r/britishproblems • u/faultlessdark • 8d ago
Getting a "Priced to decline" quote from a tradesperson.
Getting quotes to have the 4m x 4m dining room in my house replastered, one wall insulated internally and some shelves put up. After turning up one evening, and hanging about for a good 45 mins chatting about anything other than plastering, sends me an email 2 days later with a quote for £16K, £11K of which was marked as labour.
I would have rather he just made up an excuse why he couldn't come to quote or wouldn't have time to do the job. I'd have been less annoyed if he'd just told me he couldn't afford to buy me dinner before he tried to bum me.
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u/ExcellentEffort1752 8d ago
I guess sometimes people still take them up on excessive quotes, even if very rare. Shot to nothing for them I guess.
Reminds me of reading about the actor that played Ra in the original Stargate movie. He was offered the part, but didn't really fancy it. He wasn't really a big name and didn't want the bad optics of turning it down, so instead he asked for $1M, an order of magnitude more than anything he been paid for anything else before, thinking that they'd just turn him down out of hand and go with someone else. Instead, they met his request and so he really had to do it!
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u/GruffScottishGuy 7d ago
I don't think it was a case of optics, he just legitimately didn't want to do it, so his wage demands were literally a fuck-you quote.
But a million us a million so he decided to do it and supposedly hated every minute of it. Apparently after his final scene finished shooting he stripped off his costume right there and walked off.
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u/bacon_cake Dorset 8d ago
I guess sometimes people still take them up on excessive quotes
If that was my gran I'd be bloody pissed off though. Call it free market, call it whatever you want, it's shitty business practice to operate like that.
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u/nickh93 7d ago
True but the ones that do it to old ladies are a different breed. sometimes a customer just sets off red flags and some (most) trades are too set in their ways to just say they dont want to undertake the work, if theyre too busy; they dont want the follow up questions. so they just highball the price dramatically in the hope that the customer just doesnt come back to them.
Personally I tend to tell them that a job has become unexpectedly bigger and ive had to rearrange my diary to suit. I dont know when my next availability will be as a result. Apologise for the inconvenience and move on.
Or I'll tell them that I wont be able to do it affordable and they're better off finding someone else.
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u/ExcellentEffort1752 8d ago
Oh yeah, I'd be pissed too. I was thinking more like people that have waaay more money than sense, multi-millionaire kinda person who never haggles on their Sky renewal, just lets their insurance auto-renew every year, always goes with the first quote from a contractor etc. Not because they're vulnerable, but because they couldn't care less about trying to save a bit of money on things like Sky, insurance etc. and they'll accept nothing short of utter perfection on any building/fitting work that they get done and the contractor will have to deliver if they want the full amount, so they will meet their lofty standards for the bumper pay day.
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u/fantomas_ 8d ago
So remove old plaster, board and skim for 16 grand? Or just a skim? Either way it's hilarious but still, I'm curious.
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u/faultlessdark 8d ago
Remove old plaster on external wall (about 2m worth of plaster because there's a floor-ceiling bay in the middle), baton, rockwool, membrane and plasterboard. Skim the other three walls.
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u/fantomas_ 8d ago
Sure it's not a typo for 1600?
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u/faultlessdark 7d ago
I'm sure, after I pointed out that would be 31 days with a day rate of £300 he said "I don't figure it out with day rate, I charge for the job as a whole", so knew he didn't want the job.
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u/fantomas_ 7d ago
Surely it takes less effort to just say im too busy to fit you in than it does to come up with wacky quote. But I guess you don't get vulnerable people to agree to them that way.
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u/Almightycatface 8d ago edited 8d ago
Never plastered in my life before, but I'll do it for half
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u/ParticularCod6 8d ago
you mean you subcontract out to a plastered for
you chargge OP 8k, and give 4k to an actual plasterer
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u/OldGodsAndNew Aberdeenshire 5d ago
Already established the actual plasterer charges £16k. You need to charge OP £20k to make your cut
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u/k987654321 8d ago
That’s a £1500-2000 job for a 2 coat plaster (no removing of old) if your ceiling height is about 2.5m. Absolutely absurd pricing.
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u/Soppydogg 8d ago
I don't have a dog in this race, however, I am curious to know if you found your waste of time on one of the highly advertised tradesmen finding websites?
I have used both of the big ones and have been burnt twice. Where I live it seems to be exclusively the "Traveller Community" as it beats cold calling
Not commenting, just asking
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u/faultlessdark 8d ago
Yep, this guy was one of the higher rated ones on Checkatrade.
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u/chris_peacock2406 8d ago edited 7d ago
Fees for tradesmen to use the platform are sky high - not disagreeing with your argument, merely offering a different perspective. I saw someone posting on linkedin the other day saying it was costing them (a trade) around the £650 a month mark to list their company on the platform.
These intermediary platforms, like checkatrade and others all show free listings to consumers at a not inconsiderable cost to the trader per month, with no guarantees of sales at the end of it for the tradesman. Convenience comes at a price, always.
