Pricing!

[Welshsparky]

Quoted a shower installation

16 meter run of 10mm , pull switch in bathroom with an Rcbo installed in consumer unit as rcd side is full ( plumber supplying shower ) quoted £185 and have pretty much been called a con artist is this right!?

Quoted a EICR at £130 for a 3 bed , told by customer that she'd had a quote at £85 !!

very disheartening

 

[Guest55]

theres always someone more desperate & cheaper im afraid
all part of the devaluing of the electrical sector.

 

[rytech]

As biff55 says, I think the electrical installation & maintenance trade is absolutely saturated full of people calling themselves qualified electricians after completing a week long course and then being desperate for work just quoting jobs ridiculously cheap! And also customers these days are tending to just go for the cheapest quote rather than the reasonably priced quote that will offer them good workmanship and honest information. But I guess there's not a lot we can do until like the dirt cheap guys we get desperate!

 

[rmc86uk]

So about 70 quid for materials plus your labour and and testing. Sounds like a good price but someone down the pub will do it in 6mm on a 60898 circuit breaker and no cert.

 

[Englishman]

You're very cheap IMO, in these situations, there is nothing you, or any of us, can do except stand by our quote. Let anyone do it for pittance.

 

[dcelectrical]

our industry is also suffering from this nasty tactic of get in there on the cheap and then hit them up.

over the last 3 or 4 years i have quoted umpteen rewires that have been rejected on 2 to 3k price differences and i have found on several of them that they have ended up paying more than my initial quote.

i view this as really bad practice but it comes down from the large companies, during my time at NORLAND i learned that maint. contracts were actually lossing money and they made the money up on the pricework and emergencies.

no wonder we are in the poo

 

[Englishman]

I'm sorry, but why would you even think about quoting just £130 for an eicr on a 3 bed house? How long would you give yourself for that?

Quoting that, you're part of the problem with undercutting.

 

[Welshsparky]

Part of the problem ? Its a 5 way board , how could I possibly charge anymore ?

 

[Englishman]

3 bed occupied house at £130 is cheap IMO, what sort of time would you allocate there?

 

[Welshsparky]

Who told you the house is occupied? And without seeing the house yourself how can you possibly tell me that price is too cheap? Please enlighten me , believe me i price the job on what the job is worth .. no more.. no less

 

[Welshsparky]

I wouldn't allocate a time , I'd finish when I finish

 

[Heisenberg]

3 bed occupied house at £130 is cheap IMO, what sort of time would you allocate there?

As Taff has said, it very much depends on what 'Extent and Limitations' have been agreed with the customer, until you know that you can't possibly know if £130 is cheap or even overpriced :greedy:

 

[Misshazhard]

Keep quoting as you are, there are still people out there that are willing to pay for a bit of quality

 

[Welchyboy1]

I wouldn't allocate a time , I'd finish when I finish

That would be nice, i do try to stay in a rough timescale though

I normally charge £100 per half day plus £50 for paperwork, i doubt my quote would of been more than £150 (+ vat) for a 3 bed house, unless i came across a real big mess, if it went much over that then it would mean remedial work were probably needed and i would put the additional time on top of the remedial quote

however i still dont win lots of eicrs at that price, wont go no lower(essex area)


i could easily put together a decent eicr in half a day on ahouse that size

within reason everyone has different work speeds and methods

 

[Englishman]

Who told you the house is occupied? And without seeing the house yourself how can you possibly tell me that price is too cheap? Please enlighten me , believe me i price the job on what the job is worth .. no more.. no less

I assumed mate, apologies if I was wrong with that. Empty (completely) properties are a piece of **** but still take in the region of 3-3.5 hours for me; occupied properties could easily take 5 hours.

To me, I'll always work out roughly how long a job should take me and then quote hours x hourly price (not broken down to that, just a price) with a bit added on, and generally do alright. I just think that £135 is very cheap but that may just be your area, I work surrey/London most of the time so will inevitably be more than Wales.

 

[happyhippy68]

Average price where I am is around £120+VAT for an EICR on a three bed property with one consumer unit. There are some doing it cheaper and i heard of one guy doing a test at £70.00+Vat. How can you make a living at that price? I would like to see some of these cheaper tests in progress. I agree with the other posts here, stick to your price and let the customer have it done cheaper else where.

I include a letter with my quotes pointing out what the competing quotes should include and what the customer should be asking for such as registration details etc. This puts these requirements in the customers mind and of course as you have shown all this evidence they already know you will do it properly.

We are all customers for someone and we all love a bargain. It just takes a bit of education to get our customers to understand that cheapest is not always best option when it comes to electrical installation work.

 

[imago]

It doesn't always work like that, sometimes a customer is interested in quality and standards. I went to look at a job yesterday, install a new feed for a cooker and run in some CAT 6 data points. The oven coming out is gas, the new one is a 6.8kW electric oven. 8 metre run to the isolator, no issues with access. He also asked about a possible CU change.

I looked at the board and the head/meter is on the other side of the wall about a metre away. In place of the tails there's a 10mm T&E. I asked about other loads and they have electric underfloor heating plus the usual. I explained that the cable was too small to be used for tails and why. Ran through the usual dual RCD v RCBO or combination options. He wants an RCBO board with tails upgraded as the preferred option.

Some customers are cottoning onto the fact that the price is only one part of the job.

 

[thomas-1981]

Price what you feel is right and stick with it. Try and compete with these guys doing cash in hand jobs you will end up rushing a job and not doing it to your usual standards. Leave them the number for Rogue Traders on the way out.

 

[Octopus]

Back to the OP.

You don't say where you are so that has an impact but I'd say your pricing is about right, if not a bit on the low side but I'm in Surrey.

Stick to your guns on pricing, concentrate on getting customers and do a GOOD quality job. Recommendations is what you are after.

 

[Ducksy]

Quoted a shower installation

16 meter run of 10mm , pull switch in bathroom with an Rcbo installed in consumer unit as rcd side is full ( plumber supplying shower ) quoted £185 and have pretty much been called a con artist is this right!?

Quoted a EICR at £130 for a 3 bed , told by customer that she'd had a quote at £85 !!

very disheartening

That's about £55 worth of cable, I'm guessing its in pvc trunking so you can say about £35 for that rcbo about £25 isolator switch £10 that's £125 leaves you with £60 which you pay £15 tax on..........i would have charged more.......don't be disheartened you will always meet people wanting the world on a stick.