Droped my jaw

I had a new customer call to day and ask me a price to install a fill valve, flapper, braded stainless supply, and a angle stop on a toilet. She told me she had just paid $295.00 to have it done by a a nation wide plumbing company named after the discoverer of electricty that flew a kite in a lightning storm. The $295.00 was after the $25.00 off coupon for a first time customer.

They also quoted her $495.00 to replace her PRV.

Needless to say she won't be calling them back.

I can't figure out how thay stay in buisness.

that's sad, she was taken

He was a great man,too bad they borrowed it!

Cass,

But on the flip side,,,don't you HATE the call that says ," I just want a great job and I want it cheap"..... HELLO ! Yeah I think $ 295 is way high for what they did.

I just find it insulting sometimes. How 'bout if we all went to a surgeon and said," Yeah , I want this very important procedure,I want it NOW and I want it cheap !"

Good luck with that,,

high prices

they are a franchise.....and his name is in "public domain"

in this town a 40 gal gas from them cost about $999

a kitchen faucet about $400

you can get a 50electric water heater with a LIFETIME
warranty (non-transferrable) for only $1500


I think the motto is '' a sucker is born every minute''

just advertise a lot and dont worry about repeat customers.



and NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK


you stick somenone for $1000 for a heater then give them a

$20 dollar off coupon for the next service call

--------------------------------------------------------------------



I get a LOT of new customers once the prices are compared.

“One show…good byeâ€.

I am a Home repair expert, (fancy name for a handy man…LOL). I have a client that almost had 4 toilets serviced, (new valve, supply line, and flopper), for the cost of $1200.00, from an other company. I told him that I could do it for that, but he must have a sleeping bag, available for me, at his house . He asked me what I was talking about. I told him, “well for $1200.00, I could stay at your house for about a week and a half to do the workâ€! He finally realized what I was talking about and cancelled the work to be done that was scheduled for the next day.
Companies like that don’t expect repeat business . Like Steve Martin said, “one show…good byeâ.

Oh, I forgot, they told her the angle stop was stainless steel. Does anyone know a company that makes stainless compression stops?

She also told me she missed the red flag. She asked B4 they came out for a ball park figure for the work and the owner said he didn't have a price list in front of him.

What a crock.

Cal said:

Cass,

But on the flip side,,,don't you HATE the call that says ," I just want a great job and I want it cheap"..... HELLO ! Yeah I think $ 295 is way high for what they did.

I just find it insulting sometimes. How 'bout if we all went to a surgeon and said," Yeah , I want this very important procedure,I want it NOW and I want it cheap !"

Good luck with that,,

Click to expand...

Yes Cal I don't like it when they expect it, but I understand when some elderely man or woman is barely making it and and need something fixed. BUT the guy with a $700,000.00 home and a Lexus sitting in the driveway, that is another story.

When someone calls and asks for a price I ask why they are asking. They always say there compairing prices. I then ask them how they know the jobs will be equaly done, done right, and the work backed up.

When they say they don't know I offer them a list of customers to call. Then they set a date for me to come out and do the work and I have a customer for life.

I have found a few min. talking to someone makes a big diff.

prices

One of the trade magazine editors blasted one of those types of companies a few years ago after it charged his mother some outrageous price for installing two Fluidmaster 440A's because he used the price in his "Blue Book" for one and doubled it for two. Flat raters have a price for every operation, or all potential operations are lumped into one price. Either way the total is much more than a T&M charge. They usually make part of their money for showing up to give the estimate, which is why they will not quote over the phone, even though the book price should cover all eventualities. It also makes it harder for the customer to change plumbers if they have already invested money with this one, and only gets credit for it if they have them do the work.

It is sort of like a repiping I did many years ago. The customer had called a local plumber whose phone number was a plumbing slogan. They came out and gave her an outrageous price and she signed the contract. Then buyer's remorse set in and she called my company. My price was a third of theirs. When she asked what she could do, I told her to call them and tell them she changed her mind. When she did, they told her that they had already cut all the pipes for her job. I told her to tell them to send the pipes over and she would pay for them, because if they could cut all the pipes for the job in the shop, they were much better plumbers than I was, but I would put them in. She never heard from them again.

Seems like taking advantages of old ladies is in "fashion" so to speak. My mother is 83 years old and needed a plumber to replace a shower faucet. The one that she called, walked in and told her right off the bat that he charges $128/hr. His quote for the job was around $700. Needless to say I told her not to hire him and replaced the faucet myself.

I was quoted $750 to replace a drum trap on a bathtub by a flat rate plumber. Did it myself for $8 in parts ($5 of that was for a new reciprical saw blade that bound and bent).

sticking it to little old ladies

anyone that would break it off in a poor little old
lady ought to be taken out and shot......


now if a customrer has a lexus, and a pool , and a helicoptor and landing pad in his back yard,

and haggles with me over the bid I give him ,
he is liable to get shot too..... he is fair game ....

(just kidding)

The motto's of the big companies are "Get in, Get out, charge as much as you can because you are not coming back." Just about every customer I've done work for has been a victim of a large company with exuberant prices at least once, and none of those companies are out of business, still running full steam.

Then comes along someone like me trying to be honest abe and for the most part I'm dealing with rape victims and I'm the counselor. Not really but I basically have to deal with those who are now protecting themselves to avoid a reoccurrence. I joined Angie's List back in 2002, 40 reports and getting the super service award 3 years straight and I still have to deal with the idiots. So I charge accordingly and toss the garbage aside when I have people asking for "free" quotes. Let me tell you something people, nothing is free. If you want a plumber to come to your house and give a "free" estimate, pass my number up entirely. Want a good deal? Go to Big Lots, we don't cater to the penny misers. I just work for those who have heard about my professionalism, my attention to detail, and my think tank logic once I'm there and charging for my knowledge.

