Did I overpice?

[john0612]

Hi,

Last nght went round a potential customers house to give an estimate.He has a shower room 16.5 m2 walls and a 4 m2 floor. He is having 300x300mm Porcelain tiles on walls and in the attached pic he is having on the floor,they are also porcelain,and he wants them layed in a diamond fashion.Fair play, he has lowered the floor and layed down 12mm ply as to compensate for any step ups,so its dead level as you walk in.Also he is putting aquapanels around the shower area,and most of the walls are plasterboard.Talk about precise,he gave me all the measurements even before I started to measure,he then said take off 1.5m2 for the door and a metre for the window.He said 'the thing is im very fussy,everything has to be right,all the levels, no jagged cuts etc,nothing protruding' fair enough I thought,he then said if I dont like it you wont get paid.
Hmm I thought,one of them blokes is he?
Anyway I came away from the job,thinking I would like to tackle it ,as it would be a learning curve too..but ill overprice it,as Im not sure if he'd be a nightmare.
I priced it at a grand , as its natural stone and theres quite a few holes to drill and cause he's a fussy xxxxxx. He says he's getting all the mats,he just want a price to lay it...
Sorry its long winded,just would like to know your views on my price.
Cheers,
Vinnie.

could be a local tiler seeing what his competition is , u never know.

 

[bencurtis]

as soon as anyone says wont pay etc etc, walk. price sounded ok.

 

[Fekin]

If anyone ever said to me at the time of measuring up that they wouldn't pay if they we're not happy with it then I'd walk too.

Obviously you don't deserve being paid if you do a shoddy job anyway, and it's something that could always happen with any job you did if it was a bad one, but for a customer to say this to me before I'd even started I'd be inclined to think they are probably going to pick fault with the smallest detail and withhold payment.

Does sound like it could be hassle, though he might just be the type to vocally state what is his right from the start :lol:

 

[Holohana]

i went to a njob last week, friend of a friend.

Quoted day rate as quite tricky stuff but knocked a little bit off cos of the friend of a friend.

He rang me back to say a mate can do it, not as soon or as quick as me but could i match his price. About £150 less.

Thing is im already down on my usual rate and then he wants less off that n all. That would mean working for about £80 a day after everythings gone out, tax, van, petty etc!

On top of that he's a fussy bugger and as some of the above threads likely to pick fault with it even if nowt there.

He did say he would do it himself but hasnt got the time so he'd be likely to be rolling marbles around the place and the like!!!

 

[nybor62]

i would charge about £175.00 a day . 8hrs no longer

 

[sWe]

I agree. If a potential customer tries to tough talk me, I'm off. Invariably, people with that kind of attitude find (or otherwise) something to justify not paying the whole fee, or not at all. I once had a customer who was such a cheapskate she subtracted £1 for a cup of coffee off her payment...

 

[bigdaz]

I might be on thin ice here but still worth a mention as it's an experience and not an opinion.
In the past whenever I've been called out to do a quote for an asian person they've always tried to knock the price down, either before or after the job and there's always the promise of 'loads more work from the asian community' if I give a discount.
A guy I know is a builder and he says the same thing, to the point where he won't work for them...

 

[bluevin123]

No your not mate,I totally agree,they want summat for nothing,
Vinnie

 

[sWe]

I might be on thin ice here but still worth a mention as it's an experience and not an opinion.
In the past whenever I've been called out to do a quote for an asian person they've always tried to knock the price down, either before or after the job and there's always the promise of 'loads more work from the asian community' if I give a discount.
A guy I know is a builder and he says the same thing, to the point where he won't work for them...

Call me a bigot, but cultural differences are extremely annoying when it comes to business. The old expression "take the culture of where you live to heart" springs to mind.

That said, there's idiots in every culture.

 

[IvegotsTILE]

I've had a few customers that have come out with"Does that include materials?" "Can you do it a bit cheaper than that?"or any discount for cash.
They all get one simple answer to each question and I've done this as soon as I started working for myself "No my price is my price!"
I always think there taking the pi** when they ask "Does that include materials?"
I always state I'm constantly busy(even if I'm not) and that why would I want to work for less for them when I can earn more else where,I tell them if they want it cheaper they won't get it from a tiler,they should get in a handyman instead but don't expect a good finish.