Bunny it does sound like a fairly small job and I might have been tempted to give you a guestimate over the phone but nothing concrete without seeing it. How would you feel though if I gave you that guestimate and then when I turned up to do it, it wasn't how you described so I added extra charges. Would you feel ripped off? Would you think it's because you are a woman?
You sound pretty annoyed that you had to stay in all day with a baby and dogs barking. It is an inconvenience but then so is going to price a job knowing full well that 3 others are going to look at it; the job can only be done by one right? It is what it is.
What's more the fact you have a small baby and barking dogs is not the tradesmen’s fault.
You'll have to forgive me here as i'm going to assume you were as mad when you met the tradesmen as you appear in this thread.
The £1,454 price seems crazy for what you describe, but then if he turned up and you had a face like thunder, told them you'd already been ripped off by one tradesmen and it wasn't going to happen again! Baby crying, dogs barking he might just have thought I don't need to work for someone like this and work in an environment which can be stressful. I know what I’ll put in a crazy high price she couldn't possibly accept. I have a feeling that Mr. £545 thought I’ll put in a high price in the hope she doesn't accept but if she does I can put up with it as it's paying well. The £160 is a guy thinking hey it's a day’s work I'll charge a day’s money, it's all work at the end of the day.
That said it could be much more than a days work, in which case Mr. £545 is a realistic price including sundry materials and Mr. £160 is either very desperate for work or chancing it as a carpenter
The reason they came round was not to look inside the boxes, it was to look at where you wanted them fitted and any difficulties in doing so.
You say it's 4 boxes and 3 already made up. Are these all wall units? If any of them are base units they are going to need worktops cut and fitted too, I’m guessing they can't be base units or you would have mentioned worktops.