So – we need our boiler looking at. The local engineer wants £70 JUST to come out to the house.

We get talking. He wants a website. My company does websites. I get our new business man to call him. So he tells us he expects (due to being able to get it elsewhere) a meeting, a 5 page website designing, one year’s hosting and email support. For £99.

So he charges nearly that just for driving 5 minutes up the road, but expects all that for a very similar amount of money.

No you can’t have it – go away. And just for beng such a cheeky ufck I won’t give you the work I have either -someone else can do it.

time to learn how to fix a boiler then mastiles, web designers are obviously ten-a-penny round your way but plumbers rare as hensteeth… 🙂

someone might call it market forces, but I wouldnt dream of it… 🙂

Well there’s web designers then there’s web DESIGNERS…

Designers are crayon boys, you need a developer if you want it done right 🙂

Do all plumbers want web sites designing for a pittance then or just this one?

Aint that the truth.

Aye £100 for all that sounds cheap as. Especially the years web support.

Web design doesn’t mean making a site look nice – a back-end needs designing, coding needs designing to perform a specific function….

And a developer can’t make the interface appear visually pleasing (which, of course, is every bit as important as the coding). We wouldn’t dream of having one person conceptualise, design, functional test, build and host a website. But this clueless plumber seems to think it is easy.

I guess my point is – he has a set value of what his work is worth, yet doesn’t appreciate that another trade has similar values – yes some poeple will offer sites for that price, but then you get what you pay for I guess…

We would normally charge much more than the £99 just to start the scoping of a site BTW – and sometimes charge for initial meetings (depending on the client) – which is very similar in essense to his £70 call-out charge.

Kn0bber.

We would normally charge much more than the £99 just to start the scoping of a site BTW – and sometimes charge for initial meetings (depending on the client) – which is very similar in essense to his £70 call-out charge.

So you charge a call-out charge for certain clients?

anyone else spotting the slight irony here ? 🙂

Why would that be ironic NBT?

You’ve generalised about plumbers in a similar way to how he’s generalised about web designers really.

Our toilet waste pipe started leaking on Friday night, coming down through the kitchen ceiling – on the bowl side, so it was clean(ish) water, luckily.

We phoned the plumber at 9 on Saturday morning. By 11:30 it was fixed and it cost us £90.

He did a similar size job on a Saturday between Christmas and New Year (bedroom radiator leaking and coming out through living room window) for the same price.

Really nice guy too, who does good work – he installed my in-laws’ central heating 20-odd years ago and they’ve never had any problems with it.

I haven’t generalised though have I? I have stated facts – he wants £70 for driving to our house (5 minutes from his) even if he doesn’t do any work.

He wants a website designing, building and hosting for £99 which would take us at least a full day just to design and build – AND he wants ongoing support*.

No generalising at all – just basic facts.

*I wonder if he would give us a year’s free support bundled with his £70 call-out charge?

Thread title = Plumbers.. Cheeky ****s

How many plumbers?

I apologise for my misleading title chapaking – I can understand how it could confuse one. I would suggest reading the actual post which should clear up any confusion you continue to experience.

perhaps (speculation) the 70 quid call out is due to him going to see people, quoting, and them not buying because they can get it cheaper elsewhere.
if youve already paid the 70quid basic fee, and the repair is only a small amount additional, it may only come to £90?
encourages the customer to go through with the work there and then??

perhaps?

But at the same time (pure speculation) it was just a radiator that needed bleeding – something I could have done myself in 10 seconds. Yet he still charges £70 for a total of 30 minutes work (including travelling time).

My point is about how he sees a value in what he does, yet thinks that there is no value in paying properly for another service – in this example a website, hosting and ongoing support.

Perhaps?

very true MF.

if you can get it cheaper elsewhere go elsewhere, if he can get cheaper elsewhere, tell him to shove off an go elsewhere.

“the ciiiiircle of liiiiife” 😉

plumbers and sparkys seem to have developed a major superiority complex over the last decade. They seem to think they can charge the same rate as doctors and dentists, for what is essentially fairly simple work. Granted they have the knowledge that joe public doesn’t, but they’re still taking the pi$$, big time.
Phone around and you’ll get it done for free, plus a cheaper repair too. There are thousands of plumbers and sparks desperate for work at the moment, I get 3-4 calls a week asking me if I have anything for them. Do everything myself now and just use 1 gas man for certificates, £40 a pop.

My Mrs used to work for a web design/hosting company that would churn out pages based on a few basic images, a theme plucked from a box of maybe 100 or so and some basic text agreed on and partially authored by the client. I think they used to charge £100 for a year inc the meeting to discuss, all the hosting, email hosting, “design and development” (i.e. copy and pasting text and images into a template). Didnt produce an overly exciting website but for thousands of small companies and individuals it was all they needed and worked.