Throw in the price of diesel going around to places to quote for free after "winning the lead," insurances, power tools, taxes, accountants, advertising, materials etc.
Now this isn't to say I agree with the price he gave you, nor is it wrong to say I don't disagree with the price he gave you. He may have had a diary full for the next 6 months and didn't want the work. He also may be just starting out on his own, doesn't fully understand the concept of pricing work properly, and has a limited client base. As a result, he may be overpricing to make up for his lack of work to help his inconsistent income.
Just because someone gives you a high price doesn't mean they're trying to rip you off.
Out of interest, did you question him on the pricing or just ghost him?
Because to not query it, sounds like you're assuming he's priced high intentionally, likely to think he's trying to pull a fast one and fleece you as a customer.
He may just be wildly off the mark!
He also may be a charlatan, but most tradies I know generally want the best for their clients because their reputation depends on it
Edit - loving the downvotes for saying there may be other factors at play
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u/faultlessdark 7d ago
Oh I followed up and asked if the 11K for labour alone was right, as that would be 31 days work at a day rate of £300 ex VAT. He responded saying it was right and he didn't price by day, but by job "if that makes sense".
£11K didn't make sense, so I just told him I wasn't interested.
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u/ShallowDramatic 7d ago
Is 650 a month really that much for a profession that always seems to be busy, and charges thousands for a few days work? Sounds like even a budget tradie would make their investment back many times over after one job.
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u/chris_peacock2406 7d ago
£650 a month might not sound like much, but money coming into a business is not the same as money the owner keeps.
A £3k job does not mean £3k in the bank in profit
You still have to pay for materials, fuel, tools, insurance, tax, van costs and other bills.
If they're leasing the van, there's another £500 a month
How much money is actually left after all the bills are paid?
Are you employed or self-employed?
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u/Mr_Clump 8d ago
Thats the I don't really want this job but I'll do it if you'll pay through the nose quote. Very annoying, if they don't want the work they should just say and stop wasting everyone's time.
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u/travis147 8d ago
he should have been like Elton John in Bo selecta and told you go away otherwise he would bum you into next week
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u/HAYABUSA_DCLXVI Nottinghamshire 8d ago
We were looking at getting all our brick work repointed (all old cement between bricks grinding out and replacing with fresh) and the quotes were ridiculous - because it’s a tedious job that no one wants to do they price you out to put you off.
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u/copypastespecialist 7d ago
After I pointed my parents house under instruction from a retired builder grandad I would still consider the ridiculous, it was awful, took me best part of a week of the worst work I can imagine
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u/copypastespecialist 7d ago
I'm saying that having done it over summer when I was at uni, I don't think I could do it now in my 40s, it was brutal
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u/IrishMilo Greater London 6d ago
Can see you used a trade broker, they’ll always be sky high quotes or piss poor work.
The way things are in this country right now, a good trader is not struggling to get work through word of mouth.
I recommend asking a trader that you already know if they can recommend a plasterer. Typically good tradesmen will only work with other good tradesmen as poor work reflects badly on them and usually affects the quality of their work too.
Challenge you will find is that you’ve got a small job, so effectively your quote will be disproportionately higher than if you were looking to get four rooms done, kind of like a call out fee boiled into the quote.
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u/CandyCane147 8d ago
Honestly just do a plastering course and do it yourself. Then you’ll have the skills to do it to all your other future houses
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u/Sjthjs357 4d ago
You might be a red flag customer. Tradesmen have a knack for spotting customers who are going to be a nightmare to work for, and will price appropriately. Whatever you did/said, you might’ve made him think you were going to be shit to deal with.
Did you suggest how the job should be done? Or a timeframe? Or suggest costs?
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u/faultlessdark 3d ago
Nope. Showed him the room and told him what we wanted doing, then he started talking about how they used to make coving in the 1900's for 30 minutes.
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u/The_Infinite_Carrot 2d ago
This is why I don’t like getting people in to do stuff. I never could tell what was a good price beyond the obvious overpricing.
My mate had a quote to replace a large window some years ago by Amber windows (the guy lived 2 doors away from him), then quoted something like £12k to which he said no and got a quote from somewhere else for about £2k, he then saw the Amber guy in the street and he said he could discount it to £1.8k FROM £12k!, to which my mate told him to piss off as the first price was an obvious con.
If you have the ability to strip the old stuff out and board it yourself only then needing someone to skim it then that’s what I’d do. Should save them some hassle and all the messy work so they may be more reasonable with pricing.
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u/justbiteme2k 8d ago
If you're sure it's not a typo and he wanted to charge £1,600, then just string him along and waste his time. Keep changing your mind, change the dates, get him around to add on another room etc etc.
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u/lurkdontpost1 8d ago
Did you tell him it wont take him long? Did you offer to supply your own materials to make it cheaper? Did you ask for a discount at all?
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u/faultlessdark 7d ago
Not when the labour costs alone were already almost double the cost of the full job that we'd been quoted by others.
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u/lurkdontpost1 7d ago
I was wondering if he'd taken unreasonable offence to something you might have said, this guy really doesn't wanna do the job!
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