Moral dilemma

GEEGEE8

£20 will buy him a few beers down the pub tonight, I'm sure he won't be that mad.

If he did just flick a few switches, then £20 sounds reasonable, not £60!

Think of it this way, you just saved yourself £40, better in your pocket than his!

tbw

Nicky, don't knock yourself out over this - its really his mistake for misleading you slightly/not being upfront about his minimum charge.

You were under the impression he was coming to give you a quote - and, for all the work I've had done at my house, quotes have always been provided free of charge. You were not being unreasonable in that assumption.

If he felt that a quote was not a practical option for such a minor 'quick fix' and that he was going to charge you his minimum rate, then he should have told you so before ever he started fiddling with the switches. He didn't tell you, he went ahead and did something you had not agreed to pay for and he's lucky you even gave him £20! Put it out of your mind - but if the boiler starts rumbling again, I would choose a different firm to fix it ! (And, get a FIRM quote - having first checked that quotes are given free of charge!)

ziggyman99

A quote for a boiler repair? I wouldn't. I got caught out with that before. You tell them what the fault is and they get their 'have-a-go' DIY mate to fix it. Plus, you give a quote on a £60 boiler repair and you don't get the job.
People just don't realise how much it costs a gas engineer in expenses before he even leaves home.

His Gas Safe Registration £175+vat per year
Van insurance £400/500 per year
Third Party liability insurance £400/500 per year
Acountants fees £40-80 per month
Vehicle running costs £150 per month (at least)
Gas exams £800 -1000 every 5 yrs
Tools £30 per month
Adertising £1000 to "skys the limit" every year
Phone calls £40 -80 per month
Work wear, the out of season months when he could be earning next to nothing, a rainy day fund for when he's ill, etc, etc, etc.


£60 is perfectly acceptable. More than I would charge but reasonable.

RobertoMoir

Torby wrote: »

you say "What is another company came around and said you need x, y & z and that will be £300?"...simple get another quote...if it was in the realms of £300 to fix yet he did it by flicking a couple of switches...another £300 cowboy bites the dust...if it genuinely takes £300...so be it..

Not that I would suggest that the work described here by the OP is worth £300, but if its outside of our realm of expertise then how can any of us judge if "pushing a few buttons" is worth £300 or not?

Equaliser123

So if he didn't fix it but said it will cost £300 - and then came back and just "flicked a few switches" - you'd be happy to pay £300?

tbw

ziggyman99 wrote: »

A quote for a boiler repair? I wouldn't. I got caught out with that before. You tell them what the fault is and they get their 'have-a-go' DIY mate to fix it. Plus, you give a quote on a £60 boiler repair and you don't get the job.
People just don't realise how much it costs a gas engineer in expenses before he even leaves home.

His Gas Safe Registration £175+vat per year
Van insurance £400/500 per year
Third Party liability insurance £400/500 per year
Acountants fees £40-80 per month
Vehicle running costs £150 per month (at least)
Gas exams £800 -1000 every 5 yrs
Tools £30 per month
Adertising £1000 to "skys the limit" every year
Phone calls £40 -80 per month
Work wear, the out of season months when he could be earning next to nothing, a rainy day fund for when he's ill, etc, etc, etc.


£60 is perfectly acceptable. More than I would charge but reasonable.

You may not give a quote but I guess you are upfront with the customer about that. This guy seems to have said he would give a quote and then didn't - just went ahead and charged her a sum which she had not been given the chance to agree to.

ziggyman99

tbw wrote: »

You may not give a quote but I guess you are upfront with the customer about that. This guy seems to have said he would give a quote and then didn't - just went ahead and charged her a sum which she had not been given the chance to agree to.

Yes i'm up front, but there's always 2 sides to a story and we don't know the other side of this.

RobertoMoir

Equaliser123 wrote: »

So if he didn't fix it but said it will cost £300 - and then came back and just "flicked a few switches" - you'd be happy to pay £300?

If that's a reply to me then I said pretty clearly that I didn't think the work described here would be worth £300. Depending on the details of the "press a few buttons", I can see where the £60 might have come from, though the plumber clearly shouldn't have done the work without quoting for it first.

I can tell you that my "private consultancy rate"* to look at computer network problems at the weekend makes that £300 look like a bargain, and most of what a computer 'person' does could be described by a layman as "pressing a few buttons, maybe plugging in a few wires".

(* not that I expect to get this rate, frankly. I just want to be left the hell alone at weekends with regards to anything that looks like work, so I price my time accordingly).

tbw

ziggyman99 wrote: »

Yes i'm up front, but there's always 2 sides to a story and we don't know the other side of this.

Thats true - but, unless the OP is lying in her back teeth, it was agreed that he would 'pop round and give a price for the job'. He appears to have just gone ahead and done it and only mentioned price afterwards.

To be honest, if somebody came to quote a job for me and all they did was flick a couple of switches up and down, it probably wouldn't register with me that they were actually fixing the job! I would have assumed that was part of 'assessing the problem' and I would still be standing there like a lemon waiting for the guy to say 'I'll do the repair for £x...'!

woody01

OP...did you know what switches needed flicking.
If not, pay the man for his knowledge.