Geek Squad Services More Valuable Than Electrical Services?

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cowboyjwc said:
I guess I just see a new bowling ball for me or a deer rifle for my son and it only took me a few hours to get it.;)
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There was a time when you could bribe an electrical inspector with a $20 but now they turn thier nose up at $20's and start acting like they are honest.

The cost of doing business has gone up.

By the way John this is just a joke. Bribing electrical inspectors always was expensive and the cops are even higher and judges are out of sight.
 
cowboyjwc said:
and "e" he doesn't know it's a $500 job until you come out and tell him.

What happened to the days when $500 was $500 and you would never turn it down hoping something better was coming up.
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no..for a $500 job, most homeowners are thinking $200 should cover it...

those days passed on when rules and regulations began making it expensive to operate a company. when taxes and benefits doubled the employees wage. when gas became $2/gal...when trucks began costing $30,000...when mortgages/taxes went from $600/month to $2000/month for the same house...etc, etc, etc...

and yes, if it was only side work, then it's a new bowling ball, or deer rifle...

but for legitimate contractors, it's a losing situation...

i can make money if I do it all in one trip, but that extra $100+/- for the second trip causes it to be a loss..
 
Sometimes after I get a shocked reaction on my quote, I'll ask what they were expecting. It's always absurdly low. I had a recent one hanging a couple light fixtures on high ceilings with a couple dimmers. The fixtures had to be completely assembled with loc-tite. She thought $200 was about right. After she accepted my bid, one of the fixtures is missing parts. Add another trip.

Dave
 
I just got off the phone with a guy that's converting from a seperate cooktop and oven to a free standing range. He said there are currently two 30amp breakers one for the cooktop and one for the oven. He thinks he will need a 50amp breaker and the outlets will have to be moved about 6 feet to where the range will be.

How much are we looking at? About a $100 he asks.
 
I had another one I went out on. It was to disconnect a hot tub and remove the wiring. She had gotten several bids and they were all between $200 and $300. She felt they were all too high, decided not to have any of us do it and refused to pay my dispatch fee since all the other contractors gave her a free estimate.

She said she would have her mother in-law do it.

Turns out her mother in-law is an electrical contractor in another city. She just didn't want her to have to drive that far to do the work for her.
 
GilbeSpark said:
For most routine sevice calls we're going after a segment of the market who says, "I just want it to work". No frills nothing "special", just the everyday stuff. QUOTE]

What if it cost more money to "just have it work". Something that has worked for me is to tell the potential customer how much it costs, than ask them when they are looking to have the work done. I make the issue when, not how much.
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Here is an example of a busy company...but not profitable...

CHRISTENSON SOLD?Microfield Group (stock symbol MICGB.OB) has sold off Christenson Electric, a respected electrical contractor in Portland, Ore. The buyer is CEI Acquisition, Houston, which made the purchase for $1.65 million (plus the assumption of nearly $8 million of debt). Christenson?s sales were not given, but the company has 400 workers and ?several hundred trucks,? making it a pretty big electrical contractor. Microfield, which lost $1 million on $17.7 million in sales in its most recent quarter, will now focus all efforts on its EnergyConnect subsidiary.


unfortunately 90% of this industry will only see $17.7 million, and miss the part about losing $1mil
 
geek squad/starbucks?

geek squad/starbucks?

I have noticed the comparison of the Geek Suad and Starbucks( "Bigbucks") So this makes me wonder about the American consumer??? They have complained about paying $2 for a gallon of gas, but at the same time have paid $3.50 for a cup of "not that great" coffee!
 
ItsHot wrote: "I have noticed the comparison of the Geek Suad and Starbucks( "Bigbucks") So this makes me wonder about the American consumer???"

1) People are in general complete idiots.

2) With the ever increasing transience when people get to that new city they don't have any personal relationships with servicers (if they ever did) so gravitate to franchise operators for all sorts of things. For the ones who do think it through they'll rationalize that if they have a problem they have a BIG company to go after.

3) People are idiots.

4) Advertising and clean cut staff and trucks give them a warm feeling.

5) People are idiots.
 
500 for a plasma install

500 for a plasma install

Is like half price. When you add up the items a la carte they usually total 1000 bucks to hang a 1000$ TV. It is good money and nice work but you have to be able to produce a picture on the screen before you get paid. You can get the cables on ebay for about 20 bucks in bulk and the customers are happy when you leave them with a new plasma install in HD.
 
emahler said:
Here is an example of a busy company...but not profitable...

CHRISTENSON SOLD?Microfield Group (stock symbol MICGB.OB) has sold off Christenson Electric, a respected electrical contractor in Portland, Ore. The buyer is CEI Acquisition, Houston, which made the purchase for $1.65 million (plus the assumption of nearly $8 million of debt). Christenson?s sales were not given, but the company has 400 workers and ?several hundred trucks,? making it a pretty big electrical contractor. Microfield, which lost $1 million on $17.7 million in sales in its most recent quarter, will now focus all efforts on its EnergyConnect subsidiary.


unfortunately 90% of this industry will only see $17.7 million, and miss the part about losing $1mil
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A good example, of how down in the Mud this industry is in.
 
celtic said:
If this industry is so down - WHY was that company (and it's debt) bought?
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will now focus all efforts on its EnergyConnect subsidiary.

It's for sure they were in the mud, to loose that much money.
 
You go to a Doctor's office, sit and wait for 15 minutes to 1 hour, speak with the Doctor for 5 minutes and get his opinion. Get some drugs or another appointment. You pay $100 - $150 for seeing him/her for 5 minutes and you did all the legwork.

I fight traffic, show up with my work vehicle (took $ to get it here, plus my time), I spend 15 minutes listening to you and check out your problems, and then you expect me to work for nothing? If you do this, then you don't value yourself. At least try to recoup some gas money and direct labor cost.

There is no such thing as a free estimate. It's just a matter of who is paying for it, the customer or the contractor.
 
growler said:
Sounds like a bait and switch to me because you can't snake drains for $45 and stay in business. To hire a journeyman plumber would cost at least $30 an hours for every hour on the clock then add in overhead and they would be working at a loss.

I'll bet they don't leave many homes with a check for $45 dollars.

If you are working for yourself and only charge $45 an hour then you are better off to throw your license away and go get a job ( at least you will get a pay check and you can get $45 an hour doing side work, cash with no overhead ). :grin: :grin:
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You are not required to have a Plumbers license to snake a drain
 
jrannis said:
You are not required to have a Plumbers license to snake a drain
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I understand that you wouldn't need a plumbers license to snake a drain but how many drain snaking services have you seen. Most drains are snaked by plumbers because they expect to get more work than just snaking the the drain ( the problem may be bigger).If you run a plumbing service in most states you have to have a journeyman plumber on the service truck. If they are not plumbers then they are just handymen and you can't compare handymen prices to real contractors.

I had no idea that there were even enough drains that needed to be snaked to make a full time business of it.:grin: :grin:
 
we had an outfit like that in our neck of the woods for years...only snaked drains...they sent the plumbing work to plumbers, and subbed the drain cleaning from plumbers...cheap

they were fairly large, and had been around for quite awhile...

but they are gone now...even though they were 1/2 the price of a plumber, they couldn't match the advertising...the plumbers realized that they could make money on drain cleaning, so they stopped subbing it out...

and the truth is, when people need a drain cleared, they don't want to wait...they'll pay whatever you charge them...
 
How about ...... screen your calls better.

I will still do free estimates but it has to be when Im in the area, and usually after work hours or first thing as not to cut into my work day. I do have fome "freebee" time in my work week to do estimating. I do not advertise and budget resourses for sales calls such as estimates.
 
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