Right or wrong.

[enduro]

I have been talking too another tiler near me and we were talking about work...He said he is so busy with private work, so i asked him his secret and this is what he said. When i price a job i do not bring up the subject of supplying materials, adhesive, grout, trim etc as these put a lot of money onto the job..Then when i win the job and i just about to start asks the customer will they supply the materials or do they want him to get them at an extra cost....

 

[merlecollins]

A bit naughty that like

Surely that tact breeds a touch of mis-trust and dissatisfaction between tiler and customer:mad2:

I let the customer know every penny they need to spend to get a FINISHED job from the off

 

[The D]

wrong wrong wrong :incazzato:

 

[Time's Ran Out]

And I bet he sleeps well!

 

[enduro]

He said he isnt doing anything underhand, and the customers dont worry when he mentions it at the start of the job, because he gets them a bit of discount with his trade account...

 

[merlecollins]

He said he isnt doing anything underhand, and the customers dont worry when he mentions it at the start of the job, because he gets them a bit of discount with his trade account...

Yeah, right......that'll be gospel then

 

[enduro]

The guy has loads of work...charges £28sqm min, thats why he spoke to me yesterday to know if i can help him out.

 

[Dan]

Hmmm. I'd consider trying it out if it's winning him work. But I'd perhaps sort of say to the customer "right, if it's ceramics it would be £240, if it's mosaics or stone it would be a bit more" - then if they had something in mind they'd say 'oh no it is ceramics'. Then you're sort of playing on the fact that they may have the tiles already etc. Give them a call the week before or whatever and say, right, I'm just checking everything is there, do you need me to get adhesives? type thing and take it from there.

I don't think it's dodgy but it's not the most ethical way. But times are tough and I'd rather find a way of doing that right where the customers are happy in the end and I get work and sit at home thinking it'll just get done by somebody else.

So I sort of agree with both sides of this argument.

You might find some of the jobs we see being lost for a cheaper quote from somebody else actually isn't cheaper in the end at all but the tiler has quoted labour only and not mentioned materials at all just to secure the work. There's no harm in that as such but you could find yourself tiling with stone when you thought it was 6x6's if you're not careful.

 

[Olz]

The old addage that "its it sounds too good to be true it probably is", springs to mind, the customers must be going for the cheapest qoute my quite a margin or larger jobs if hes not mentioning materials.

 

[doug boardley]

most deffo wrong and immoral in my opinion. He may get away with it in a densely populated area, but if he was doing that up here in the lake district, he'd get no recommendations and no work.