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Sounds like she saved you a headache. These people will always find something wrong and try to nickel and dime you.
Right, kind of pushing me towards commercial and the type only. Just started doing residential for myself but already kind of backing away.
I’ll take commercial any day resi is a mixed bag of bad projects and bad people.
They also might even constantly make changes. OR they might even fuck with it when you’re not there to get you to come back to do more for free since they think they got ripped off.
Well you definitely didn't need to apologize to her.
Yeah I know she was actually rude but I use to be a store manager way back and my cs skills kicked in.
I agree, never apologize for charging what you’re worth. I was an estimator and had this conversation a hundred times. I just went with “Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the work. Have a great day”
Shouldn’t even have apologized. As soon as she laughed at you, that’s when you stop responding.
We charge $235 regardless if it’s 3 minutes or an hour, after that it’s $105/hr.
I recently quoted a HUGE pool job, trenching, 70M from the FULL panel, conduits for the pool lights, auto cover etc. came in at $6700.
She responded with “someone said they can do it for $2900. I said thank you, you should probably call them.
Hope you're not trenching that by hand lol
What state do you live in? Lol 235 for the first hour is crazy high where I am. Does M mean meters? But yeah 6700 is pretty high. Unless you're in new York or Chicago or something like that where everything is super overpriced, I don't get it
Ontario Canada.
I used to just charge an hourly rate, and then years ago, we hooked up a garbage disposal for a couple, we put a switch for a means of disconnect, whatever. Inspector passed it, whatever. They called in a competitor who was there 8 minutes, and sent me the bill. They charged a flat rate of like $385 before tax.
It got me thinking, why am I only working for 105/hr when these clowns are making that?
Anyway, I’m still in business, they’re not. No I did not pay it, I just forwarded my passed inspection and pretty much said piss off.
Oh you're in Canada. That makes sense. Our currency value is different
And our material is DISGUSTINGLY expensive.
6/3 Teck was like $19/M (three feet).
For pools I always put a panel, 16 or 20 circuit because they always want a bar fridge, blender, lights, ice maker etc.
In 2021 I did 104 pools, I’m pretty okay at them.
I gotcha. Well I definitely can't speak on your estimates then. 2900 for the work you described would probably be on the high end down here tbh
Man am I glad to see someone soaking up all the pool installs. I hate 90% of the pool jobs I've done.
It seems like every time it goes one of two ways: either they are pretentious fucks who want quality work at McDonald's pricing/speed. Or they are suuuuper nice and bring you Gatorade, water, etc...
Down here there just isn't much in between.
I enjoy them, it’s rewarding work.
When I get irritated is when there’s a 180k in pool, 100k in landscaping, 40k in concrete, yet I come in around 6/7k and they flip shit.
Hell, this one in particular had a $12,000 shed. Yet the actual real trade on site is considered ridiculous??!!
No joke.
I had this one job that was over $10k for us. Huge pool. Had to do a complete service upgrade on their $1mil home just to have enough power for the pool.
Lady wanted itemized receipts for everything. Nit picked every purchase that I made. Clocked us in and out???? Eventually (after service upgrade, but before pool install) I had to have a talk with her and let her know I would be more than happy to send her an itemized bill after everything was done but that she was costing herself more by bugging us every 10 minutes with one thing or another and slowing us down.
I'm completely transparent with my pricing so that wasn't an issue. But hell, we're over here under 10k on electrical when she was spending over 100k on the pool alone.
Some people just do not make sense to me.
I have had those, and then two years ago one client I’ve done work for, for 15 years put a pool in. Second gas meter for the 25’ fire wall, 84 circuit panel, probably 1100’ of PVC in her back yard, low volt lighting, just wild. I’d give her a bill, she’d pay. As long as I was there working, she was happy. Hell, she’d put 50 and $100 bills in the guys pockets daily as a tip.
Damn, that's a customer I would bend over backwards for.
I had a guy who wanted to pay Every. Single. Day. Said he wanted to always keep the books clear. Was completely reasonable and understanding. I have only seen a unicorn once, and it was that guy.
He bought an old manufacturing shop and was outfitting it for a hobby shop. Dunno how much this man was worth but he bought the 3 houses across from it too just so he didn't have to keep the noise down.
