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Mrs Tara Plumbi

This is what we say:
"We're booked up with work for months so we are not too expensive, we may be out of your budget.
You say you had another quote and it is significantly cheaper.
Have you thought perhaps the other quote is too cheap?
Why not phone them and ask them how come they are so cheap."

Recently we had such a call.
We didn't drop the price at al.
And we did get the job!
 
I normally say 'no problem, hope you get sorted'. Then they will start on with the dropping the price etc. At which point they get a 'goodbye'. Anybody chewing on about the price before you start is going to be a real pain at the end of the job when you want your money.
 
When faced with this i never drop the price, as that proves you have over priced it in the first place! but i ALWAYS leave a business card, and say "just in case the cheap guy won't come back to fix the problems"
 
We've had customers come back saying they've had a much cheaper quote. Sometimes it's firms 'buying in' work to keep their blokes going, other times the firm has missed something minor such as boilers or pipework :lol:. Had one customer accepted a quote from a new firm which was 2/3 ours, then came back to us before the job was 1/4 done as the other lot had gone bust!
 
We have something similar


when they rings and ask us to lower our price as they've had a cheaper quote , I say yea course no problem where would you like me to save the cost

on materials or the quality of our work.


ooo no I want them as per your quote


well you have our price then


id say 80-90% go with us
 
This is a difficult point because I hate having to haggle but depending on what it is I will haggle, this is very hypocritical.

I will haggle over the price of a car or if I am in a shop, buying a new tv, I will haggle over luxury items.

I also search the internet for cheaper prices then go to the shop armed with this information, I explain that, I understand that the local shop can't match the internet price but I ask how close can they get to it!

This is all done with good humour and in person, never on the phone! your approach and character don't come across on the phone but do in person.

The last time this happened to me I asked to see the other quote, it was a bathroom, I had taken the side panel off of the bath it had been leaking and the floor needed to be replaced, the other quote hadn't taken this into account, I explained this to the customer and they said they'd go for the cheaper quote. I wished them all the best and left.

I think for me its the way the conversation/haggle is conducted, in an aggressive manner "your ripping me off" or "Mate, help me out a bit,"

Its easy to compare a tv, I want a Sony 32 CDI, I can get it for ÂŁ400 incl delivery. You have a place to start.

This job is different: I quote for a glow worm, you quote is for a WB, I quote for plastic pipe, you quote for copper, all most people look at is the bottom figure.... they don't know the difference (or care) whether its a WB or Ariston, they all do the same.........

People begrudge paying for boilers etc, they are not glamourous there shiny new is, "look at my shiny new mercedes everyone, look how well I am doing" not the same if you say to someone "look at my shiny new boiler, heats the water in seconds, the heating is lovely, my radiators are really shiny"

I try not to take this personally or as an attack on me but it is difficult.
 
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Used before on the Forum, but still a goodie:

RedAdair.jpg
 
It depends on the job. If its 50 quid on a boiler change then I might listen. If its a fiver on a toilet siphon then they can poke it!
 
HAd a production manager guy from a factory wanting a refrb n the restroom - put in a quote - he rang me up saying he had a budget of x amount and my quote was about ÂŁ200 over that - could i do anything like use cheaper materials ?

From his tone I knew he wanted to give me the job so i said I'd se what i Could do. So i managed to squeeze a bit out of the merchant and dropped my labour by ÂŁ70. He was made up I still used as stuff and didn't really lose much
 
ÂŁ70 on a +ÂŁ3k job is worth it least he let me know but I guess it wasn't his money
 
ÂŁ70 on a +ÂŁ3k job is worth it least he let me know but I guess it wasn't his money

More often than not though a little wheeling and dealing like that leads to more work in the future which more than pay's back that ÂŁ70
 
don't mind haggling as long as I still get a good day rate, usually its the materials they cut back on, less tiles, cheaper bath etc, but If somebody is blatantly taking the mick then I will walk away. had a quote the other day, custard said "your young" as soon as I walked in, moaned about my phone manner asked how much and when I gave a rough price she said "your the same price as British Gas" I was so shocked I didn't know what to say, but should of said "go and get a quote from BG" I quoted ÂŁ4000 in the end, well over my estimate as definitely didn't want that job...
 
Farmers ar the worst for haggling! never had one not doing it yet , or they say "how much for cash then" after you name your price, to which i reply with a smile "that price was for cash" , that usually ends it!
 
Always add a bit on for farmers. Then give them half of what you added. There happy, your happy sorted.
 
Farmers ar the worst for haggling! never had one not doing it yet , or they say "how much for cash then" after you name your price, to which i reply with a smile "that price was for cash" , that usually ends it!

Farmers are terrible like! They claim poverty! You always see them in nice machinery an that! I was with a heating firm and did a big job for a farmer, he agreed a price and we did the work, I found out a few week later they where refusing to pay the full amount!
 
on any bigger job I do an estimate and get customer to sign agreement for work to go ahead and cancellation procedure if less than 7 days cooling off period and work is starting. Its a door to door salesman type agreement as required now for all of us under trading standards requirements and if the blighters then refuse payment etc youve got a simple contract with their signature to use in court process and your ahead of the game already.
 
and when I gave a rough price she said "your the same price as British Gas" I was so shocked I didn't know what to say, ..

