A good analogy for all customers that think we charge too much.

[jpm]

Phone rings"Hi can I help?"
"Yes please,my heating doesn't work,we are cold and we have no hot water,but we can hear a terrible bubbling sound from the pipes in the airing cupboard "
"No probs you're only 5 miles from me,I'll be there within the hour"
Turn up,workout the system,put a motorised valve in manual,listen,tap a pipe with a hammer,vent coil on cylinder,sorted!
"That will be £70 please"
"What £70 for knocking a pipe with a hammer?you've only been here 10 minutes!"
"It's £10 for knocking the pipe and £60 for knowing why the pipe needs knocking,why it won't need knocking again and knowing why it needed knocking in the first place"
In other words knowledge is the key THIS IS A HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLE!Don't sell yourself short,while poeople are or were earning cash,you were learning,earning a pittance as an apprentice or on your own time,paying loads for a career change.If you are a customer please think about this,and if you are a plumber quoteing,don't sell yourself short.

 

[justlead1]

Hi, Clients reading some of the post must think the worst, when sixty pound an hour is talked about. Having run a 24 hour call out service i would like to assure them that multiplying it x 8 hours and 7 days does not equate to a plumbers earning. Marketing, tools, admin, transport, premises, fuel, holidays, etc make a hole in the gross. As does running the service when the phone not ringing. My standard analogy was the cost of a taxi from our depot to and from the job and the waiting time. It certainly aint all dairy.

 

[david williams]

doctor calls plumber 2am pipes knocking,plumber bangs on pipes knocking stops,that will be £100 says plumber.what! says docter i dont charge my private clients that when they call me out.plumber replies nor did i when i was a doctor.

 

[arran123]

Phone rings"Hi can I help?"
"Yes please,my heating doesn't work,we are cold and we have no hot water,but we can hear a terrible bubbling sound from the pipes in the airing cupboard "
"No probs you're only 5 miles from me,I'll be there within the hour"
Turn up,workout the system,put a motorised valve in manual,listen,tap a pipe with a hammer,vent coil on cylinder,sorted!
"That will be £70 please"
"What £70 for knocking a pipe with a hammer?you've only been here 10 minutes!"
"It's £10 for knocking the pipe and £60 for knowing why the pipe needs knocking,why it won't need knocking again and knowing why it needed knocking in the first place"
In other words knowledge is the key THIS IS A HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLE!Don't sell yourself short,while poeople are or were earning cash,you were learning,earning a pittance as an apprentice or on your own time,paying loads for a career change.If you are a customer please think about this,and if you are a plumber quoteing,don't sell yourself short.

Spot on, when you put it like that theres no argument.

 

[badbob]

Should do it for free after all isn't it your hobby? ;-)

 

[david williams]

plumbing is neigther a hoby or a trade it is a terminal illnes no mater how many times you leave it you always come back

 

[Plouasne]

I agree with D Williams, but managed to escape for the third time, when I nearly broke my back falling down stairs, then having to go back to the UK to finish a divorce, and took up bus driving for a "change of living", after driving around south west London in a bus, for a couple of years, the only time I would go back to see it, and that would be if it was glowing green, manners the UK school kids are animals and that's being derogatory to animals, French school kids are a different matter, chalk and cheese come to mind

 

[stevetheplumber]

Phone rings"Hi can I help?"
"Yes please,my heating doesn't work,we are cold and we have no hot water,but we can hear a terrible bubbling sound from the pipes in the airing cupboard "
"No probs you're only 5 miles from me,I'll be there within the hour"
Turn up,workout the system,put a motorised valve in manual,listen,tap a pipe with a hammer,vent coil on cylinder,sorted!
"That will be £70 please"
"What £70 for knocking a pipe with a hammer?you've only been here 10 minutes!"
"It's £10 for knocking the pipe and £60 for knowing why the pipe needs knocking,why it won't need knocking again and knowing why it needed knocking in the first place"
In other words knowledge is the key THIS IS A HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLE!Don't sell yourself short,while poeople are or were earning
cash,you were learning,earning a pittance as an apprentice or on your own time,paying loads for a career change.If you are a customer please think about this,and if you are a plumber quoteing,don't sell yourself short.

i always say your not paying for my time your paying for thirty years experience