Charging for parts

[newcomers]

Hi guys,

say someone needs a gas valve, and the cost of the valve is £50, would you add anything onto this price?

Also, how would you price up changing a gas valve? Do you simply have an hourly rate and do it that way, or do you have standard amounts you charge?

If you have standard prices, how do you come to deciding how much to charge....i.e gas valves, pumps, diverter valves, fans, prv's etc etc

Im knew to the private sector and dont really know what I can get away with charging (im north london / Herts)

Thanks

 

[Nige F]

12/6d per hour plus 3d a mile for bicycle tyres

 

[Agile]

To newcomer! I am most concerned by your cowboy attitude of wanting to charge "whatever you can get away with".

I expect everyone in the industry to want to make a reasonable living but NOT to rip off any of their customers. We have BG as the high point and its easy to undercut them both on quality and on price.

There is the list price quoted by HRPC etc. but in this day and age internet sellers seriously under cut their prices.

The average customer is able to look at mail order boiler spares firms and then quote back the price excluding 17.5% VAT and £5 carriage.

We charge the HRPC trade price plus £10 if we have to make a special visit the same day to collect it. If the customer complains we let them obtain it themselves and fit it a few days later when it arrives but we dont guarantee it !!! A typical customer "trick" is to quote the mail order price excluding vat and carriage.

We charge a fixed price diagnostic fee to identify the fault and then we fit any replacement part free of charge. We operate a no-fix no-fee guarantee and we dont fit and charge for parts that are not needed.

We charge a fixed price diagnostic fee so we dont charge by the hour for incompetence in not finding the fault. It really makes me sad to see so many firms charging by the hour when they have no diagnostic skills at all.

Tony

 

[newcomers]

I didnt mean in as in ripping them off but as in not wanting to charge more than anyone else

So you dont charge to fit parts? How do you make money exactly?

 

[Trance Nation]

I didnt mean in as in ripping them off but as in not wanting to charge more than anyone else

So you dont charge to fit parts? How do you make money exactly?

I was going to ask that question too.

I assume Agile operates a similar kinda policy to BG where he'll charge say £120 diagnostic fee for example, thus covering the cost of the part too ? Or maybe not...........

That begs a q actually. Maybe a bit personal but how can that be possible really ? Unless there is a top price for parts included in the diagnostic charge where all expensive parts are extra ?

 

[corgiman]

i think we just ask for the retail price ( the price a regular one off client would pay if they went in the shop and brought it) and charge that

and good point, how do you pay your bills tony

 

[newcomers]

Ok so for parts you tend to charge what you pay for them, but what about for the work?

Say you charge £45 an hour, and it took 1 hour to change a gas valve, would you still charge £45? Some people I know have different prices for different jobs, no matter how long it takes. For example, they would charge £45 + part to change a prv (about ten mins, if that) but about £120-£150 + part to change a gas valve (under an hour)

So how do you determine how much to charge for each job?

 

[DP]

I show the client HRPC retail prices and charge the printed price.

If the client wants to supply the part himself, then be it, but I would charge for wasted time if part incorrect, or even not bother going back if I am being messed about.

 

[corgiman]

Ok so for parts you tend to charge what you pay for them, but what about for the work?

Say you charge £45 an hour, and it took 1 hour to change a gas valve, would you still charge £45? Some people I know have different prices for different jobs, no matter how long it takes. For example, they would charge £45 + part to change a prv (about ten mins, if that) but about £120-£150 + part to change a gas valve (under an hour)

So how do you determine how much to charge for each job?

IMO if you charge 45 per hour then that is what you charge

if it takes 59mins that is one hour charge, if it takes ten minutes ( and if it does then you cannot be paying much attention to safety issues and saftey checks) then that is also 45

 

[ollski]

I charge same as dp on parts. On labour I charge a fixed price on how long I estimate the job will take. Unfortunately as a newbie you will need to do the same as you can't really expect the customer to fund your learning.

 

[ChrisR]

I don't see anything wrong in the way Tony does it. The flat fee is for labour, parts extra . Sometimes it'll be £84 (or whatever) for something small, other times it'll take 3 visits. He's taking the risk of a troublesome, time-heavy fix away from the customer.

