Overcharged

lisaloo1977

Hi,

Hope that someone may be able to help me out here.

I have been charged an amount for 16mm t&e cable over the last few years and have just found out it seems i was overcharged. Now to where i need help...

Can anyone give me the price of 16mm t&e cable in the 100m roll stats over the last three years. Or if anyone has any evidence of what it cost, or where i can find these stats?

The reason i am asking, is im being told price fluxuations, however im not convinced they have by the amount im being told.

I have myself gathered quotes at todays prices, from the likes of Stax, Screwfix and a local electrical wholesaler. I just need to see the difference.

Thank you so much in advance, i will be going down in the morning to get info from the above but really would be greatful if anyone could give me any ideas tonight.

lisaloo1977

Please anyone? Have i posted this in the wrong section/ If so please tell me and i will repost elsewhere.

Thanks.

Homersimpson

I've read your question and as I under stand it you have bought various quantities of 16mm2 T+E over a couple of years and have paid a price that you now think might have been excessive.

If thats the case then i'm not sure that anyone can give you that info and if they could i'm not sure what use it would be. If the supplier gave you a price at the time and you paid it then whether it was correct of 100% over priced I don't see how you would have any redress against the supplier.

I work in the electrical installation industry and we have standard pricing systems for budgeting projects (we use Spons at work but theirs at least one other called Luckins I think), these are generally fairly accurate for our purposes but wouldn't be much use for estimating. They only print one edition a year and cable prices can fluctuate wildly so I always get actual prices for large amounts of copper (upto 630mm2)

lisaloo1977

No,

Thank you so much for responding. It is not the actual supplier who i doubt, it is the person who has come with hands open saying electrics for this house is going to be xxxx. I was using the 16mm as an example, i just wanted to see if todays prices were so very different from the prices achieved in the last three years?

If i said that today i would get a price approx of £330 for 100 metres of the t&e, would the price have been much different during the last three years?

Thanks

Homersimpson

To give you some idea, I budgetted a small job recently based on very similar rates that I have been using for 2008/2009 and came to £133k. The actual tenders came back today at around £100k, you should be getting much better prices today than over the last few years even on smaller scale works.

Cable prices might have gone up but labour rates have dropped dramatically.

phill99

How can you have been overcharged? If a tradesman comes to you and says that cabe or sockets or whatever are priced at £x, then that is the price he is selling them to you at. That isn't the price he pays for them.

He will offset the running costs of the business against a mark up / margin on materials supplied. If he has had to buy materials, he needs to account for his time, fuel, overheads etc while he is doing this on your behalf. Therefore, don't expect to pay your tradesman what he pays his supplier.

lisaloo1977

The guy in question worked for us, was paid a very good weekly wage for over 3 years to run things and keep the site running.

He lied about the pricing up of the wiring, and whilst this is my fault for being busy with other things, i am now finding it hard to swallow a 15k+ plus shortfall. He has accepted what he has done, he knows it is wrong all i am asking is if anyone has the price of the particular material in the years from 2008 to now.

He does not need to account for fuel, time or overheads all of them were already covered by me, including a company vehicle.

This is my fault for trusting someone and believe me a lesson has been learnt. I just wondered if anyone had access to any personal invoices to obtain prices from, or prices from the previous 3 years to see if prices had indeed dropped by the amount he has claimed. The labour part is not included, we are talking materials only. He did not do any labour, he was purely paid to organise materials and manage the site. He has not obtained materials at a special price reserved for tradesman, all enquires i have made since finding this info out have shown i could have achieved the same prices.

My crime was running a second business and having my first son, i didnt leave my business in charge of someone else during this period, i did however trust someone who i classed as a very good friend and when they quoted a price i stupidly believed them.

bengalknights

Hi,

These were average prices my employees sold T&E 16mm 3 Core 6242YH(based on reports i still have sitting on my pc).This does include the significant discounts that are given to large clients as well as standard branch sales which are higher priced.

2008 - £3.13 per metre
2009 - £2.81 per metre
Current year £2.37 per metre

I wont give the monthly breakdown as its a fairly large report but the prices have been coming down alot.

Homersimpson

Sounds like a big job if it took 3 years.

You could try the london metals exchange and look at price trends, however actual cable prices tend to lag behind the price of the raw materials.

I'm afraid copper cable is at a peak at the moment, weve had it stolen from a few jobs recently and the number of electrical faults caused by copper thefts from DNO substations is on the rise because of its value.

Even if you can prove that 16mm2 T+E is 25% more now than two years ago I dont know what you intend to achieve with this data as the cable has been bought and installed and no supplier in their right mind will refund anything now.

Fo info I bought some 16mm2 T+E for a friend a few months back to do some house bashing and it was around £2.5-£3 m +vat

lisaloo1977

:T

bengalknights wrote: »

Hi,

These were average prices my employees sold T&E 16mm 3 Core 6242YH(based on reports i still have sitting on my pc).This does include the significant discounts that are given to large clients as well as standard branch sales which are higher priced.

2008 - £3.13 per metre
2009 - £2.81 per metre
Current year £2.37 per metre

I wont give the monthly breakdown as its a fairly large report but the prices have been coming down alot.

Thank you so much, appreciated :T:T

lisaloo1977

Homersimpson wrote: »

Sounds like a big job if it took 3 years.

You could try the london metals exchange and look at price trends, however actual cable prices tend to lag behind the price of the raw materials.

I'm afraid copper cable is at a peak at the moment, weve had it stolen from a few jobs recently and the number of electrical faults caused by copper thefts from DNO substations is on the rise because of its value.

Even if you can prove that 16mm2 T+E is 25% more now than two years ago I dont know what you intend to achieve with this data as the cable has been bought and installed and no supplier in their right mind will refund anything now.

Fo info I bought some 16mm2 T+E for a friend a few months back to do some house bashing and it was around £2.5-£3 m +vat

It was not one single job it was 8 jobs. I aim to prove that he has ripped us off, that he has overcharged beyond making a few quid. I have things that stand to my advantage in this whole situation, but i would just like to be able to be sure of the extent of the situation/figures before i start moving forward.

Thanks for all the help. Lesson learnt, big time.