Fit single pendant light

edinburgher

Cost to fit single pendant light (Glasgow). I believe existing wiring was there, as builder had existing pendant light removed but wouldn't reinstate as "wasn't on the plans" - £290, electrician arrived 4pm or later and was finished within a few hours.

Am I right to feel like a mug?

FreeBear

If the cables were already in place, fitting a pendant is, at most, a 20 minute job.

A few hours suggests either extra work was involved (i.e. running new cables), or he was scratching body parts & filling time. Assuming the former, £290 may well be reasonable, but I don't know what the going rate is for an electrician in Glasgow. Even if it is the going rate, I'd be miffed at paying that much for a simple job.

macman

So how long is 'a few hours'? Presumably, when you booked him, you asked what his callout charge or hourly rate was, and how long it might take?

binao

Say 3 hours, so £100 per hour. 

Cash ?

Susan1942

I had an electrician put up two ceiling lights and two wall lights. It was simply changing them over. He sent me the cost on  messenger £260 There was no timing no actual bill or VAT.
I told him I didn't expect it to cost so much. He had done some work for my daughter.
He asked me how much I wanted to pay. He then messaged to say I didn't need to pay anything. I said absolutely not 
I live in Harrogate so I looked at.the hourly rate of a electrician. Was £30-50 
He had been here for just over 2 hours. I paid him £180 which I thought was plenty. No materials were used.
There were other things I wanted done but I would not use him. I think he is an engineer rather than just an electrician. He seems to have worked abroad a lot.
I had another electrician to do the work and got his bill in the post yesterday £181 including VAT.
I am very happy with that.

ss2020jd

That sounds very expensive, even for a city. I know my electrician said it would work out cheaper for me to have an electrician there for half a day and do several fittings at once. I just checked the invoice and it was £30 per hour - total charge was £120 for fitting seven wall lights, and one large ceiling fitting/multi-pendant. The wires were all there and there were just bulbs with basic plastic rose fittings that the previous owners left when they removed their light fittings.
 

Risteard

To be blunt an Electrician charging £30/hour in this day and age is undercharging, regardless of location. It is in no way a realistic expectation.

ss2020jd

Risteard said:

To be blunt an Electrician charging £30/hour in this day and age is undercharging, regardless of location. It is in no way a realistic expectation.

I did think it was extremely reasonable so did give a bit extra as a tip and kept the tea and biscuits flowing. That was early this year so suspect prices have gone up. They had done a bit of work for me before and I was very impressed so got them back.