I don't do it that way because I don't see the need. I find people accept that some jobs cost more than others. I also charge "HRPC" prices for parts. I've got a fair bit of cash tied up in parts, so I don't have to go off to get them and return another day. So I charge for that.
I don't generally find that people have looked up a part on the internet, and if they do, as soon as they realise it'll take a couple of days to come they don't mind paying for convenience.
If I haven't got the part and have to go miles to get it, that's difficult sometimes. There's always what someone on a forum like this call "white bulls*it" - you can say something like yes, you're going to charge for going off to get the part it looks like you'll need, but you won't be charging if it's the wrong part. They have the choice of getting the part themselves, (but by implication, it may be wrong, and you'll have to come another time...)

The phrase "as much as I can get away with" sounds nasty. "As much as the market will stand and keep me busy" is realistic, surely, and amounts to something similar?

I daresay we could debate the moralities of pricing until the dogs come home. I charge for how long a job would take me do do again, if I've just done it for the first time and it's taken ages, but that's a personal choice.

If you're changing a pump and the valves work, it's 15 minutes, but if they need changing and the system won't refill, it's hours. So if you quote £200 and it takes 20 minutes, what then?
Suppose you replace a part where the mfrs retail price is say £150, but you know you can use the same thing without their badge on it which costs say £30 (WE know what that mght be..). Do you charge £150, or £30, or something in between?

Travel's another bone to chew - people accept that going into London is extra, but if you don't happen to be in their town, tough! If I have to travel more than about 20 minutes each way, ie 7-8 miles, the price goes up, whether they know it or not.

Sometimes I charge very little, if a job's small and local - can pay dividends in goodwill and future work.

 

[kevplumb]

Sometimes I charge very little, if a job's small and local - can pay dividends in goodwill and future work.

nice attitude chris (it's what i do )

 

[Softus]

If you have standard prices, how do you come to deciding how much to charge....i.e gas valves, pumps, diverter valves, fans, prv's etc etc

Im knew to the private sector and dont really know what I can get away with charging (im north london / Herts)

Thanks

newcomer, I don't know quite how you mean this to come across, but frankly it's mildly cheeky. All self-employed tradespeople, most of whom are also business owners, gained their business knowledge by some careful thought and some trial and error. I don't know about others, but what you're hoping to gain, in terms of knowledge, is more than I'm prepared to give away for free.

If you want to pay for some business consultancy then there are people I could you put you in touch with, but don't forget that something you don't pay for often isn't worth very much.

 

[simond]

I think the Softus comment about advice given for free not being worth anything is one of his most candid moments.

So, for once, I have to concur with him.

 

[Paul Barker]

I have been pasing on savings to the customer. That is I give them the option, local hrpc has one in stock I can fit it today iot will cost £X, but this company on the web does reconditioned ones which cost 1/2 £X plus postage and maybe staying in every morning to make sure you don't miss it if it is important to you that you get your hot water back on.

Actually the most common scenario is the guys at local parts centre haven't a clue what I'm talking about and even if I quote manufacturers part number they still claim it isn't available. Whereas Gas Spares Preston immediately latch onto it have stock and get it to me next day. They are more expensive but you get an expert on the end of the phone who always knows what you mean and is also much more likely to carry stock, and it has always arrived the very next day.

For all these options the customer pays costs, I charge for my time.

I have given up keeping parts from old boilers that looked ok when I took the boiler off the wall for old ladies and poor people. This is because my life is already too cluttered and usually the part doiesn't work when you finally find it at the bottom of the pile, and you have wasted effort for FREE fitting it. I originally came into the trade with my nurses social conscience head on, but I have found that you have to have e certain amount of business acumen to survive in the trade because the initially hidden costs are now swamping us out of existence. We need to be very commercial to carry the excessive costs imposed upon us.

In this area keeping stock on the van is not viable there is such a range of manufacturers products, vertually every call out mneans two vistsis, many of them three.

Consequently it isn't a commercially viable business, parapatetic boiler repairs in Scarborough, because of the many guys doing all this for £35. I have met someone who charges £75 but he is in Filey and spoends most of his time fitting luxury bathrooms, you know the ones where the basin costs £2,500. I would like to think that we could pull the area up by it's boots and start to get £55 per job, but I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall. I believe that at the moment boiler repairs is a social service which generates goodwill for the business.

I'm still waiting for a young couple with new baby to pay me (thier cheque bounced) for fixing their linea 24, it needed a nob like they all do and a gas valve has worked without missing a beat since, because the gas valve costs a lot of money and I make no profit on selling it, I am severely out of pocket.

Therefore there must become a new policy of charging a markup on everything so that the payers can subsidise the non payers instead of me.