Price check please, NI sparks in particular.

[Phil Thompson]

I have a customer who has questioned/insulted my price on completion of work plus extras.

Basically I was asked to wire an electric shower, it's for a rental upstairs flat, I suggested they add a smoke and heat detector in, the board was old bs3036 and I suggested instead of spending on an RCD protected shower board that they go for a new AMD3 board. Hager board with 7 circuits. X1m of 3 colours of 16mm tails.

Escos x3 there already,

Run for shower was almost 20m of 10mm2 T&E, Smoke run was about 17.5m.
2 lengths of 38x19 sticky back trunking used.
Also a cooker connection plate and a pvc surface box.



Extras on the job were as follows:-

Client decided to get new kitchen fitted and required cooker switch and double socket to be moved 1 metre to the left and joiner boarded the wall,
so 1x1g and 1x2g dry liners used though wall had to be tracked to allow them to fit, they supplied the socket face i supplied the cooker switch, also replaced another socket face they supplied, and a water heater switch i supplied,

supplied 1x pvc surface box to replace a dry liner that was sitting surface but unfixed to wall, and reconnected single socket.

put plug top on a fridge,

Connected oven and hob, oven flexed, hob needed 1.5m of 6.0mm t&e

Fitted 5 lights supplied by customer, plus supply 4x Bell GU10 5w lamps,

I had quoted £575-600 originally to his girlfriend and she was happy and as the cooker connection plate was done and 4 of the lights were requested I was looking to go with £600, and out of that £600 I was going to be paying £120 for an eicr for them due to it being a rental, being done by a 3rd party.

I asked for £150 for the rest of the extras, which I thought was pretty cheap.
So £750 total was asked for this evening.

On completion the client tried to say I had quoted them £275 for the original work, of the shower, smokes and consumer unit replacement, I was literally gobsmacked and they said they were thinking it would be about £450 total with the extras.

The guy literally has stated that he wants me to break down everything I did, and he will pay me a fair wage, but that he's not going to have the wool pulled over his eyes.

Though I'm starting to feel I've been set up the more I think about it.


Not sure how to proceed with this, my initial thoughts was just to say look I'll drop to £630 for everything but no eicr. As I won't need to pay that £120 out. Second thought is to just do small claims court.

However I think he's expecting me to break down all materials and labour etc and by sounds of his fair wage comments he's gonna try and reduce my labour to nothing.

Really disgusted to be honest and apologies for the long drawn out post but can't sleep as it's annoyed me that much, any advice & prices from others would be helpful, especially @Risteard if you don't mind, being in NI and able to do eicr directly I'd be interested in know your approx price and to see if I was too expensive or not.

Job layout, Consumer unit at front door, trunking up staircase to loft and through loft to bathroom at far end and shower mounted on stud wall, smoke alarm in small hall just outside bathroom and heat detector along the way between kitchen and living area.

 

[Risteard]

No problem Phil - just to clarify are you asking what I would charge for an EICR or for the full works mentioned including the EICR?

 

[timbobelfast]

Sounds a fair price to be honest. Unfortunately you have a chance here. If a break down of your invoice helps then I would consider doing it maybe? Small claims might be the way forward if he doesn't play ball.

 

[Lee42]

I agree
Sounds a fair price.
Did you just give a verbal price?

 

[Octopus]

Did you provide a written estimate or quote before you started?

If not, you won't make that mistake again..

 

[Midwest]

Seems fair to me as well, even a bit on the low side? That said, I can't quite follow what you've done and the consequential figure you've come up with. Perhaps your client has the same problem.

If it means you getting paid, I would break down my invoice, although not pricing for each socket etc.

When I do extras or work I'm unable to establish cost, like some kitchen refurbs', where you don't know what's going to be revealed, I quote the customer an hourly rate + materials. Then invoice them for the hours done each day. Perhaps do a breakdown, something like that?

 

[sparksburnout]

Here is my tip for the future:
Dear Mr Tightarse
Nice to meet you earlier and thank you for inviting me to quote for the work you require. Following our discussions, to undertake the following:
1. XXXXX
2. YYYYY
3. ZZZZZ
My price would be ££££
Any additional work not mentioned either today or subsequently will be charged at ££/hour plus any parts supplied by myself. Parts not supplied by myself will not be warranted by me and may incur future costs if they subsequently fail.
Could you please indicate your acceptance of this quotation in the form of a return email.
Your Faithfully
Brighter Sparks.

 

[The Ghost]

From what I can glean from your description £750 sounds low, but most certainly fair. I would not budge from that price. Write out as @sparksburnout suggested the bill and ask for any balance to be settled. But sadly this all smacks of a similar situation I found myself in. Being set up. I think some people are "professional" welchers on debt and do this knowing exactly what they are doing. In my case I cancelled all charges and just let it go (£600 odd) I just was not prepared to play their mind games. I am getting better at sniffing such customers out.

 

[Phil Thompson]

No problem Phil - just to clarify are you asking what I would charge for an EICR or for the full works mentioned including the EICR?

For the full job please @Risteard if you don't mind.

This job was for a friend of a friend, so was verbal agreement, basically I said £250 for shower, and normally £350 for board change, but if they got both I could knock £100 off, and then the smoke and heat detector, so I said price would be £575-600 for everything, on arrival they asked for 4 lights to be put up and ceiling roses taken down(only did 1 light as others had missing parts, and I put a 1g surface box and cooker connection plate on, as cable coming out of wall was too short to suit junction box, that was estimated at 2 full days .

So was going to go with £600 for original works, of which £120 was to go to 3rd party for an EICR, which I would be there to assist on, the rest was done yesterday, 1hr in morning to track wall and join cables so wall could be plasterboarded and tiled on, and a couple of hours last night to fit other 4 lights and do rest of stuff on original post list

 

[mhar]

I would be inclined to do an itemised bill where the sum of all the individual items quite significantly exceeds the amount you have asked for

 

[Phil Thompson]

I just got a quotation from wholesaler for all materials, at my discount rate, added on 20% mark up for warranty work, 20hrs labour @£25 an hour and £120 for the EICR and total comes to £1012 and change. Almost 35% higher than I requested.

So I'm going to break down the entire bill as suggested and go from there. And see what he says at that.

 

[sparksburnout]

so was verbal agreement

Here endeth the final lesson.

 

[Midwest]

PS don't let the bar stewards get you down

 

[Phil Thompson]

Here endeth the final lesson.

Didn't give written estimate as was a friend of a friend, usually do, but won't be making that mistake again.
Lesson well and truly learnt.

 

[123]

£750 is far too cheap, as you have already worked out.

A friend of a friend...so you don't know them then. I'd have treated them as a normal customer, written quote etc and no favours on the rates.

BTW They don't sound like a friend of a friend, they sound like typical landlords!

 

[Leader]

I'm not an expert but I was totting it up in my head as I read through and came to £750 as a conservative figure. So yes he's trying to pull a fast one, but some payment is better than none so sometimes you have to just get as much as you can and leave it behind.

 

[Risteard]

Sorry Phil for the delay getting back to you as have been working nights, but sounds like the best part of a grand's worth of work to me. You definitely haven't overcharged.

 

[bigspark17]

You cannot issue an eicr for a board change.
Price sounds really low. Just bill them your hours & materials(plus mark up) & hold your ground!

 

[Phil Thompson]

Thanks Risteard, got sorted and 3 apologies lol

@bigspark17 the eicr was being done by a 3rd party for the entire flat as it's going to be a rental and had sat empty for a time before the current owners bought it at auction along with 2 commercial premises below and beside it.

 

[123]

Just curious Phil, why did EICR go through a 3rd party?