Here's yesterdays phone call:

Guy calls up, asks what I charge for a 50 gallon electric water heater. Told him $275 plus haul away. (I already knew he was price shopping so I made sure that he wasn't getting any straight numbers from me) He then asked what haul away would be in total with the replacement, I told him $60 dollars for haul away and $275 for the install. No mention by him of any probable situation, code violations, finished basement, no walk-out and all steps possibly. He said, "Oh, okay, well I will get back with you and let you know."

I said, "Sure you will" and hung up on him. I'm sure he felt the love coming from me. Price shoppers are a dime a dozen, he didn't care one iotta if I was a hack or a professional. All he cared about was the money. Needless to say he left the phone feeling the brunt of my sternness of dealing with fools.

The first of the year I stopped taking on water heater replacements from any new customers; just repeat customers and those who come high on the totem pole of good referrals. Unfortunately I've done 7 water heater replacements this year already which really sucks , easier ways to make money and I don't care for them. Water heater replacements seem to be my most shopped pricing I give over the phone when they call. Toodles!

ALL ,
Let me clearify from my previous post,,,, I'm not "all about the money" I think we should get paid a fair price for a good job . I want to work for people then eventually work for their kids and so on,,, THERE ARE SO MANY RIP OFF ARTIST , and "Flat Raters" out there. I just get tired of killing myself for people and then they want to haggle over $20 for something .

Old people , widows ( yes you Cookie) , people who obviously do without a lot of $ and things, handicapped folks , ALL get a price break from me ! Their burden is enough without a $ 295 toilet repair that is twice what they should pay .

I'm glad to be asccosiated with the folks on this site who seem to have not forgotten the old ways . Honest work / Honest pay

But, How do we stop what is going on with the industry? Can we stop it ?
The Big Boy will always be able to advertise more , be in the customer's face more,etc. As a little guy , how do you beat him ?
Maybe we don't .

Cal

do unto others as you whould have them do unto you...

Thats a real good motto, somebody said that
a long time ago..... but very few really understand
the whole scope of what that really means....


its amazing how some people will raise the price when they
know you are vulnerable......

RUGGED.....you said it all with this statement

""Then comes along someone like me trying to be honest abe and for the most part I'm dealing with rape victims and I'm the counselor.""


that is exactly what I deal with every day.... its like I have to prove to them that I am not like tha last guy that raped them...


But the big companies KNOW that their is just another sucker around the corner and all they got to do is wait for them to walk through their doors..

I have to be able to sleep with myself tonight,

and SHARKS NEVER SLEEP...

AMEN brother, gotta sleep at night.

Find a plumber

Cal you can't stop them.

You know what you need to make with out ripping people off, and you know when someone is being ripped off. And you will sleep well tonight. You can still treat people the way you would hope to be treated. I gotta believe you know that all that kindness comes back to you in many ways.

Cal and Rugged and Mark and H J and the rest of you fellas that post on this site are the kind of people that another old plumber can be proud to associate with..

Don't feel bad about price shoppers

The fact is that a lot of us (men as well as women) really don't know how to judge a craftsman (plumber, electrician, handyman, etc). I say that from experience and lots of discussions with coworkers, friends, relatives, etc.

Ok, so I'm a woman, and I was brought to be one of those helpless female types. However, I've had to learn a bit of this-n-that along the way. Unfortunately, I have yet to find out how to find a good & honest plumber (or electrician for that matter).

I know that I've read & been told to ask friends, colleagues, etc. But the fact is that the guys I know (accountants, businessmen, etc) for the most part don't really have a better idea than I do. My experiences with their recommendations have been less successful than just picking someone at random out of the yellow pages - sad but true.

So maybe you should consider that when someone calls you for price shopping, you really should suggest that instead of just getting a price, they give some of your customers a call, then give them a prepared list of 5 or 6 customers. Most of us don't really know how or what to ask, so if you could point us in the right direction, we'd be grateful and in a better position to compare your service and attitude to someone else.

By the way, I'm an accountant. I would have to say that work from different accountants, CPA's, and tax preparers vary a lot. Yet people just ask about our prices, too. It's very hard to differentiate our services, which are hard for the non-accountant to compare - just the same as for a plumber or electrician, or any other professional.

prices

I haven't read every reply because most are very lengthy, but as far as the person who decides which doctor to go to based on what he charges for his services, there was a dentist working out of the trunk of his car at a "swap and shop" in Florida who gave very inexpensive rates. There ARE TIMES when you make decisions based on the quality of service you will receive, rather than what the bottom line will be. I tell my customers, if they ask for a lower price, that, "I will give you a list of plumbers who work cheaper, but I only have one price."

prices

when I get someone haggleing with me about
a the fair price I am offering them...


I simply tell them that they probably need
"more special attentioin" than I can provide and

then usually I refer them to the three most expensive
compaies in town.....


either I eventually hear back from them or
I know that they
just stuck it to themselves.....

Georgiablonde put it nicely

I, too, am one of those price shoppers. Look at it from this perspective: I may be price shopping, but I am also looking for an honest person. So, when it may look like I'm price shopping what I'm really doing is looking for a good plumber, electrician, etc. One that I can rely on and call in the future. Sometimes that phone call is a way of connecting, to see what the person or company is like. Also, I was raised always to get 3 estimates before deciding which one to choose. It's not always the lowest price I'm looking for, it's my first impression, if the person seems knowledgeable, etc. My experience has taught me to call the small shops first, the big ones are usually overpriced with bad service.
T