Fed Up !

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Tunna

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Hi all, I dont know about you but i'm getting fed up of pricing jobs and days later being asked to lower the price or being told "sorry unless you can match the other chaps price then we'll go with him" and theres no way i can lower my price as its to the bone now. just priced a job for over skimming a ceiling and one wall around a days work, fuel to get there and materials and this other chaps doing it for £55.00 all in. I've just paid out for a cscs card, i've got over heads to pay for, (insurance, advertising, plus other things), Hows a chap like me to compete with that sort of pricing going around in my area. the jobs hard enough. I know its a competitive world out there but come on. And just wait and see if the work this chaps done falls off and i'll get the phone call to fix it for them (happend before) (at double the price). :RpS_cursing:
 
Mate let them get on with it, its not worth getting out of bed for that sort of money, you cant run a business on peanuts, you can earn more on a firm with no stress.
What does this guy do for a job i bet his boss doesnt question his salary.
 
Yeah you've got to remember you/I work for our selves sod the job and like you said at that price it's got to a sh*t job and charge double to put it right
 
Its the same all over the country mate, i get the same in chesire its a piss take. Hope you have better luck on future quotes
 
unfourtanetly tunna, this forum is going to see more and more comments like yours over this next 12 months
 
It has changed so much, we have lost some clients to cheaper people ,funny that the client does not even notice they are slower and less able.Cheaper does it every time..
 
im not supried by this at all.. you would think people wouldnt put up with a shite job but they do......cos its cheap.........seems reputations mean very little to some people now a days.......:RpS_thumbdn:
 
ive had the same as you capital ive never had such a bad run of pricing almost everyone saying to expensive ive managed to get a few little bits but nothing substantial really
 
Tunna said:
Hi all, I dont know about you but i'm getting fed up of pricing jobs and days later being asked to lower the price or being told "sorry unless you can match the other chaps price then we'll go with him" and theres no way i can lower my price as its to the bone now. just priced a job for over skimming a ceiling and one wall around a days work, fuel to get there and materials and this other chaps doing it for £55.00 all in. I've just paid out for a cscs card, i've got over heads to pay for, (insurance, advertising, plus other things), Hows a chap like me to compete with that sort of pricing going around in my area. the jobs hard enough. I know its a competitive world out there but come on. And just wait and see if the work this chaps done falls off and i'll get the phone call to fix it for them (happend before) (at double the price). :RpS_cursing:
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how big was the ceiling and wall m8 how can you compete with prices like that sooner work in mc Donald's
 
it is times like this that you need your contacts and friends.
the city boys are getting their bonus and are having work done.
the local councils and spending their money by placing orders that have to be completed by the end of march
remember it will be survival of the fittest, so get your arses out there
 
malc said:
it is times like this that you need your contacts and friends.
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Malc, at times like this I think the OP needs to consider moving!
I thought things were bad in my 'neck-of-the-woods', until I read this post, I now feel like a millionaire!
How could any 'trade' contact insult a 'tradesman' with those rates, even if he is only a plasterer? Insulting!
 
Tunna said:
Hi all, I dont know about you but i'm getting fed up of pricing jobs and days later being asked to lower the price or being told "sorry unless you can match the other chaps price then we'll go with him" and theres no way i can lower my price as its to the bone now. just priced a job for over skimming a ceiling and one wall around a days work, fuel to get there and materials and this other chaps doing it for £55.00 all in. I've just paid out for a cscs card, i've got over heads to pay for, (insurance, advertising, plus other things), Hows a chap like me to compete with that sort of pricing going around in my area. the jobs hard enough. I know its a competitive world out there but come on. And just wait and see if the work this chaps done falls off and i'll get the phone call to fix it for them (happend before) (at double the price). :RpS_cursing:
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Iknow its getting mental we are being dragged down with eastern euro plasterers doing cash in hand and legging it back home after 3 weeks here a few leave good work others were terrible but aberdeen are getting this prob all the time
 
I always call their bluff when they ring up and they have had a cheaper quote so unless I can at least match it they will have to go with them. Why on earth would they waste the cost of a phone call to get the apparent same job done for the same price? You would simply go with the cheaper guy! So no, I never come down in price I am cheap enough as it is.

It is getting harder though. I average 1 in 6 jobs I price for it use to be 1 out of 3. I think this year prices are going to be tighter but we all have ourselves to blame. Plasterers have always undercut themselves and lowered the prices because they can. Now plumbers and sparky's their a different breed altogether. Sparky across the road from me charges £200 a day, works 5 1/2 days a week and is turning work away. Meanwhile I am frozen off with only 5 days work on the cards.
 
Goldfinch said:
Malc, at times like this I think the OP needs to consider moving!
I thought things were bad in my 'neck-of-the-woods', until I read this post, I now feel like a millionaire!
How could any 'trade' contact insult a 'tradesman' with those rates, even if he is only a plasterer? Insulting!
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it is the tradesman that should be making the quotes not the customer!
things a not to bad in my neck of the woods either, but if i run short of work i know who to contact.
our jan. work was covered in the autumn,
 
2009 there was no work at all. 2013 there's work but no money. So what do you do, sit at home and starve or go to work and starve. Either way the debts keep piling up.
 
Capital spread said:
2009 there was no work at all. 2013 there's work but no money. So what do you do, sit at home and starve or go to work and starve. Either way the debts keep piling up.
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Thats the choice most of us are faced with.
Stay home and starve quickly, or work and starve a bit slower....hopefully til things pick up.

What else can we do?

Its a sad state of affairs, especially with how hard the graft is. It aint a trade...its a craft.

We should be the highest paid people in the construction industry!
 
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Had a bloke ring me tonite got work to start in March bout 9 months work £130 a day he says no it aint i says its £150 same as it was last year cheeky cnt.
 
They're just ruining it for everyone else selfish bastards, and what can they possibly live off after that anyway? ...toenail clippings?
 
if they phone you back saying another plasterers quoted this much will U beat that U no there going to have you on. Plus there probs to tight to make U a cuppa
 
Thanks all you lot made my day seeing all these replies, after the day i've had, so bored sitting around i've done one of my ppi's and today a letter came from the loan comp and it said "NO" , a bad day at the office but thanks lads.
 
A client i do private work, and have done for a number of years, asked for a quote, which I gave him, he then suggested I lower my price to equal or better another quote.

I argued the toss with him, stating that price competition was fine, but my price was the price I wanted to complete the work, and his other quoted price was a joke, which essentially was dumming down a skilled trade.

I told him to accept the other price and to let me know what the other fella's work was like. As soon as I said this, he gave me the job, stating he didn't want to take the risk on someone else s work.

The point being, not all clients can see the wood for the trees, but if tactfully dealt with, they can be persuaded to see sense.
 
sad to say but its the same all over in general ! jan and feb are gut wrenching months waiting for the phone to ring ? all you can do is expand your network of friends sometimes a bit of a favor goes a long way ? my mates a chippy and if he needs a chuck ill throw in with him ,got to do whatever these days if its there....
 
maybe we should take potential customers who want work done for nowt on to Jezza kyle and let him sort the pricing out......................:RpS_thumbup:
 
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