Pricing

[p51]

I just did a job for a customer who was in a big hurry and told me to do the job on a T&M basis and send her the bill. The work consisted of installing 5 new paddle fans including new switches. None of the locations had existing wiring, boxes or switches. I installed new rated fan boxes, wiring feeds and 3-wire switch legs fished down walls as well as sw.boxes and switches. The walls and ceilings were 1" thick wood lathe and plaster. Also there was limited room in attic. The customer supplied the fans. The total came to $1250.00 including permit ( I rounded down), thats $250 per fan, including a trip back to hang the fans that were not there when I finished the wiring. The customer said the price was too high and refuses to pay me, I guess we will go to court. Before you say so, I DO know better, one of the oldest tricks in the book, get the work done and THEN decide what you want to pay. I had 2 men 10 hrs. 8 for rough and 2hrs. to come back and hang the fans plus 200 in material. What would you guys charge for this job, I feel my price was fair if not on the low side, any feedback would be appreciated.

Mike

 

[Volta]

I just did a job for a customer who was in a big hurry and told me to do the job on a T&M basis and send her the bill. The work consisted of installing 5 new paddle fans including new switches. None of the locations had existing wiring, boxes or switches. I installed new rated fan boxes, wiring feeds and 3-wire switch legs fished down walls as well as sw.boxes and switches. The walls and ceilings were 1" thick wood lathe and plaster. Also there was limited room in attic. The customer supplied the fans. The total came to $1250.00 including permit ( I rounded down), thats $250 per fan, including a trip back to hang the fans that were not there when I finished the wiring. The customer said the price was too high and refuses to pay me, I guess we will go to court. Before you say so, I DO know better, one of the oldest tricks in the book, get the work done and THEN decide what you want to pay. I had 2 men 10 hrs. 8 for rough and 2hrs. to come back and hang the fans plus 200 in material. What would you guys charge for this job, I feel my price was fair if not on the low side, any feedback would be appreciated.

Mike

Price sounds okay to me, five fan outlets and five switches sound like they should be worth that.

 

[John120/240]

Do you have a signed contract with the scope of work & the hourly rate ? Lay it all out in

black & white. Did you discuss with the customer the diffculity of fishing the switch down the

walls ? Communication is key to success.

 

[satcom]

How can you go to court, without a signed contract? Your price sounds like a real deal, any work we do over $500 by law needs a contract, what does her being in a hurry have to do with not giving her a price and, having her sign a contract.
How can you have employees do the job at those prices, your comp insurance, and overhead must also be a deal. Your price is not the problem, but you know that now.

 

[Benton]

I would bother her and bother her until I got my money. One thing you could try-not to justify her wrong deeds or let her slide-but ask her what she thought was a fair price. Not that you are going to say that ok that is the price ill do it for, but atleast you get the ball rolling.

 

[growler]

I just did a job for a customer who was in a big hurry and told me to do the job on a T&M basis and send her the bill. The work consisted of installing 5 new paddle fans including new switches. None of the locations had existing wiring, boxes or switches. I installed new rated fan boxes, wiring feeds and 3-wire switch legs fished down walls as well as sw.boxes and switches. The walls and ceilings were 1" thick wood lathe and plaster. Also there was limited room in attic. The customer supplied the fans. The total came to $1250.00 including permit ( I rounded down), thats $250 per fan, including a trip back to hang the fans that were not there when I finished the wiring. The customer said the price was too high and refuses to pay me, I guess we will go to court. Before you say so, I DO know better, one of the oldest tricks in the book, get the work done and THEN decide what you want to pay. I had 2 men 10 hrs. 8 for rough and 2hrs. to come back and hang the fans plus 200 in material. What would you guys charge for this job, I feel my price was fair if not on the low side, any feedback would be appreciated.

Mike

You have to be carefull. In my opinion there are two different types of people that you can have trouble with. The first type are real dead-beats and start out with the idea of screwing someone. These are easier to spot. They other type are normally honest enough but really do think they are being taken to the cleaners because they had seen an add somewhere for a $65 fan install by a handyman.

If the lady really does think that she is being over charged then maybe an explanation of cost would help her to see the reason for the invoice being more than expected. The price is fair and I doubt you would have any trouble in court if the lady is willing to admit she had a verbal contract with you.

I'm surprised that you could do the work that cheap. With the extending of that many circuits normally you would have to install Arc Fault breakers ( on those circutis ) and that can be a bear in an old house.

I prefer to give an up-front price on jobs like this because I have herd all the crying before.

 

[cowboyjwc]

I sometimes have a problem with some of the prices I hear are being charged out there, but $250 a fan seem pretty resonable.

I had one that I did T&M and the guy started to squak about the price, which I know was more than fair and to top things off his was the attic from you know where. So I finally got mad and told him to just crawl up into the attic and go over to where the fan box was and touch it. He told me that he couldn't do that because it was way to hard. I said yeah and I had to go up there and install a box and drill holes and run wiring and you think it's to hard just to get up there. He paid me and gave me a tip.

 

[sameguy]

I can see where the H.O. is coming from, I went to the doctor to have a hole cut in me and an electrical device put in only two wires on it. I said "hell I got a knife and it isn't that deep, it's two wires a little thread; I'm not paying that!"
O.k. that never happened.
Check what the big box is getting and what it is for. Around here a fan is ~ $185 ea. I think you get the fan install only, not sure you need to check.
Your price is low, more like $1700 depending on the attic/ plaster etc.

 

[CopperTone]

did that same job yesterday but it was only 2 fans - $750 quote price - customer happily paid.

if you dont get a signed contract you should at least let the person know an estimate of say 10-12 man hrs @ $75/hr and about $400 in material - that way they at least can't be surprised at the end.

