Stupidly-priced Quotes - Sick Of Them

[bunnycd]

Ok this is not the best place to post regarding quotes but I just have to have a big fat moan...I just gone off the phone to a plasterer and had another stupid priced quote and it just makes me so mad, I am happy to pay a day rate at a reasonable price but £300! To plaster an area that is 4ft x 4ft (WTF) and the other guy did not even want to quote when I said I am not paying more than £80! cause it is a small area.... Where I live in Worcester the tradesmen just charge so much that I have to get people in from other parts of the country, for example my fire is being fitted by a guy in Manchester because it is cheaper for me to pay his time, van hire and petrol than pay anyone round here. My tiny bathroom has been a joke had 3 people over and £1k in labour) my garden patio came in at an average of £6k across 5 tradesmen, in the end I paid £2k and got some guys in from Birmingham. Now, my partner is a freelance hospital consultant he worked 9 years to become a GP then a consultant and some of the tradesmen I have got quotes from charge more money than he earns... he said he is not paying it. It is like people want nothing for nothing now days. The guys I know that live where I do who are roofers are wondering why people from Coventry are stealing their work - it's because they are use to earning lots of money for little work and people are not going to pay it anymore. I was also quoted £80 per sqm to tile my bathroom (labour only) £700!. Got a tiler in from Bham for £150 Sorry to moan I am all for paying a decent price but I am sick of people trying to rip me off. Please think of my post next time you quote.

 

[Dan]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

I've moved this to the Arms, and have granted you access to it bunny. You don't want to post that sort of stuff in the main forums really. This one the public can't view what you've written.

 

[Dan]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

lol - moved it back and ungranted you access - my bad - thought you were a tradesmen then when I quickly read the first bit

 

[Dan]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

If I were still tiling now, I'd work out what I want for the month to live happy, cover the bills, eat out the odd time, etc. Then that'd be what I wanted to earn minimum on average each month. It'd work out about £150 a dayish. Or 20 quid a meter tiled and grouted (but not supplying any materials - I mean just the labour) in a day we'd be talking me needing to cover about 8sqm a day on average.

So your 9sqm might have fell into two days and if it's bitty and needs prep work it might fall into 3 days.

Though you don't want just the cheapest tiler (or tradesmen) ever - you want the one that's doing the job right the first time.

£150 for 9 square meters (you'd be handling about 11.5 square meters of tiles minimum there) is a bit of a joke IMO. He's clearly not paying tax, probably came in a car not a van, definately wouldn't have anything sign-written, possibly free vistaprint business cards with mobile number only. I'd have probably not even let the guy in the house to be honest. (Only guessing all that there - he perhaps could have just done it all in 1 day maybe there)

 

[widler]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

although £300 is a tad much,£80 is not enough,and if someone rang me up and told me how much they would pay me i wouldent come out either:smilewinkgrin:
he has his van,fuel,insurence,his time coming to look at the job,going builders yard for gear ect ect

a small area will take just as long as a larger area or a few walls,setting times are more or less the same. he may even have to come back and skim it the day after.

also,the cheapest quote is not usually the best,you pay peanuts you will get a chimp:lol::lol:

saying that,some of your prices were a bit too much:yikes:

 

[Aston]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

hmmmm note to myself, must talk the wife into moving to worcester ;0)

£300 to plaster ( i take it you mean just to skim, not backing plaster then skim) is an absolute rip off.

it would still take a morning by the time he arrived, prep, set up etc so i wouldnt want to be paying more than £100 for that sized area.

plasterers are getting £1-50 pm2 for skimming on most sites now!!! every spread i speak to is saying the game is so damn hard this year and the money is a joke as so many people have saturated the market as boarders and skimmers... if i lived around your way, id do it on my way home for £80 and then the wife could take it straight out my hand to get her hair done or something riduclous like what women do....says me who'll buy a tool if you wave it under my snout ;0)

 

[Andy Allen]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

people quote what they need to do the job, certain areas are higher priced, due to the high end houses and clients, a tiler in london may quote twice as much as where i live in Gloucester due to his outgoings being a lot more than mine, if all the quotes in your area are coming out the same, then thats the going rate for your area, you either pay it, move house or get someone from miles away that you can get no local referances from and will proberly tell you where to go should you need any remedial work doing.

and as for your partner spending 9 yrs learning his job and earning x amount are you trying to say tradesmen should earn less? we spend alot of time perfecting our trade , and as such deserve a decent wage to.

 

[bunnycd]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

"and as for your partner spending 9 yrs learning his job and earning x amount are you trying to say tradesmen should earn less? we spend alot of time perfecting our trade , and as such deserve a decent wage to"

what I was trying to say is that the difference is that my partner has peoples lives in his hands everyday, if he makes a mistake then people die and he has to live with it for the rest of his life, which is one reason he is paid what he is, plus he spent £60k training which he is still paying back. These guys were quoting based on a salary of £78k per year, I guess £20k overheads that still means £58k per year which is more than my partner earns.
I did not mean any disrespect at all I appreciate that it takes years to become good at whatever you do.

