When Customer Says You're Too Expensive

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Discuss When Customer Says You're Too Expensive in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

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Mrs Tara Plumbi

This is what we say:
"We're booked up with work for months so we are not too expensive, we may be out of your budget.
You say you had another quote and it is significantly cheaper.
Have you thought perhaps the other quote is too cheap?
Why not phone them and ask them how come they are so cheap."

Recently we had such a call.
We didn't drop the price at al.
And we did get the job!
 
I normally say 'no problem, hope you get sorted'. Then they will start on with the dropping the price etc. At which point they get a 'goodbye'. Anybody chewing on about the price before you start is going to be a real pain at the end of the job when you want your money.
 
When faced with this i never drop the price, as that proves you have over priced it in the first place! but i ALWAYS leave a business card, and say "just in case the cheap guy won't come back to fix the problems"
 
We've had customers come back saying they've had a much cheaper quote. Sometimes it's firms 'buying in' work to keep their blokes going, other times the firm has missed something minor such as boilers or pipework :lol:. Had one customer accepted a quote from a new firm which was 2/3 ours, then came back to us before the job was 1/4 done as the other lot had gone bust!
 
We have something similar


when they rings and ask us to lower our price as they've had a cheaper quote , I say yea course no problem where would you like me to save the cost

on materials or the quality of our work.


ooo no I want them as per your quote


well you have our price then


id say 80-90% go with us
 
This is a difficult point because I hate having to haggle but depending on what it is I will haggle, this is very hypocritical.

I will haggle over the price of a car or if I am in a shop, buying a new tv, I will haggle over luxury items.

I also search the internet for cheaper prices then go to the shop armed with this information, I explain that, I understand that the local shop can't match the internet price but I ask how close can they get to it!

This is all done with good humour and in person, never on the phone! your approach and character don't come across on the phone but do in person.

The last time this happened to me I asked to see the other quote, it was a bathroom, I had taken the side panel off of the bath it had been leaking and the floor needed to be replaced, the other quote hadn't taken this into account, I explained this to the customer and they said they'd go for the cheaper quote. I wished them all the best and left.

I think for me its the way the conversation/haggle is conducted, in an aggressive manner "your ripping me off" or "Mate, help me out a bit,"

Its easy to compare a tv, I want a Sony 32 CDI, I can get it for £400 incl delivery. You have a place to start.

This job is different: I quote for a glow worm, you quote is for a WB, I quote for plastic pipe, you quote for copper, all most people look at is the bottom figure.... they don't know the difference (or care) whether its a WB or Ariston, they all do the same.........

People begrudge paying for boilers etc, they are not glamourous there shiny new is, "look at my shiny new mercedes everyone, look how well I am doing" not the same if you say to someone "look at my shiny new boiler, heats the water in seconds, the heating is lovely, my radiators are really shiny"

I try not to take this personally or as an attack on me but it is difficult.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Used before on the Forum, but still a goodie:

RedAdair.jpg
 
It depends on the job. If its 50 quid on a boiler change then I might listen. If its a fiver on a toilet siphon then they can poke it!
 
HAd a production manager guy from a factory wanting a refrb n the restroom - put in a quote - he rang me up saying he had a budget of x amount and my quote was about £200 over that - could i do anything like use cheaper materials ?

From his tone I knew he wanted to give me the job so i said I'd se what i Could do. So i managed to squeeze a bit out of the merchant and dropped my labour by £70. He was made up I still used as stuff and didn't really lose much
 
£70 on a +£3k job is worth it least he let me know but I guess it wasn't his money
 
mjt said:
£70 on a +£3k job is worth it least he let me know but I guess it wasn't his money
Click to expand...

More often than not though a little wheeling and dealing like that leads to more work in the future which more than pay's back that £70
 
don't mind haggling as long as I still get a good day rate, usually its the materials they cut back on, less tiles, cheaper bath etc, but If somebody is blatantly taking the mick then I will walk away. had a quote the other day, custard said "your young" as soon as I walked in, moaned about my phone manner asked how much and when I gave a rough price she said "your the same price as British Gas" I was so shocked I didn't know what to say, but should of said "go and get a quote from BG" I quoted £4000 in the end, well over my estimate as definitely didn't want that job...
 
