majority of us on the forum come here because we care, why else would we spend our out of hours time talking to other plumbers and general public. As a result you can be assured that we fit the best products we can for the clients budget and in the event that a problem should arise we will stand by our work and rectify it should it be needed. If not it would be easy to come here and shame us in front of everyone and that would be more then embarrassing to any of us.

i would suggest that perhaps you have a read back through the forum and read the advise given to people who have suffered the work of amateurs and weekend warriors.

in fact there are even a few posts where people have offered to attend elderly relatives of people posting for the price of a cup of tea.

Not such a bad bunch after all.

 

[PlumbBobBob]

well said rob

 

[Best]

WOW! Appreciate and understand the views expressed here about not dropping your prices or being asked to haggle in order to get the work but I'm shocked at the general attitude revealed in these posts towards your customers. Not all of us are tight devils looking for someone to work for slave wages .... but it seems, judging from this thread, that there exists in the plumbing world a widely held pre-conceived notion that the customer is in some way mentally deficient, naturally deceitful and an overall thoroughly bad lot. Heart warming!
Thanks for the 'heads up', I'll now treat all future contacts with the plumbing fraternity with a great deal more suspicion than has been my practice up to now.

Yes, as you say, "not all of" you customers are "tight devils" - but how is a plumber to know which customers are not skinflints? A lot of people are very mean, whether on low or high income & will not sacrifice their lifestyles but will want tradespeople to work for very little.
"Mentally deficient, ....deceitful, ... thoroughly bad," is your words, but sometimes true of a lot of customers.
My experience of people is a lot are deceitful to some extent & only interested in themselves.
A lot try to avoid full payment if any at all. That I would call Bad.
As to mentally deficient, - many customers are lacking in basic reasoning or education sadly & that's a fact. They must assume us plumbers are mentally deficent to believe the lies they tell us!!
It's a pity that many of them can't work out simple maths & realise that costs for a qualified man in a van is more than £10 hour.
You say you are now going to treat plumbers with suspicion? - I agree you should & you should treat anyone in the future who is ever in any field, a customer of yours with suspicion also & be careful what every word they utter is actually leading to.
We have had the "heads up" about a lot of customers out there long ago, - it's called experience.

 

[stevetheplumber]

there are certain customers you know will be asking for a discount as soon as you give them a price just stick enough on to give them the satisfaction of getting the price knocked down to where you wanted it anyway every ones happy

 

[cr0ft]

Interesting thread. Had an existing customer get in touch today. Have just quoted them for a replacement shower enclosure, tray and shower panelling. Amazing how his budget was a nice round figure just a bit lower than my quote.

Upshot of it was he was asking for around 16% off the bill which would have meant me taking a 50% cut in labour for the job. Politely declined but instead offered to fit a few lights for him around the house which he had previously asked me to do..

I was tempted to tell him, no worries, lets put the job off for another month or so so you can save up the extra and get it done then...

Will see what happens but for me I am in the lucky position of being able to say no to work. Times were not always so good, especially in 2009 when I started my business!!

 

[cr0ft]

Just got a call this evening. Got the job he tried to negotiate with me on yesterday. Amazing how he has finally found another £280 overnight!! Call me cynical but I suspect he wasn't being entirely honest with me yesterday..

 

[jim fennessey]

just ask them if they can afford you, if not good by next to many chancers out there,wanting everything for nothing

 

[Barry98]

When the ask me to drop price I reply - where would you like me to save the cost on the quality of the materials I use or the quality of or workmanship ?

Cue the tumbleweed

 

[IDCHAPPY]

We have something similar


when they rings and ask us to lower our price as they've had a cheaper quote , I say yea course no problem where would you like me to save the cost

on materials or the quality of our work.


ooo no I want them as per your quote


well you have our price then


id say 80-90% go with us

When the ask me to drop price I reply - where would you like me to save the cost on the quality of the materials I use or the quality of or workmanship ?

Cue the tumbleweed

Cue the alzheimer's :50: