There are Tradies and Then There are Tradies

Paving – give Captive Landscapes a call.

They landscaped our whole backyard and we were very happy with the perice and service. Paving done was excellent.

Wow that sparky was a bargain, it sounds like YOU ripped him off! I doubt he would of made any money from that, what was the brands of GPO’s and lights he used? He probably could have only afforded a big mac meal at maccas with profit he made off that one.

The electrician was a bargain, sure, but I think you may be taking that a little far, what do you count as profit?

The supplies cost for a Job like that (1 indoor outlets, lets assume double here, 3 light fittings, and 1 outdoor socket, again, i’ll go double) would easily fit in at under $50, so labour @$250 for 3 hours?

Thats over $80ph, and yep, this guy really is a bargain, others would charge a heck of alot more for the same job.

BTW, I’m not having a go at the electrician here, he sounds great, and considering this is a skilled proffesion, involving deadly voltages, and a mistake could wind up one day killing a customer, His rates are fine.

Jethro said :

Have you considered doing it yourself. It’s not an overly difficult job.

Can we put a stop to ‘do it yourself’ responses. Firstly, as has already been pointed out, there are numerous reasons why people cannot do it themselves, ranging from disability to age to strength and knowledge. Secondly, the response implies that the person seeking professional assistance is too stupid to have first thought ‘I wonder whether I could do it myself’ and too stupid to have spent 5 minutes on the internet to research the difficulty of a particular activity. Patronising at best.

Maybe the rule should be ‘if you respond to a post by saying ‘do it yourself’, you have to offer to do the job for the OP’

theblues said :

Hi, can anyone recommend a good paver? We would like to pave our outdoors area (not a very big area). We are not having much luck! Please don’t recommend Bruce Works. They may be good at what they do but they are $$$$$$$. I almost had a coronary just seeing the quote for our little courtyard! We want someone reliable, shows up on time and does not drink on the job and is pleasant to deal with. Thanks.

Have you considered doing it yourself. It’s not an overly difficult job.

Hi, can anyone recommend a good paver? We would like to pave our outdoors area (not a very big area). We are not having much luck! Please don’t recommend Bruce Works. They may be good at what they do but they are $$$$$$$. I almost had a coronary just seeing the quote for our little courtyard! We want someone reliable, shows up on time and does not drink on the job and is pleasant to deal with. Thanks.

Fair enough – my mistake, $209, did that include the surliness? Cos I think this was part of the point of the post – recommending service or not based on things including, but not limited to, charges for service.

Amanda Hugankis said :

troutfisher said :

If the Plumber was only there for 4 minutes it couldn’t have been much of a job, why didn’t you do it yourself.

but……

If the job was beyond your capacity, and clearly it was, you making the mistake of confusing that you were charged for what he did, instead of being charged for what he knew.

Before you take swipes at people’s ‘capacity’ that border on the personal (“and clearly it was” …), did you stop to think that the OP might not be capable of addressing plumbing problems for themselves for a whole range of reasons – not the least of which might be a physical disability of some kind?

That aside – $300 for ‘knowledge’ is slightly on the rich side, event accounting for a call out charge.

It was $209, and it might have been an out of business hours call-out…
Some plumbing parts are quite dear, so the plumber would have had to charge to cover the part/s.

troutfisher said :

If the Plumber was only there for 4 minutes it couldn’t have been much of a job, why didn’t you do it yourself.

but……

If the job was beyond your capacity, and clearly it was, you making the mistake of confusing that you were charged for what he did, instead of being charged for what he knew.

Before you take swipes at people’s ‘capacity’ that border on the personal (“and clearly it was” …), did you stop to think that the OP might not be capable of addressing plumbing problems for themselves for a whole range of reasons – not the least of which might be a physical disability of some kind?

That aside – $300 for ‘knowledge’ is slightly on the rich side, event accounting for a call out charge.

If the Plumber was only there for 4 minutes it couldn’t have been much of a job, why didn’t you do it yourself.

but……

If the job was beyond your capacity, and clearly it was, you making the mistake of confusing that you were charged for what he did, instead of being charged for what he knew.

“….for fear of embarassing him” ?
C’mon. Bad service should lead to a bad reputation just as much as a good experience should mean future recommendations and increased business. I for one would like to avoid him.