Farmers ar the worst for haggling! never had one not doing it yet , or they say "how much for cash then" after you name your price, to which i reply with a smile "that price was for cash" , that usually ends it!
 
Always add a bit on for farmers. Then give them half of what you added. There happy, your happy sorted.
 
CXR100 said:
Farmers ar the worst for haggling! never had one not doing it yet , or they say "how much for cash then" after you name your price, to which i reply with a smile "that price was for cash" , that usually ends it!
Click to expand...

Farmers are terrible like! They claim poverty! You always see them in nice machinery an that! I was with a heating firm and did a big job for a farmer, he agreed a price and we did the work, I found out a few week later they where refusing to pay the full amount!
 
on any bigger job I do an estimate and get customer to sign agreement for work to go ahead and cancellation procedure if less than 7 days cooling off period and work is starting. Its a door to door salesman type agreement as required now for all of us under trading standards requirements and if the blighters then refuse payment etc youve got a simple contract with their signature to use in court process and your ahead of the game already.
 
jase158 said:
and when I gave a rough price she said "your the same price as British Gas" I was so shocked I didn't know what to say, ..
Click to expand...

We get similar on the phone...They've called Heateam, WB , BG or who ever and then they call us and tell me on the phone that that other company are too expensive. That i why they are calling us. I reassure them that we will almost certainly charge a similar price and might charge more!
Why assume we will be cheaper? Our materials may well cost more than those big firms.
 
secret squirrel said:
This is a difficult point because I hate having to haggle but depending on what it is I will haggle, this is very hypocritical.

I will haggle over the price of a car or if I am in a shop, buying a new tv, I will haggle over luxury items..........
I think for me its the way the conversation/haggle is conducted, in an aggressive manner "your ripping me off" or "Mate, help me out a bit,"....
Click to expand...

I think you make some good points.
Actually we do "help out" customers who seem like they will be nice to work for but can't afford the higher prices.

No-one wants to spend money on new heating - that would just be just strange!

Most of our work is bathrooms and general house renovations - these are luxuries to some extent -
I think some if the "your too expensive" comments come because people don't realise just How expensive these things are and then are not comparing like with like when they get a cheaper quote.

For the most part I don't think we can just slice off a chunk off the profit when we send out a quote for £10,000 bathroom - as other have said we would have to change the quality of the materials - which can easily be achieved but customers rarely do that - if anything they usually end up spending more.

Perhaps we price things too low! :)
 
The most important part of what you are posting about is really - THE DEPOSIT !

For new domestic customers and small commercials I always write a contract and
have a deposit up front - boilers can cost £1000 - I dont leave them in peoples
homes without some commitment from them.

Its the best way - a deposit is a legal agreement for my outfit to complete
and the customer to pay the final - it also gets them into the idea that
we are working together - and real money has to change hands

Its just our way - under £300 no but above ALWAYS

centralheatking
 
I have been known to drop £500 over a £7500 luxury bathroom ONCE then I got home and KICKED THE CAT and had a think and got it all back in spades on extras
croppie said:
More often than not though a little wheeling and dealing like that leads to more work in the future which more than pay's back that £70
Click to expand...
 
if the house isnt that nice, old tv, old clothes ect ect and you can see they are struggling i usually go a bit cheaper, because they are allways repairs , bursts leaks ect, i just cut £20 off for example, then the next huge house i get a bathroom job and a nice bmw outside and a huge plasma in the living room i just charge them a bit more!
 