He was awesome and drove a 99' dodge ram 2500 that was beat to shit.
Favorite customer ever.
If she don't like the price she can do it herself.
Cheap customers be cheap.
My last company had to put a ~$200 minimum on jobs for the reasons you listed.
If you did the job for $50 your probably loosing money.
It's 125-150 at any company I've ever worked for. I guess certain states are different. I changed out an exhaust fan and added three cans to a guys bathroom for 200 bucks yesterday and I felt like I robbed a bank lol. Only took me like an hour and a half
$200 sounds like a lot for 1.5hr but when you break out all the over head it’s not.
1.5hr at the job will take between 2-2.5 hr total. This includes travel, cleaning, billing, ect.
Work vans are expensive to run. We added up all the expense over 5 years and averaged it out. For a $30,000 van it’ll take $150,000 more to run. Including fuel, insurance , maintenance , purchase price ect. Averaged out this is ~20$ an hour for 5 years.
Then there is all the business overhead. Benefits, office staff, building , licensing , insurance ect. This was about an extra 30% on top of the guys wages.
So let’s say you did the job in 2hrs and charged $200. Take out $40 for the truck leaves $160. Then the rest of the overhead at 30% leaves $112 total. Divide by two hours gives you $56 an hour if your a one man show.
While $56 an hour is an amazing wage, not exactly robbing the customer.
I know a lot of guys who work a ton with their own truck and can’t seem to get ahead. All the extras will eat you up.
I mean you took a few liberties rounding a few things up lol first it was 20 dollars an hour now it's 40 but I get that it's better to round up than down. Problem is there's lots of guys who work out of their garage that do legitimately good work that the big companies can't compete with pricing wise at least on the smaller stuff. I've worked for several owners like that. So really the, oh weve got an office, we've got staff, we've got expensive trucks people don't really have the leverage (at least where I live.) their solution is to keep up with the competitive price with lower margins but just do more work. Really the only way to stay in business in a state like Florida. This is only speaking on resi service of course
She did you a favor by the look of it.
It’s easier to sell comfort than safety. She’ll buy a $20,000 hot tub all day but won’t do a panel change for $5500.
I still remember apprenticing and one of the guys in my company got in an argument with a customer trying to shave $50 off a light install and asked her if she fights with the dentist or the cashier at the food store after she’s done shopping lol. She called our boss and he got in trouble but I still laugh about it
I never forget an anecdote I read about a movie theater that decided to start having half price movies on Tuesdays. They figured they would make up the loss with the concessions sales. Every single customer that came in walked up to the concessions stand and asked if all the snacks and drinks were half price as well.
45 minutes (or 4-5 minutes realistically) for you.... 8 hours for her. Tell her to buy her own tools and ladder also.
I wouldn’t have responded after her rude comment. You’re not too expensive, just too expensive for her.
And I would have charged more 😂
Since she thinks it's so easy she should just do it herself lol
This is why the service companies I've worked with would never price anything over the phone. They all charge a $99 dispatch fee to come out to take a look and provide a quote in person. Keeps people like this away while also providing an opportunity to upsell. Even with the dispatch fee, most of these companies are booked 6 months out.
Flat rate in my market is around $350 per hour right now. The big guys with the billboards and radio commercials are charging well over $400. Met a guy a few years ago who charges $471 to install an unassembled ceiling fan to an existing fan-rated outlet box on an 8' ceiling. What a fucking Chad.
Side work
It funds our vacations And fuels our nightmares.
You should have blurred the phone number my guy
shouldve just asked her why she cant do it herself if its so easy lol
They won't even buy a $20 book from Lowe's on how to do it. They figure they can just guess how.
Good response. Block the number.
I say fukem
I got a jackass that didn't want to pay for drive time, because it was such a small job. I said that a 1 hour job 25 minutes away is at least a 2 hour job, but nope. Good luck with that then.
Dodged a bullet. “Bitch I don’t get out of bed for less than $300” would have been a more appropriate response.
Anytime a customer says the work is easy and shouldn’t take long I just reply with “then what am I here for?” Always catches them off guard lol.
Don’t question people that tell you how awful they will be to work with, even if they don’t use those exact words.
