Extra charges?

goodValue

After a boiler repair, I was surprised by the cost of spare parts.

Looking on a website, it appeared I had been charged about twice the published cost for each of the items.

There may have been delivery costs etc., but twice the cost sounds exorbitant.

Could there be some reason for this large difference?

Is it a common practice to inflate the cost of spares?

Can you not really rely on the prices you see quoted?

CliveOfIndia

The most obvious question is which website you looked at, and who manufactured the parts.

If the website you looked at was based in, say, Germany or China with a delivery time of several days or weeks, that probably would have not been much good to you - you wanted your plumber to get the parts from the local plumber's merchant and fit them immediately.

The parts themselves - it's the same as with buying car spares.  You can get genuine OEM parts, or you can get pattern copies which are much cheaper but are not always of the same quality.

It's not unreasonable for a plumber (or any tradesman) to make a bit of profit on the cost of parts, but they don't usually mark them up by much.

But I suspect that the most likely reason is that you're not comparing like with like, in terms of the manufacturer and/or quality of the parts.

goodValue said:

Can you not really rely on the prices you see quoted?

Did the plumber charge you the same amount in total as what he originally quoted?  If so then there's no problem.  Of course, he may have been very expensive compared to his competitors, but that's why it's always worth getting a couple of quotes beforehand for anything that's going to cost a reasonable amount.  If you agreed to the quote and he charged you what he quoted then you can't really argue about it after the fact.

grumbler

What's 'published cost'? Published by who?
Reason - greed and laziness. 
Common practice - yes. How much - depends on the above.

My friend needed a failed door lock cylinder removed and replaced. The price of a new cylinder was about £100 - dictated by the company that the locksmith worked for. Even the locksmith himself was ashamed of this price, offered  a temporary reclaimed cylinder for free and charged for the labor only. A new cylinder was about £25 in Screwfix and it took me 5 minutes to install it.

goodValue

The prices I saw were from:

https://www.gas-spares.co.uk/

Is this a reputable source of information?

I take the point about comparing like with like, but how do you find a reliable price for spares?

Is it only the tradesman that has access to this information?

I was without heating, the plumber did not give an exact figure, and I was just very relieved that 

he said he would fix it that very day.

His company had done an annual service for me previously, and they gave me a good impression at that time.

So I wasn't expecting any problems with them.

It was only because the main spare was 10-15% of the cost of a new boiler that gave me concern.

When I looked at the bill again, I could see that every item was a multiple of £5.

I could only think that they had done a rounding up as well as charging double for each of the spares.

grumbler

goodValue said:

The prices I saw were from:

https://www.gas-spares.co.uk/

Is this a reputable source of information?

I take the point about comparing like with like, but how do you find a reliable price for spares?

Define 'reliable'. They sell for these prices. What can be more reliable? Shop around for any specific part and you'll see higher and lower prices.

Is it only the tradesman that has access to this information?

What information?

I was without heating, the plumber did not give an exact figure, and I was just very relieved that he said he would fix it that very day.

That very day can be considerably more expensive if he didn't have the part in his van. He has to travel and can't shop around. Also, the more desperate you look, the more likely you are to get robbed.

ic

Have you been charged labour in addition to the charged cost of spare parts?  By getting your tradesman to supply the parts, they also are now responsible should they fail within whatever warranty period they've offered. 

If you'd purchased the parts, then employed the tradesman to fit - if they broke later, you'd need to arrange replacement parts and pay for all the labour involved (unless it was poor workmanship in fitting them that caused the failure).

Albermarle

Normally the plumber needs the parts the same/next day, and will contact  local distributors/stockists so they can go and pick one up. 
So you are paying their profit margin/costs for having items in stock and for having actual premises and staff on the counter.
Also the plumber ( and you) wants everything sorted pronto, so they will be happy for you to pay a higher price if it makes their life easier and the job done quicker.
.So probably more realistic to check the prices at a local store than on line, if you want see if there has been any marking up. 

goodValue

So, for specialist parts (for plumbers/electricians) it appears you cannot check the price, as local shops don't have the parts, and there could be any one of a number of problems getting a price from a website.

I take the point about there being extra costs, but still think doubling the price for a high-cost item is too much.

I think I was a bit gullible during the visit due to the stress of not having a working boiler. I forgot about

asking about guarantees/warranties, total price, payments, and any of the other questions you should ask.

twopenny

Maybe but many of us have been there. Emergency, someone can deal and you settle for to high a price.
Emergency, someone to sort it pronto. 
And you make a poor decision or at least you could have done better if it wasn't an emergency.

Don't be so hard on yourself.
You don't know what the tradesman had to do to get it fixed immediately but it could well have been he had to travel to get the parts and that's time.

I'm still irritated by a tree guy who took me for a plonker some decades ago. But the job was done.
My neighbour fell for too higher price to have some small branches lopped. Hopefully she'll pay me to do it for that price next year     

comeandgo

goodValue said:

So, for specialist parts (for plumbers/electricians) it appears you cannot check the price, as local shops don't have the parts, and there could be any one of a number of problems getting a price from a website.

I take the point about there being extra costs, but still think doubling the price for a high-cost item is too much.

I think I was a bit gullible during the visit due to the stress of not having a working boiler. I forgot about

asking about guarantees/warranties, total price, payments, and any of the other questions you should ask.

I used to work in a fashion shop, all items were 100% added to for sale price.  The shop had lots of overheads to pay, and my wages.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

would think if you used a local bloke, and he didn't have the part needed in the back of his van, he would need to go to Screwfix,  where he probably has a trade account, and gets discount.

So, that means running around to get the the part, time charged is not just for time 'on the job'.

So, you could've ordered a cheap part from China, no heating for maybe 3 weeks, but you saved money, would you be happy with that?