CXR100 said:
if the house isnt that nice, old tv, old clothes ect ect and you can see they are struggling i usually go a bit cheaper, because they are allways repairs , bursts leaks ect, i just cut £20 off for example, then the next huge house i get a bathroom job and a nice bmw outside and a huge plasma in the living room i just charge them a bit more!
Click to expand...

and guess which one will pay up immediately or before the jobs finished, not the beemer owner but those that are struggling along, so I dont mind doing a deal for people like that:)
 
We but this on are adds

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten

Says it all and filters out the divs you never wanted to work for anyway
 
WOW! Appreciate and understand the views expressed here about not dropping your prices or being asked to haggle in order to get the work but I'm shocked at the general attitude revealed in these posts towards your customers. Not all of us are tight devils looking for someone to work for slave wages .... but it seems, judging from this thread, that there exists in the plumbing world a widely held pre-conceived notion that the customer is in some way mentally deficient, naturally deceitful and an overall thoroughly bad lot. Heart warming!
Thanks for the 'heads up', I'll now treat all future contacts with the plumbing fraternity with a great deal more suspicion than has been my practice up to now.
 
AndyJ said:
WOW! Appreciate and understand the views expressed here about not dropping your prices or being asked to haggle in order to get the work but I'm shocked at the general attitude revealed in these posts towards your customers. Not all of us are tight devils looking for someone to work for slave wages .... but it seems, judging from this thread, that there exists in the plumbing world a widely held pre-conceived notion that the customer is in some way mentally deficient, naturally deceitful and an overall thoroughly bad lot. Heart warming!
Thanks for the 'heads up', I'll now treat all future contacts with the plumbing fraternity with a great deal more suspicion than has been my practice up to now.
Click to expand...

Are you reading the same thread? Where did a terrible attitude towards customers arise? You seem to labour under the impression we work for the love of the job.

We don't. There's insurances, trade registrations, tool upkeep, van upkeep, ongoing training, fuel, tax, registration body fees and so on. That's before we can consider our wages.

Please post up where you live as you actually drop into the small bracket of customers you describe us as viewing all customers.

And your first post too, digging up an old thread. Hmmmm.......
 
i dropped my price for my girlfriends mate other daymoved some rads for here so drained system and refilled checked all rads and off i went ,

later that eve she phoned said i missed a rad and it was cold and she didnt know what to do so tried to explain and got no where .

so today i go back a 35 mile trip to do this no extra charge and price was cheap in first instance ,if i charged full rate i'd be happier but hey ho it happens no complaining to much
 
lame plumber said:
and guess which one will pay up immediately or before the jobs finished, not the beemer owner but those that are struggling along, so I dont mind doing a deal for people like that:)
Click to expand...

Just finished my 2nd job for a really nice lady who lives in an estate in Lincoln that is known for being rather deprived to say the least. The lady is riddled with arthritis but couldn't be nicer. She has tipped me more in tips than all my other customers in the last year combined.

I am starting to agree that those with money are the least generous tbh.
 
There's a lot of truly nice people out there that are grateful for our help and assistance and for us it's extremely rewarding to help these folk, there are a fair amount of snakes though unfortunately...
 
When someone tells me I'm not the cheapest quote I say "good because I plan to do it properly using good equipment and if there are any problems I will resolve them right away, if I was too cheap you wouldn't be getting good service would you, here's my card feel free to give me a call if you go for the cheap option and need it fixed if the original person can't come back"
 
The reality is "how much for cash" should be £20 more as banks now charge you to put cash in
 
I suppose it is a bit hypocritical to moan about them haggling as I'm sure we all so when buying cars etc, same with comparing quotes for flights and car hire etc, however when I'm getting work done I never haggle, but that is because I have used the same people for years, I tell them what I want ask for advice on the options if appropriate they get me price A and price B I decide and pay them, I wouldn't embarrass my self by asking if the could do anything with the price because I know their work and trust them to do a good job for me
If anyone asks me " can you do anything with the price" I say "yes I can add £50 to it no problem"
 
Id say the main problem with a lot of customers is that price is there only thought. You have to get them thinking about something else, such as the quality of service, how fast you can get out to them, that you will be there for aftercare if anything ever goes wrong etc. Definitely never get in an argument about the price or you have lost before you start.
 
