Plumber overcharging for parts?

Seronera

Cornucopia wrote: »

I'm not expecting them to do that. I'm expecting that a busy plumber will be going there a couple of times a week, anyway.

Also B&Q (or someone) would deliver it for that.

Can we establish, though, that no one thinks that a mark up of £380 is appropriate?

Well I've just done a quote to install three new radiators. I have added £15 on per radiator to cover collection (round trip of 30 miles) possibility of price changes, unforseen problems like opening one up and finding its dented, and having to swap it, and materials used in installation (small amount of pipework and fittings). Maybe it should be covered in the Labour charge, but that makes the Labour charge look too high, and seeing as I'm only adding the £15 to my trade cost they are still getting them way under retail.....not that anybody pays retail these days.

I'm just covering myself and I don't think I'm ripping anybody off doing that. I agree that taken to excess marking up is to be deplored.

Car parts are the worst. 20 years ago a mate in the car trade got me an exhaust system for an Escort I had. Trade price to him was £17. When I sneakily rang up to check how much of a favour he had done me I was quoted nearer £70.

P.S. I'm on holiday today.

missprice

Cornucopia wrote: »

I'm not expecting them to do that. I'm expecting that a busy plumber will be going there a couple of times a week, anyway.

Also B&Q (or someone) would deliver it for that.

Can we establish, though, that no one thinks that a mark up of £380 is appropriate?

I really don't know any plumbers that regularly use b and q, they all use plumbers merchants. No idea if merchants are cheaper/more expensive in general.

But the Loo/suite still has to be stored somewhere, unless its picked up on the day its needed. Which can bring other problems like bits missing, dents,scratches, chunks out of porcelain etc.
And yes to a point the mark up in this case seems excessive, but who are we to know what went on, maybe it was plumbers 16th trip to get the correct loo in a whole state. Its b and q after all.

B and q supplied our flat pack kitchen cupboards, 3 correct colored doors, 17 wrong colored doors, just how!

Cornucopia

Seronera wrote: »

They are in every trade and profession.

Yes, I'm sure that's true.

I've only ever called out 4 or 5 plumbers over 30 years of being a property owner and 15 years of being a landlord. I don't like doing it, and I would rather do a job myself, if I'm reasonably confident about it.

The rip-off plumber's job was to swap a broken bath mixer/shower tap for a new one, because the old one had broken. The property was already sold, so I didn't have time to go looking for quotes & recommendations (pre Internet-era).

He tried to charge me two call-outs for two visits, and time to fetch the tap on the second visit. Then he tried to charge me over the odds for an economy tap, and finally wanted to do some ludicrous rounding-up on his hours.

The worst thing was that when I tackled him on it, he got very aggressive and I ended up calling his company not so much to complain, but to set the record straight in case he made up something else, and to ask them to send me a proper invoice so I could challenge it, if necessary. (I imagine the whole thing was company policy, anyway).

He was still sitting in his van outside my place 30 minutes later, and when I went out to find out why, he apologised for his behaviour, and I gave him a cheque for a revised amount.

Cornucopia

missprice wrote: »

I really don't know any plumbers that regularly use b and q, they all use plumbers merchants. No idea if merchants are cheaper/more expensive in general.

Probably more expensive, though it may vary by product type. Screwfix are generally cheaper than B&Q (yes, I know they are the same company).

If the plumber had said: I really don't recommend using B&Q, but if you insist, I will charge additional labour to cover any repeat journeys, then I can see some merit there (but even then, not £380 worth).

ryder72

cornucopia - you say plumbers are in B&Q 2-3 times a week.

Wrong. No self respecting plumber buys anything from B&Q. They use proper plumbers merchants. But lets say there was one there 2-3 times a week, doing what? Gardening? He's there buying kit for customers. Are you saying he should do that in his own time?

I am not a plumber or a trade, but I accept that there is a cost to going to a supplier to order, collect and pay for goods and a markup will be put on. How much? OP accepted a quote (it appears). Its got to be paid. The time to negotiate is gone.

