When Customer Says You're Too Expensive

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

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.

It has been said by others too, in my experience and in my opinion the majority of customers are decent people, respectful of tradesmen, honest, pleasant, etc. A minority aren't nice because they don't pay, haggle after the job, sabotage the work or their house after it is done so they can try to make an insurance claim - against our insurance! And create serious problems for our working futures that they never even thought of.
Some lie - they say something was working when we arrived so we must have broken it - but really it could never have been working for months - eventually they admit this when expert plumbers present them with evidence.

Now the vast majority are good but the tiny minority really create a big head ache for us - taking way too much of our time and costing us money. If we have never worked for you before we don't know if you are part of the majority or the minority. So with experience plumbers/ heating engineers and other tradesmen will enter your property with some suspicion and will do what they can to protect themselves.

Unfortunately programmes like Rogue Traders are all one sided - you would be amazed home many Rogue customers there are.
Even if they are only 5% of households that is still something like 1,000,000 homes out there with residents willing to rip us off!

 

[jase158]

Got a customer, agreed price for power flush, cylinder, boiler and 4 rads replaced and all new controls and pump.
Finnished job 2 days early and is now demanding discount!! Because I stated 6 x labour at £200. Apparently this automatically means days and automatically means I have to give him discount for finishing early? £800 for all that work, going to wickes later to buy post Crete!!!

 

[stevetheplumber]

if possible always give a all in price failing that a lump sum for labour

 

[jase158]

Customers are a pain in the backside!! It was an all in price, 6 x labour at £200 = £1200. Not hard. Not days, not minutes, labour. I said that this also included sourcing materials, guarantee, collecting materials, registering boiler, 2 visits prior to arriving and they said no!! They ain't gonna pay it!! Surely if you agree the price, you pay the price? Correct me if I am wrong??

 

[IDCHAPPY]

It could take you 5 mins, if you agreed on the quote then you are a total douche not to pay the cost IMHO

 

[Dotty]

Customers are a pain in the backside!! It was an all in price, 6 x labour at £200 = £1200. Not hard. Not days, not minutes, labour. I said that this also included sourcing materials, guarantee, collecting materials, registering boiler, 2 visits prior to arriving and they said no!! They ain't gonna pay it!! Surely if you agree the price, you pay the price? Correct me if I am wrong??

Did you have your t&c's on your quote including action to be taken in the event of non payment?

Once the quote is accepted then so are the t&c's.

 

[gasmanrob]

Had something similar before..

priced to change a diverter valve on a vaillant you know the big brass one at the rear said it would be £x.

Customer agreed
came back with the part a day later customer asks how long do you think it will take I said possibly 2 hours...

anyway this job went like a dream took 30minutes tops,
customer now wants discount as I'd said it would take 2 hours.

reminded customer that the price I had given was for "the job" not parts and labor not an open ended £x per hour. And had the job been a pig and it had taken 4hours would they have paid me more?

I then explained that sometimes jobs do go well but other times they go spectacularly wrong, for example had I of drained it then been unable to separate the valve from the boiler or re filled it and found the pressure gauge was blocked or that the servo had also blocked up I would have sorted it as it is part of the job.

Customer agreed and paid in full, we didn't fall out at all and I still do work for them only now they have the understanding of what I will do and how I work

 

[cr0ft]

Customers are a pain in the backside!! It was an all in price, 6 x labour at £200 = £1200. Not hard. Not days, not minutes, labour. I said that this also included sourcing materials, guarantee, collecting materials, registering boiler, 2 visits prior to arriving and they said no!! They ain't gonna pay it!! Surely if you agree the price, you pay the price? Correct me if I am wrong??

Did you title your breakdown of costs quote or estimate Jase? A quote is a fixed price whereas an estimate is of course not. If it was a quote then the customer has no grounds for complaint and I would suggest the usual small claims route.

In future I would just put down 1 unit of labour at X on your quotes, this stops customers trying to do this. Everyone of course asks how long a job will take (and claims it's not for price reasons) so I just give an estimate of time but say the price is a fixed price irrespective of how long it takes.

If it was a quote then stick to your guns and go to court if you need to, you will get your cash back and will lose the customer, whom I am sure you don't want to work for again anyway.

 

[leek]

Dont think this is a really fair assessment Andy.

Most of my customers are lovely people, who I have known for many years now, and I hope they keep coming back to me because I treat them fairly. I too, like a lot of the chaps on here will help those who I feel genuinely need it.. like the old dear up the road who pays me in biscuits.

I do find it really hard when customers ask 'how much for cash?' like someone else pointed out it actually costs more in charges to bank cash, and its not like I can pay cash for materials and expect a discount. About a year ago I had a man in a really lovely area try and haggle over a power flush, I very politely said it was not possible for me to do it for any less - I anticipated him being a total pain in the backside, but in the end he apologised to me for trying to reduce the price as he didnt realise how much work was involved. Since then I have had lots of repeat work. Perhaps that is a lot of the problem, customers do not always realise how much work is involved, it seems harsh for you to call them mentally deficient, some just have no knowledge or experience of plumbing work.