We get similar on the phone...They've called Heateam, WB , BG or who ever and then they call us and tell me on the phone that that other company are too expensive. That i why they are calling us. I reassure them that we will almost certainly charge a similar price and might charge more!
Why assume we will be cheaper? Our materials may well cost more than those big firms.
 
This is a difficult point because I hate having to haggle but depending on what it is I will haggle, this is very hypocritical.

I will haggle over the price of a car or if I am in a shop, buying a new tv, I will haggle over luxury items..........
I think for me its the way the conversation/haggle is conducted, in an aggressive manner "your ripping me off" or "Mate, help me out a bit,"....

I think you make some good points.
Actually we do "help out" customers who seem like they will be nice to work for but can't afford the higher prices.

No-one wants to spend money on new heating - that would just be just strange!

Most of our work is bathrooms and general house renovations - these are luxuries to some extent -
I think some if the "your too expensive" comments come because people don't realise just How expensive these things are and then are not comparing like with like when they get a cheaper quote.

For the most part I don't think we can just slice off a chunk off the profit when we send out a quote for ÂŁ10,000 bathroom - as other have said we would have to change the quality of the materials - which can easily be achieved but customers rarely do that - if anything they usually end up spending more.

Perhaps we price things too low! :)
 
The most important part of what you are posting about is really - THE DEPOSIT !

For new domestic customers and small commercials I always write a contract and
have a deposit up front - boilers can cost ÂŁ1000 - I dont leave them in peoples
homes without some commitment from them.

Its the best way - a deposit is a legal agreement for my outfit to complete
and the customer to pay the final - it also gets them into the idea that
we are working together - and real money has to change hands

Its just our way - under ÂŁ300 no but above ALWAYS

centralheatking
 
I have been known to drop ÂŁ500 over a ÂŁ7500 luxury bathroom ONCE then I got home and KICKED THE CAT and had a think and got it all back in spades on extras
More often than not though a little wheeling and dealing like that leads to more work in the future which more than pay's back that ÂŁ70
 
if the house isnt that nice, old tv, old clothes ect ect and you can see they are struggling i usually go a bit cheaper, because they are allways repairs , bursts leaks ect, i just cut ÂŁ20 off for example, then the next huge house i get a bathroom job and a nice bmw outside and a huge plasma in the living room i just charge them a bit more!
 
if the house isnt that nice, old tv, old clothes ect ect and you can see they are struggling i usually go a bit cheaper, because they are allways repairs , bursts leaks ect, i just cut ÂŁ20 off for example, then the next huge house i get a bathroom job and a nice bmw outside and a huge plasma in the living room i just charge them a bit more!

and guess which one will pay up immediately or before the jobs finished, not the beemer owner but those that are struggling along, so I dont mind doing a deal for people like that:)
 
We but this on are adds

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten

Says it all and filters out the divs you never wanted to work for anyway
 
WOW! Appreciate and understand the views expressed here about not dropping your prices or being asked to haggle in order to get the work but I'm shocked at the general attitude revealed in these posts towards your customers. Not all of us are tight devils looking for someone to work for slave wages .... but it seems, judging from this thread, that there exists in the plumbing world a widely held pre-conceived notion that the customer is in some way mentally deficient, naturally deceitful and an overall thoroughly bad lot. Heart warming!
Thanks for the 'heads up', I'll now treat all future contacts with the plumbing fraternity with a great deal more suspicion than has been my practice up to now.
 
WOW! Appreciate and understand the views expressed here about not dropping your prices or being asked to haggle in order to get the work but I'm shocked at the general attitude revealed in these posts towards your customers. Not all of us are tight devils looking for someone to work for slave wages .... but it seems, judging from this thread, that there exists in the plumbing world a widely held pre-conceived notion that the customer is in some way mentally deficient, naturally deceitful and an overall thoroughly bad lot. Heart warming!
Thanks for the 'heads up', I'll now treat all future contacts with the plumbing fraternity with a great deal more suspicion than has been my practice up to now.

Are you reading the same thread? Where did a terrible attitude towards customers arise? You seem to labour under the impression we work for the love of the job.

We don't. There's insurances, trade registrations, tool upkeep, van upkeep, ongoing training, fuel, tax, registration body fees and so on. That's before we can consider our wages.

Please post up where you live as you actually drop into the small bracket of customers you describe us as viewing all customers.

And your first post too, digging up an old thread. Hmmmm.......
 
i dropped my price for my girlfriends mate other daymoved some rads for here so drained system and refilled checked all rads and off i went ,

later that eve she phoned said i missed a rad and it was cold and she didnt know what to do so tried to explain and got no where .

so today i go back a 35 mile trip to do this no extra charge and price was cheap in first instance ,if i charged full rate i'd be happier but hey ho it happens no complaining to much
 
and guess which one will pay up immediately or before the jobs finished, not the beemer owner but those that are struggling along, so I dont mind doing a deal for people like that:)

Just finished my 2nd job for a really nice lady who lives in an estate in Lincoln that is known for being rather deprived to say the least. The lady is riddled with arthritis but couldn't be nicer. She has tipped me more in tips than all my other customers in the last year combined.

I am starting to agree that those with money are the least generous tbh.
 
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