Here is what I do if no signed contract for a little job - I email the estimate and require the customer to reply via email that they want to proceed at that price. At least there is a record of them accepting the price and job.

 

[p51]

Pricing

Hey guys,I agree that everything needs to be in writing and signed. I have done other work for this cust. in the last few months on a T&M basis and she knows my rates, no problems up till now, even got a $50 tip on last job we did. My deal with her is not the issue but rather the price I charged which I can see by the replies was a fair price if anything it was low. With all the unlicesend competition as well as the licesend people who are cutting my prices every day it is difficult. I don't know about the rest of the country but in So. Florida it is tough, I saw an ad by a lic. established contractor that said " bring me a signed proposal by a lic. contractor and we will beat it by 20%" How do you compete with that?

 

[kwired]

She probably had no idea what kind of work it was going to take to install these and when she found out after the fact, it was totally unexpected. She may have known what your rates were since you have worked for her before but may not know how long it took, especially if she was not there the whole time to observe how long it took.

 

[Fulthrotl]

Hey guys,I agree that everything needs to be in writing and signed. I have done other work for this cust. in the last few months on a T&M basis and she knows my rates, no problems up till now, even got a $50 tip on last job we did. My deal with her is not the issue but rather the price I charged which I can see by the replies was a fair price if anything it was low. With all the unlicesend competition as well as the licesend people who are cutting my prices every day it is difficult. I don't know about the rest of the country but in So. Florida it is tough, I saw an ad by a lic. established contractor that said " bring me a signed proposal by a lic. contractor and we will beat it by 20%" How do you compete with that?

i don't. i go to them with stuff i have quoted, and let them do it for me for 20% less... then i go find more work for them to do. 20% seems like a fair commission......

 

[kwired]

i don't. i go to them with stuff i have quoted, and let them do it for me for 20% less... then i go find more work for them to do. 20% seems like a fair commission......

But how do you make any $$$ if customer goes directly to the competitor instead of to you? After all he is saying he will be 20% less.

How do you know he doesn't try to find upsells while doing the work and in long run he is making more than you?

 

[renosteinke]

Two maxims to keep in mind:

1) Your poor planning does not make it a crisis for me; and,

2) There are three types of work: good, fast, and cheap. The customer can choose any two. For example, good + fast will NOT be cheap.

My fan installs seem to average about $400, each. Doing several at once can bring the price down PER FAN. I'd say there's nothing wrong with your price.

 

[electricguy61]

But how do you make any $$$ if customer goes directly to the competitor instead of to you? After all he is saying he will be 20% less.

How do you know he doesn't try to find upsells while doing the work and in long run he is making more than you?

When you wrestle with pigs, you're going to get dirty. Don't try to compete on that level. There will always be someone cheaper (see above).

Hopefully, you do the work correctly, you back up what you do, and you clean up well after yourself. Don't lie or cheat, swear, drink or smoke on the job, be polite. You'll find customers willing to pay fairly for your services.

And to reiterate what was said above: try to avoid T&M if it's going to be more then a couple of hundred dollars (though this isn't always practical). No surprises make for much happier customers.

 

[kwired]

When you wrestle with pigs, you're going to get dirty. Don't try to compete on that level. There will always be someone cheaper (see above).

Hopefully, you do the work correctly, you back up what you do, and you clean up well after yourself. Don't lie or cheat, swear, drink or smoke on the job, be polite. You'll find customers willing to pay fairly for your services.

And to reiterate what was said above: try to avoid T&M if it's going to be more then a couple of hundred dollars (though this isn't always practical). No surprises make for much happier customers.

I sometimes really do wrestle with pigs. Had a service call last week, feed motor in hog house was not working. I usually don't get too dirty, but don't exactly smell that good when done with those jobs.

 

[Dolfan]

I feel your pain p51, people are treating us like garage sales. They are tight and getting tighter day by day. They don't realize how much it cost to be in business. Not only that, Miami has the highest number of self employed people in the country. There are a lot of people doing business out there with no license or insurance and dealing only in cash. Commercial work goes to the lowest bid and then you have to pray that you get paid.

 

[readydave8]

I sometimes really do wrestle with pigs. Had a service call last week, feed motor in hog house was not working. I usually don't get too dirty, but don't exactly smell that good when done with those jobs.

The pig farm I get called to requires us to shower in, and allows us to shower out.

Cordless drill sometimes stinks for weeks if I've used it there.

But I like it better than arguing with customer over price of paddle fan installs (it all ties in with topic).

 

[kwired]

The pig farm I get called to requires us to shower in, and allows us to shower out.

Cordless drill sometimes stinks for weeks if I've used it there.

But I like it better than arguing with customer over price of paddle fan installs (it all ties in with topic).

Been to some that require shower in, you have to wear the clothes they have on site also. Kind of funny, this is all for disease control and makes some sense, yet after showering it is ok for me to get back in my truck and drive around to the far end of the facility so my tools and equipment will be closer to where the work is. That is convenient for me but I don't see that for disease control it is all that good of a deal to go back to the truck or to use equipment that has not been disinfected.

It is better than arguing over price of paddle fan installs.

 

[satcom]

I was talking with a guy that does a lion's share of paddle fans his ad is fan install $89 when I asked how could he make money at that price, he said that is a high price for just hanging a fan and it gets him in the door to sell all the profitable extras like a fan support box, or any additional wiring and controls, he said their average fan job closes for $750 to $900 not $89
And the 89 price does not include assembly or lights, they are all extras