Sadly your attitude would only make me hesitant to deal with a customer like you, thankfully I am busy enough that if I was to feel uneasy I would just pass the job on, not so nice for those who need the work though eh?

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.

 

[Ermintrude]

Slap the muppet.Fine i will remove all my work and add the sludge back in to system. Had a woman complain about a megaflow - she asked for it. Snow outside and very cold. Said fine mate got in van drove round gave her cheque back and said we will have it all ripped out in 2 hours. Sorry for the trouble we have caused you. She soon shut up gave is the cheque back and managed to live with the oversized product she asked for.

[oops thought this was arms]

 

[SafeGasInstall]

i am sorry but 6 x 200 what does it mean jase ?

 

[jase158]

6 x labour
it means that the job is split into 6 parts
powerflush
boiler
controls
cylinder
1 x replacement of 4 rads
preparation and finishing off the job, guarantee, registering the boiler

 

[SafeGasInstall]

thank you , I got confused tbh

I would have given a full price for the job
On my quotes i do :
List of work
then list of specific materials and their guarantee and total cost for the job

 

[jase158]

You have got way too much time on your hands, why happens if somebody changes there guarantee?
I quote 20-30 jobs per month if I was to quote that then I would spend all day quoting. I am a plumber because I enjoy plumbing not doing paper work all day.
tbh it is my mrs who puts x 6 on there as I told her it was 5 days and to book 6 as you never know what you will find. She likes to put something on there so she knows exactly how many days to book in when they go ahead.

 

[jase158]

But my point is that nowhere on the quote does it say days, so why would anybody assume that it was days?

 

[Ermintrude]

They are just chancres.

 

[SafeGasInstall]

You have got way too much time on your hands, why happens if somebody changes there guarantee?
I quote 20-30 jobs per month if I was to quote that then I would spend all day quoting. I am a plumber because I enjoy plumbing not doing paper work all day.
tbh it is my mrs who puts x 6 on there as I told her it was 5 days and to book 6 as you never know what you will find. She likes to put something on there so she knows exactly how many days to book in when they go ahead.

boiler guarantees only very from
5 years
7 years
8 years

aint no brainer ha ha ha

 

[SafeGasInstall]

But my point is that nowhere on the quote does it say days, so why would anybody assume that it was days?

cos you aint got much time to prepare your quote and explain to customer all on survey

 

[jase158]

Except worcester may reduce it back to 2 years if you quote at the wrong time, they will be expecting a worcester with 5 years.
what about, taps, showers, sanitary ware etc?

 

[SafeGasInstall]

I only supply and fit central heating mate , wb guarantee is 5 ,7, 8 for me
i dont do bathrooms

 

[jase158]

cos you aint got much time to prepare your quote and explain to customer all on survey

Explain what? If I give a price, this is the price, you agreeing to it, means you understand it. I clearly put at the bottom of every email "if you have any questions please fell free to get in contact" I am not psychic, I can not read minds. I give price, customer asks questions, they either agree or disagree, I don't force them, I don't hold there hand, I don't cuddle them, I don't force them to do it, they choose to go ahead with it. They don't want to then don't go ahead. You agree price then pay, simple

 

[jase158]

I only supply and fit central heating mate , wb guarantee is 5 ,7, 8 for me
i dont do bathrooms

And you moan that your not busy!!
beggers really are choosers.
what happens if there is a power shower in system? You just cap it and leave it?

 

[SafeGasInstall]

ha ha ha ,

"power shower in system" ???

sorry I dont understand this too

 

[SafeGasInstall]

Explain what? If I give a price, this is the price, you agreeing to it, means you understand it. I clearly put at the bottom of every email "if you have any questions please fell free to get in contact" I am not psychic, I can not read minds. I give price, customer asks questions, they either agree or disagree, I don't force them, I don't hold there hand, I don't cuddle them, I don't force them to do it, they choose to go ahead with it. They don't want to then don't go ahead. You agree price then pay, simple

knowing how to do this will help anyone really

 

[Ermintrude]

We when were smaller had a pro former quote, filled it in on day . Two copies one for us - signed and accepted by custard and one signed by us accepted by custard.

Now it's all done electronically. Google cal for appointment, survey details stored on notes bit any photos on g drive.

Tart sends out formal quote.... Which is cut and pasted in to g notes on job . Oh it's so streamline..... Till you see stock rooms or the waste store . Last week we had a mountain of boxes probs 200 duotec and ecotec boxes mixed in with a few logics and all the installation debris...... No metal not even a screw tho? Strange ???