prices / costs my thoughts

  • Thread starter Thread starter breezer
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breezer

its all very well us "trades" having a moan or whinge about waht potential clients are willing to pay for a product or service but look at it from their POV. they have no idea what so ever how much anything costs.

so what do they do?

look around the local shed and see something similar, and add some and that is what it must cost to be installed

lets take a bath (i too have no idea) b & q sell one for £50 ( clicky )

now even i know that from that price it must be poor quality, but that aside i can get a bath for £50 so say 50% to fit, so i (as a non knowing MOTP) expect to pay £75 for an installed and working bath

But as a trades person, I know thats ridiculess, it has no taps or plughole fitting for that price, it also needs all the pipework, but like i said

the average MOTP only sees what they want to see, that of the cost of the bath, never mind no fitings and pipework, labour to install it and tilling of the bathroom etc etc

so bear in mind the next time some one asks for a quote for your services / product
they are only going on what they have seen in the local sheds.

If it helps I run a website offering another product and just this morning i had an enquiry with a budget that is 5 x too small for what they want to achieve, but I just point out that it is simply not possible for the given budget , but more importantly WHY they cant do it, and whatwork is actualy involved.
 
I agree entirely. Part of the problem is that if they are determined enough they will find someone to do the work for the price they have in their head and and then the rest of us look like we are robbing bar stewards.
 
Agree Breezer. With quotes come information about what the customer really gets for that price - not jut a bath.
Most - well the good customers - see sense after that and know they'll get added value (and guarantees) from a trades person, something a 'shed' doesn't give.
 
But in the same context some consumers like to have a feel for what products they are purchasing.

I appreciate that you would not use a £50 bath from B&Q to install, and i also have some grasp of the work involved having fitted a couple.

Take for example my recent boiler fit, i bought the boiler, flue and thermostat myself, for the best price i could find, and then went to the corgi register to look for someone to install it.

I was expecting to pay around £500 for someone to replace the gas pipe, plumb in, check for water tightness, and comission, which i thought was a fair ball park figure.

The first quote i had, was £450 and i had an instant feel that the guy would do a good job, as closely as possible to what i had requested whilst still meeting all regs and requirements.
I had another quote from a bloke who's first words were you didn't need to buy a 37 Cdi, you don't want to route your gas pipe that way, i'll just rechannel your freshly plastered walls and run it there, you don't need 22mm all the way to the boiler we can drop it to 15 and then proceeded to tell me about all the accidents he had made fitting worcesters before, like not locating the fill attachment properly. Now maybe he didn't want the business, but he could have said he didn't have time and he did respond to an email i sent him. His quote was 900 for the work but i assume this was running the gas pipe his way, rather than the way it was already run and working well.

Education is a good thing, as long as the consumer is realistic about what is actually required in carrying out the task.

I just had a major double glazing firm round to quote for 2 doors, before he arrived i had already done some research on manufacturers, costings, price of fitting etc etc and although he tried the usual selling technique of starting at £3k and then coming down to £1600, when faced with the fact i could get both doors in the same style, using the same virgin polymer for £900 i wasn't prepared to pay £700 for installation, at which point the routine phone call to head office came and the real price they would actually do it for came out, and i am getting 2 doors replaced for £1100 which is closer to where i expected to be in the first place.

So although i do appreciate what you are saying about the consumer on occasion having unrealistic expectations of prices to do jobs, i am very realistic about what's involved as i'm sure others are out there.
 
So how much would a reasonable price be to fit a standard bathroom suite (bath toilet basin)

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Lynda, moderator

please read forum rule 9
 
£750, so the guesses of around 1K aren't really a million miles away. I'll add this price to the database if that is okay with you?
 
This is what we charge in our area - this is a very simple example of course. Generally the bathroom is stripped out, all wall tiles removed. Replaster walls, reroute pipe/waste runs, retile walls, tile floor then final fit of sanitaryware.
 
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