I once developed an entire site from scratch for a company I was working for already, from the back end to the graphics and interface – it was a LONG job, a nightmare and not much fun, and the end result wasn’t great (at the time it was as good as the competitors if not better but these days it would be laughed at).

The main reason sparkies/gas/plumbers seem to charge a fortune is the cost of required training for things like corgi/part P etc which unfortunately is outside joe bloggs control. Very frustrating considering I have a copy of(and could easily apply) the part P regulations but am not allowed (despite having 2 elec eng degrees), but understandable since the cost of part P qualification and ongoing testing is high. Doesnt seem to improve their work though.

The local engineer wants £70 JUST to come out to the house.

Well it’s obvious where you went wrong. Should have called out a plumber or a gas installer instead.

coffeeking – yeah and that is precicely the sort of site he wants – and purely because he doesn’t see a value in anything better – and that is the frustration. As I have been saying – he sees a value in his work yet doesn’t think that a website is worth investing in.

I’m obviously missing something here – why should he need something flashier? Do people select a plumber based on how good their website looks?

Well said aracer 😉 (on both counts/posts)

m_f – most small companies dont want a fancy all-singing site, they just want some images and contact details so people know they exist. I pesonally dont choose a plumber by his website. In fact I rarely choose anything by their website. When I looked into doing more web design/devel for smaller companies in my area none of them were interested in paying for a fancy custom setup so I presume it’s pretty common.

I do actually sometimes choose things based on the website. If flashier involves Flash or some other such feature, then I’m likely to choose somebody else.

I totally disagree with those points (in a general sense). Obviously no-one cold comment on individual responses on a case-by-case basis, but to think that (in general) that decision-making is not influenced by the outward appearance of any given marketing tool. Be that van graphics, a website or national prime-time advertising.

The example I often use is: Assuming no prior knowledge, when looking for someone in Yellow Pages to perform any given task, you choose an advertiser (or a selection of advertisers) based on their advert – initial responses are based on reaction to what you see. This need not mean always choosing the biggest/flashest looking advertiser – people start the selection process based on reaction to the advert and whether they feel the advertiser is suitable. And how is that advert made to appear suitable to any given market?…

If anyone seriously thinks they are not influenced in this way, they are either sadly misguided or lying.

For example…

Which of these suppliers would you think would be the most professional suppliers of heating oil…

These?

or

These?

The plumber will charge what people will pay. The website design company will charge what people will pay.

Simple, innit 🙂

It’s business, there’s no code of honour.

This need not mean always choosing the biggest/flashest looking advertiser – people start the selection process based on reaction to the advert and whether they feel the advertiser is suitable.

So why doesn’t the same apply online? You seem to be wanting to sell the biggest/flashest looking website, when a basic one is perfectly sufficient to give the correct impression, given the correct content (which is after all the most important thing).

Which of these suppliers would you think would be the most professional suppliers of heating oil…

On the basis of wording used on http://www.boilerjuice.com/orderService.php (though strangely they correct themselves later), I’d pick the other one every time 👿 If you were asking me to judge on quality of website, then I prefer the info on the less flashy one – is that the right answer?

More to the point WTF does a plumber want with a website? Sign-written van – check, advert in yellow pages – check, business cards – check.

Cheeky maybe, but at least it isn’t downright criminal like lawyers are.

TBF on lawyers… My wife’s job was made redundant recently and she suspected she was chosen purely because she is pregnant. The solicitor (what TF IS the difference anyway?) spent a good hour or so appraising the case without charge before advising whether she felt my wife had a case or not.

So – in the 21st century – solicitors (and web designers) are cheaper than plumbers….

Fair do’s. Its about time we valued proper, trained tradespeople more highly in the UK.

m_f,
what was the outcome of that anyway?

I would expect web designers to be cheaper than plumbers tbh.
Any job where you could be liable for a flood, explosion or poisoning (CO) has to attract a premium.

conceptualise

Ooh, get her. Around here we only think, or maybe sometimes have ideas.

m_f, what was the outcome of that anyway?

She has formally accused them of sex discrimination and has a meeting with the chairman of the company next week. In her letter to them she outlined what she would accept as a full and final offer in order not to take the matter to a tribunal so we wait and will see…

£70 just to come take a look…
Tell him to **** awwf.
Whats wrong with the boiler anyway…?

It is a combi boiler and the blow off valve (or whatever it is called) is constantly dripping so we assume it is faulty.