Your quote is your quote, if anyone is not good with it then move on. No need to validate your worth
I think you dodged a bullet. I can hear them two weeks after you completed the work: "hey, you installed some new lights for me and now my dishwasher is leaking. What did you do?"
In the auto mechanic world, that's called an "ever since you".
Ever since you fixed my muffler, now my battery is bad! I want a new one for free! (Real story).
Geeez. You handled it well.
Better off 275$ less for the day , she would of made that simple install hell
That's a fine price, people don't realize they have to make it worth it to you. What if you got a job closer for less but were able to do 2 of them the same day.
Everyone wants damn free electric. She said it’s so easy. Why is she having someone else do it then. Bahahaha
Fuck em.
2 hour minimum on every job. If they're gonna bitch about less than $300 I would not want them as a customer.
I had a guy agree to a loose quote for a T&M job. Came out $500 under my loose quote. Ended up having to put a lien on the property. He would only pay half of the price.
I just do not understand some people.
Tell her to go do it herself.
If it’s so easy, why not do it yourself?
She is a jackass
Your price is very fair too, I don’t waste time of these customers anymore.
I wouldn't have even bothered to give her an estimate for that, $300 is my minimum call out (I figure 150hr x2) Regardless anyone who wants to be that rude is getting added to the Do Not Answer contact immediately
That’s why I added her to my contacts. Under cheap customer lol
Oh absolutely you've got to save their number, I've had the same people call back months/ years later since they've forgotten
Sounds like you dodged a bullet. I won't do 1 or 2 hour offers unless it's for a client that is preexisting and is ok with my time my dime. Outside of that, small things like this, half day minimum.
Sounds like a bee-yatch"!
You were nicer than she deserved
You're 'bonded'? I know guys always say that but you're not actually bonded, right?
It’s required in my state, is it not in yours?
A contractor isn't 'bonded'. A contractor buys a bond for a particular major project from a surety company that protects the owner against failure to complete the contract by the contractor. There's never bonding involved in small fry stuff.
Unless there's some meaning of the term that I'm not aware of. I did google to double check.
California requires contractors hold a 25,000 dollar surety bond. At all times. Not just for a project. They won’t issue your license without one.
Yup can’t have your license without bonding. You actually have to get it before they release your license.
I guess that's a California thing. I just checked, Ohio doesn't require bonding to get an electrical contractor license, just insurance.
It’s required in Oregon, Washington, and nevada. Those are just states I’m familiar with, but from what I understand most but not all states require it. Idaho doesn’t.
Yeah I've never heard of it either. I assumed that's the purpose of insurance. The bond seems like doubling up on the same thing
California also doesn’t allow contractors to advertise that they are bonded.
It's weird to be so strict on certain things then so loose on alot of other stuff like crime and homelessness lol. California is a wacky state. Guess I'd have to live there to understand it.
Yes 100 percent
That lady is nuts. We would be a four hour minimum of $1,000.00 just to send someone out. You’re giving away the farm man!
Lol what are you serious? What company could possibly operate like that and stay in business
Successful ones…
Holy shit, $1000 and 4 hours to change 3 sconces? Now THAT'S insane.
Haha wouldn’t take four hours. We do a minimum service call of four hours. $1,000.00 is the charge for the first four hours which isn’t out of line for the area and our customer base.
Geez I need some of your customer base
I've never heard of a company charging 4 hour minimums for resi calls. Your clients must have fuck you money lol
Agree that's reasonable to include all your expenses in that, so not on you, but to some degree she has a point. That is too much money for a fairly simple job.
This is part of the problem with 'getting rich' in trades, it can mean having to charge silly amounts of money to people who cannot afford it. Not sure about her specifically, more just the lower middle class people who need things done and have to work a full day in order to pay you to work 1 hr. It's crazy how expensive construction is.
I mean I gotta keep it a buck 275 is a little crazy if it's literally just taking down three old lights with existing wires and putting up new ones. When I did resi service my boss charged 125 an hour and I could definitely do it in an hour not even hauling ass. Maybe you were rounding up in case it was more than she described but if not, that's pretty overpriced
Pretty much need to charge 2 hour minimum to cover costs. Drive time, gas etc. as mentioned. Or you charge a truck dispatch free and one hour Labour.
That's not even remotely true lol break down the math for me
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