"How much for building work / taxi run / hedge trim"

[Tony]

There are lots of threads where people ask how much something will cost.

 

These are usually met with tradespeople posting that they will provide a quote, or that they have sent a PM, but very rarely does anyone give a price or even a rough estimate.

 

I know the vagaries of pricing for work, but would customers trust somebody more who was up front about a price, even if it was just an indication?

 

Which trader would you be more inclined to use? One who didn't want to talk about money in public, or one who did?

[Rupert_Baehr]

How can a tradesman give even a rough estimate when the job is usually poorly described?

 

Can you give me a quote to get to Manchester Airport? (Even an indication.)

 

Can you give me a rough quote to cut the grass behind my house? (I'll do the bit in front myself.)

[Tony]

How can a tradesman give even a rough estimate when the job is usually poorly described?

 

Can you give me a quote to get to Manchester Airport? (Even an indication.)

 

Can you give me a rough quote to cut the grass behind my house? (I'll do the bit in front myself.)

 

Day rate, hourly rate, rate per metre, unit price... it's how every building job is priced. Manchester airport, yes Sir, that's 30p per mile, and your 10m x 5m lawn in Stannington, will be 50p/m, twenty five quid or twenty quid if I slot it in on Thursday morning.

 

 

The thread is asking customers opinions though, I'm not after poor excuses for tradespeople.

[Rupert_Baehr]

I wouldn't expect anybody to publish their quote (where their competitors could see it) - But I would get more than one quote.

[ronthenekred]

How can a tradesman give even a rough estimate when the job is usually poorly described?

 

Can you give me a quote to get to Manchester Airport? (Even an indication.)

 

Can you give me a rough quote to cut the grass behind my house? (I'll do the bit in front myself.)

 

 

You can't unless you're desperate. The problem is, when you do..it gets lodged in the customers head, so when you do eventually arrive and shocked at the poor description the customer wants to hear nothing of your re-evaluation.

[Tony]

Everyone who turns up will see the same and re-evaluate if required, so why not just publish your rate?

 

 

How do you think your customers would respond if you put up a straight answer?

[Rupert_Baehr]

50p per sq metre? - Oh well, you don't get the job ... and if you published that price on the forum, how long do you think it would be before somebody else sent me a PM offering to do it for 40p? (Or even 30p)?

 

I think you'd probably want to look at the grass behind my house before you could give a quote ...It's communal land, owned jointly by the people who live here - and you wouldn't do it with a push mower.

[Tony]

All your contrary issues on this have been answered above.

50p per sq metre? - Oh well, you don't get the job ... and if you published that price on the forum, how long do you think it would be before somebody else sent me a PM offering to do it for 40p? (Or even 30p)?

 

Which is a good thing good thing for the consumer, just like comparison pricing for a bag of carrots at the greengrocer. Plenty of businesses perform quite well by publishing their price.

 

This thread isn't here to protect tradespeople. It's about consumer opinion. As a consumer...

[ronthenekred]

Everyone who turns up will see the same and re-evaluate if required, so why not just publish your rate?

 

 

How do you think your customers would respond if you put up a straight answer?

 

Because rate isn't the only factor. Time, professional attitude etc should also be taken into consideration...you can't do that over the airways.

 

I've taken on 6 jobs from the forum and 4 of them were to clear up the mess caused by 'builders' who previously quoted. The other 2 were recommendations from 2 of the 4 that went for the cheapest initially.

 

Presence is very important. As for a straight answer..they get that. Or are you asking that a trader should advertise the straight answer to anyone other than the customer?

[biotechpete]

What these tradesmen who just offer to quote are forgetting is that sometimes people don't really have any idea what a job might cost. I know I've been surprised both how much above and below my expectations jobs have eneded up costing. I might just be wating your time asking for a quote.

 

I really don't think it's all that unrealisitc to say, for example, for an average sized sheffield terrace in need of a re-roof. If you have no structural problems in the timbers, you want new ridge tiles it'll cost somewhere between 3-5k for cement fibre slates and 5-8k for real slates. I'm not sure if these prices are accurate but I'd be pretty sceptical of any tradesman who was unable to give me a ball park figure.

 

If you don't know you're probably not capable of doing the job. If you won't say, why? Is it that you are much more expensive than other tradesmen but want to con me into parting with my hard earned cash with a bit of blarney about the thingemyjig.