An acceptable markup is what one is willing to pay for it. Next time you feel you are being ripped off, think about the bottle of water you bought which contains about 0.01p worth of product 9.99p worth of packaging and gets sold for £1.50. If thats not rip off, what is?

Cornucopia

I'm not sure it matters whether it's actually B&Q, the point is that they ought to be picking up parts for 2, 3, 4 customers at the same time, and grabbing their breakfast from the catering van. Therefore the time taken to do that is shared.

The other thing is that I understood that fees of £70 per hour and upwards were to cover unproductive time. If it's not for that purpose, then I would want to negotiate down the hourly rate.

I've been trying not to say this, but I can resist it no longer: £70/hour is a vast amount to charge. (Yes, I know solicitors are even more). £70/hour is well over £100k per year, and whilst I may be obliged to pay that, I'm not going to tolerate any rip-offs alongside it. It's just not going to happen.

BTW, my typical choice of water in bottles is 16p from Aldi. I resist paying "opportunity cost" prices as far as I can. This is MSE, after all.

missprice

Cornucopia wrote: »

I'm not sure it matters whether it's actually B&Q, the point is that they ought to be picking up parts for 2, 3, 4 customers at the same time, and grabbing their breakfast from the catering van. Therefore the time taken to do that is shared.


I've been trying not to say this, but I can resist it no longer: £70/hour is a vast amount to charge.

How big a van do you think a plumber can have, just say the next four jobs are whole suites. How many baths can you fit in the back of a Renault van ( for eg)

Plus sink plus Loo plus fittings. Even one complete suite and random other items for jobs plus tools? No way.

£70 has to cover, holidays,tax, accountant, van and tools, fuel, training, myriad other things and make profit. Plumbers ( trades in general) are not charities.

Reece_

I'll say again that I think the mark up is steep but to suggest after the jobs been done and price was agreed before to start making offers on the cost is ridiculous, the OP should of done their homework and checked material costs prior to agreeing the quote.
You wouldn't get a few quotes for a job, employ the most expensive then once he/she's finished offer them the amount of the cheapest quote so why would this be any different?

As much as I'm sure they'd love to be earning 100k + a year you're not in the real world if that's what you think majority of plumbers are earning regardless of their hourly rate. Even the best plumber or whatever other trade may not have work every day. Your 100k soon goes down rapidly when there's a quiet week here and there, not to mention as someone else said that they have their own running costs, and then there's also the cases where they do a job and the customer doesn't want to pay the quoted amount such as this!

zax47

missprice wrote: »

How big a van do you think a plumber can have, just say the next four jobs are whole suites. How many baths can you fit in the back of a Renault van ( for eg)

Plus sink plus Loo plus fittings. Even one complete suite and random other items for jobs plus tools? No way.

£70 has to cover, holidays,tax, accountant, van and tools, fuel, training, myriad other things and make profit. Plumbers ( trades in general) are not charities.

Just look at Cornucopia's posting history - he's famous for begrudging a tradesman actually wanting to make a living - frequently neglecting all the costs involved in actually running a business and extrapolating £x/hour into some stupidly high amount per year to prove his (now getting very boring) point. Exactly the sort of holier-than-thou *&*^ of a customer I avoid going anywhere near..... :mad:

And breathe....

Cornucopia

zax47 wrote: »

Just look at Cornucopia's posting history - he's famous for begrudging a tradesman actually wanting to make a living - frequently neglecting all the costs involved in actually running a business and extrapolating £x/hour into some stupidly high amount per year to prove his (now getting very boring) point. Exactly the sort of holier-than-thou *&*^ of a customer I avoid going anywhere near..... :mad:

You're being over-sensitive.

I don't have a posting history of "being famous" for begruging anyone anything.

In fact, I'm pretty sure this is the first thread on the topic I've posted on.

As usual some people seem to have missed the title and purpose of the forum... Oh, and the title of the thread.

Please be less ridiculous in future.