Andy j

This forum and others alike are riddled with people posting under titles such as am I being ripped off? Or disaster please help.

more often then not the disaster please help posts used the cheapest quote they had,

the am I being ripped off are rightly querying if the high price they were quoted was fair.

but we give advise and try not to pass judgement on their views of tradesman much as we would hope you wouldn't pass judgement on us for defending our prices.

the majority of us on the forum come here because we care, why else would we spend our out of hours time talking to other plumbers and general public. As a result you can be assured that we fit the best products we can for the clients budget and in the event that a problem should arise we will stand by our work and rectify it should it be needed. If not it would be easy to come here and shame us in front of everyone and that would be more then embarrassing to any of us.

i would suggest that perhaps you have a read back through the forum and read the advise given to people who have suffered the work of amateurs and weekend warriors.

in fact there are even a few posts where people have offered to attend elderly relatives of people posting for the price of a cup of tea.

Not such a bad bunch after all.
 
AndyJ said:
WOW! Appreciate and understand the views expressed here about not dropping your prices or being asked to haggle in order to get the work but I'm shocked at the general attitude revealed in these posts towards your customers. Not all of us are tight devils looking for someone to work for slave wages .... but it seems, judging from this thread, that there exists in the plumbing world a widely held pre-conceived notion that the customer is in some way mentally deficient, naturally deceitful and an overall thoroughly bad lot. Heart warming!
Thanks for the 'heads up', I'll now treat all future contacts with the plumbing fraternity with a great deal more suspicion than has been my practice up to now.
Click to expand...

Yes, as you say, "not all of" you customers are "tight devils" - but how is a plumber to know which customers are not skinflints? A lot of people are very mean, whether on low or high income & will not sacrifice their lifestyles but will want tradespeople to work for very little.
"Mentally deficient, ....deceitful, ... thoroughly bad," is your words, but sometimes true of a lot of customers.
My experience of people is a lot are deceitful to some extent & only interested in themselves.
A lot try to avoid full payment if any at all. That I would call Bad.
As to mentally deficient, - many customers are lacking in basic reasoning or education sadly & that's a fact. They must assume us plumbers are mentally deficent to believe the lies they tell us!!
It's a pity that many of them can't work out simple maths & realise that costs for a qualified man in a van is more than £10 hour.
You say you are now going to treat plumbers with suspicion? - I agree you should & you should treat anyone in the future who is ever in any field, a customer of yours with suspicion also & be careful what every word they utter is actually leading to.
We have had the "heads up" about a lot of customers out there long ago, - it's called experience.
 
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there are certain customers you know will be asking for a discount as soon as you give them a price just stick enough on to give them the satisfaction of getting the price knocked down to where you wanted it anyway every ones happy
 
Interesting thread. Had an existing customer get in touch today. Have just quoted them for a replacement shower enclosure, tray and shower panelling. Amazing how his budget was a nice round figure just a bit lower than my quote.

Upshot of it was he was asking for around 16% off the bill which would have meant me taking a 50% cut in labour for the job. Politely declined but instead offered to fit a few lights for him around the house which he had previously asked me to do..

I was tempted to tell him, no worries, lets put the job off for another month or so so you can save up the extra and get it done then...

Will see what happens but for me I am in the lucky position of being able to say no to work. Times were not always so good, especially in 2009 when I started my business!!
 
Just got a call this evening. Got the job he tried to negotiate with me on yesterday. Amazing how he has finally found another £280 overnight!! Call me cynical but I suspect he wasn't being entirely honest with me yesterday..
 
When the ask me to drop price I reply - where would you like me to save the cost on the quality of the materials I use or the quality of or workmanship ?

Cue the tumbleweed
 
BOD said:
We have something similar


when they rings and ask us to lower our price as they've had a cheaper quote , I say yea course no problem where would you like me to save the cost

on materials or the quality of our work.


ooo no I want them as per your quote


well you have our price then


id say 80-90% go with us
Click to expand...

BOD said:
When the ask me to drop price I reply - where would you like me to save the cost on the quality of the materials I use or the quality of or workmanship ?

Cue the tumbleweed
Click to expand...

Cue the alzheimer's :50:
 
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