 

[widler]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

hmmmm note to myself, must talk the wife into moving to worcester ;0)

£300 to plaster ( i take it you mean just to skim, not backing plaster then skim) is an absolute rip off.

it would still take a morning by the time he arrived, prep, set up etc so i wouldnt want to be paying more than £100 for that sized area.

plasterers are getting £1-50 pm2 for skimming on most sites now!!! every spread i speak to is saying the game is so damn hard this year and the money is a joke as so many people have saturated the market as boarders and skimmers... if i lived around your way, id do it on my way home for £80 and then the wife could take it straight out my hand to get her hair done or something riduclous like what women do....says me who'll buy a tool if you wave it under my snout ;0)

exactly mate,they aint plasterers. i wouldent get out of bed for £1.50,and nether would any plasterer i know.

so if the person in question rang you up and said,right ive got 4m2 of tiling to do,i will give you (£15 m2)£60,would you go and look,or even do it mate:smilewinkgrin:

 

[bunnycd]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

so if the person in question rang you up and said,right ive got 4m2 of tiling to do,i will give you (£15 m2)£60,would you go and look,or even do it mate:smilewinkgrin:

Personally for those people that bothered to turn up and do the job rather than mess about spending 2 hours here quoting (yes I had some of those) I have given them more work.. then I gave them even more work through friends so for one of the roofers £100 turned into £2k for one of my tradesman. In my view £60 is still a good wage for half a days work.

 

[kilty55]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

hi bunny,i think your quote for 300 fopr plastering and also 9 metres of tiling at 700 are a bit steep but the prices you wanted/got them done for were on the other hand too cheap

personally i dont think you should be comparing your husbands job and salary to anyone elses and quite frankly its a bit of an insult

how about i compare a soldiers salary to your husbands? 17 grand on the front line? maybe hubbys over paid after all?

:smilewinkgrin:

 

[widler]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

Personally for those people that bothered to turn up and do the job rather than mess about spending 2 hours here quoting (yes I had some of those) I have given them more work.. then I gave them even more work through friends so for one of the roofers £100 turned into £2k for one of my tradesman. In my view £60 is still a good wage for half a days work.

bunny,i aint having a go,but,everyone needs to earn a decent wage,i don't know how much work was involved,but a 4ft x 4ft room,or even a 4ft x4ft patch,i would want more,its a lot of messing about for nothing,and has for more work coming their way,thats like dangling a carrot,half of the time it comes to nothing

 

[bunnycd]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

hi bunny,i think your quote for 300 fopr plastering and also 9 metres of tiling at 700 are a bit steep but the prices you wanted/got them done for were on the other hand too cheap

personally i dont think you should be comparing your husbands job and salary to anyone elses and quite frankly its a bit of an insult

how about i compare a soldiers salary to your husbands? 17 grand on the front line? maybe hubbys over paid after all?

:smilewinkgrin:

Ok your right I should not compare my partners job with others. As for the army my friends who have entered did not have any formal qualifications and retired in his 30s with an army pension then he retrained as a bricklayer, they have a bigger house than us across the road (5 bed_)... plus £17k a year is quite allot of money for a 18 year old in this economic climate so I don't think you should knock it.

 

[Aston]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

yep, some good points made by kilty!!

this story comes to mind.... most of you will have heard it in one form or another..

theirs a a fault on a ships engine.
the captain calls out this specialist old timer who claims he can fix it.
the guy looks at the engine and says, yep, i can fix it, it'll be £1000
the captain says fine, just do it.
the old guy takes a screw driver out of his pocket and turns 1 screw to the left.
the engine starts working as normal again.
that'll be a £1000 says the old timer
the captain shouts, a £1000 for turning a screw!!!!!
the old timer says, No, its a £1000 for knowing which screw to turn ;0)

so i suppose we shouldnt put a price on something that we cant do ourselves?
and we shouldnt compare the value of somebodies skill compared to somebody elses, its all relevant isnt?

 

[kilty55]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

Ok your right I should not compare my partners job with others. As for the army my friends who have entered did not have any formal qualifications and retired in his 30s with an army pension then he retrained as a bricklayer, they have a bigger house than us across the road (5 bed_)... plus £17k a year is quite allot of money for a 18 year old in this economic climate so I don't think you should knock it.

was i knocking it? NO I WASNT
as you well know it was an example of why you shouldnt be comparing wages and jobs

17k for a young man to go and put his life on the line every day is a disgrace rwgardless of what pension isat the end of it