Electricians Charge too much

[Forty_Two]

Anyone with a very average brain and £3,000 can train and qualify to be an electrician in 3 months. So why, when he comes to my house, does he think that degree of education, training and ability justifies £500, £600, £700 and even £800 a day?

I don’t hate them because they charge up to £100 and hour, it is in the nature of man to get as much as he can, what I hate is that he BELIEVES that his minimum educational qualifications and few months of training justify charging that.

And that goes for plumbers too!

 

[Fury1]

They only charge those rates as people pay them, and as most teenagers are not interested in a trade these days the costs will continue to rise.

 

[Temper Tantrum]

Anyone with a very average brain and £3,000 can train and qualify to be an electrician in 3 months.

You should train yourself up for 3 months then, and long term, you can do it all yourself and save (and make) a fortune.

 

[gangzoom]

Anyone with a very average brain........... I hate is that he BELIEVES that his minimum educational qualifications and few months of training justify charging that.

Nothing to stop you training up to be a plumber/electrician if you think its easy money.

As for 'average brain'......I persume you think your brain is above average and therefore better in some way?? Last time I checked we are living in 2022 not 1822 .

 

[Mrklaw]

Have you specific information to suggest thats why they think they can charge that? Isn’t the simpler explanation that they can charge whatever they can get away with and its simple supply and demand?

 

[Masklin]

I hope you’re honest and tell them your feelings when they turn up to do the work.

 

[PITA]

I live on the boarders of the Black Country in the West Midlands.

Surrounded by manufacturing and Tradespeople.

It's brilliant because they don't have to travel far, and 'mates rates' are abundant... because I don't live in a posh post code area.

I know for a fact, quotes and rates double to triple when they go to Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, Four Oaks, Knowle etc...

The more money you appear to have, the higher the quote will be.

 

[Forty_Two]

I hope you’re honest and tell them your feelings when they turn up to do the work.

I have told them, and I when I'm sorted I will put that 'feedback' on their facebook / truspilot page AND if they are on the approved installer list of a Charger company I WILL report then as 'rip offs' to them

 

[HenryT]

Anyone with a very average brain and £3,000 can train and qualify to be an electrician in 3 months. So why, when he comes to my house, does he think that degree of education, training and ability justifies £500, £600, £700 and even £800 a day?

I don’t hate them because they charge up to £100 and hour, it is in the nature of man to get as much as he can, what I hate is that he BELIEVES that his minimum educational qualifications and few months of training justify charging that.

And that goes for plumbers too!

Taking account of the tradesman's overheads, the 'cost of being in business' etc, and presumably leaving aside the cost of materials, what do you think is a fair cost to employ a tradesman for a day?

 

[PITA]

Taking account of the tradesman's overheads, the 'cost of being in business' etc, and presumably leaving aside the cost of materials, what do you think is a fair cost to employ a tradesman for a day?

£50 cash, is my final offer

 

[Roy B]

I have told them, and I when I'm sorted I will put that 'feedback' on their facebook / truspilot page AND if they are on the approved installer list of a Charger company I WILL report then as 'rip offs' to them

So let me get this straight. If they charge you what you make clear you know full well is the going rate for the job, you will publicly libel them?

 

[raymondotango]

I have told them, and I when I'm sorted I will put that 'feedback' on their facebook / truspilot page AND if they are on the approved installer list of a Charger company I WILL report then as 'rip offs' to them

Surely you must have known what the person was charging (no pun intended) in the first place?

 

[HenryT]

How can it be a 'rip-off' if you know the price in advance and then agree to it?

 

[scdoubleu]

You should train yourself up for 3 months then, and long term, you can do it all yourself and save (and make) a fortune.

On a more serious note, it's not simply a matter of training oneself up. In order to do part P notifiable work, you need to be registered with a part P scheme provider. As far as I can tell (and I looked into this because of local building control's rip-off charges for testing/signing off a simple bit of DIY electrical work), they will only accept your application if you are planning to become a "for hire" electrician.

It's a cr@p state of affairs for competent DIYers.

 

[Vinny2102]

I have told them, and I when I'm sorted I will put that 'feedback' on their facebook / truspilot page AND if they are on the approved installer list of a Charger company I WILL report then as 'rip offs' to them

Interested in what you actually do as a job so we can all ridicule your qualifications and rate of pay. Remember you have to serve a 4 year apprenticeship to be a real electrician on relatively poor wages, most electricians are on no work no pay contracts with no pensions or healthcare benefits as well as working in probably the 2nd most dangerous industry after agriculture. Do you think your bank manager sitting behind a desk and computer is worth more or less than the guy fitting your charge point or the guy who drives your train worth £70k+? And dont get me started on school teachers or civil servants.

 

[Artiste]

While I don’t agree with the original post I can’t help feeling most of the OZEV grant goes to line electrician’s pockets rather than providing a genuine discount for the customer.

 

[cryo]

Any electrician/plumber with three months training should in reality be paying you for allowing them to use your installation for part of the further 3/4 years training they require. The majority of the industry like any involved with government grants turns into a general scam these days and attracts the unscrupulous. I'm 69 and served my time as an electrician and are astounded at some of the work produced by so called electricians on the publics properties and public installations. The level of competence these days is in serious decline and speed verses money rules the day not confidence they have left/done a good and competent safe job. This does not apply to all but I would suspect at least 30%

 

[JonB]

I think the problem is you suspect you are being fleeced but you can't be sure.

I've just had a couple of quotes for a charge point installation. It's not straightforward as it requires load balancing on two circuits and so on. One quote was £250 more than the other, for the exact same charge point and configuration. So you can imagine which one I chose, despite it being just into four figures after the grant deduction. To be fair, most of that was for the charge point (most meaning "more than half") and I need a new fusebox in the garage.

 

[Forty_Two]

How can it be a 'rip-off' if you know the price in advance and then agree to it?

In my case I need some electrics upgrading before the Charger is installed which helps them make it look complicated.

If the electrician’s quote started at the top with ‘Labour Charge . 1 day £800’ followed by a list of materials used, the true cost of those materials and a total minus £350 – I may take the view that £800 was more than he deserves for that job but I would not complain and would walk away. But . . the quotes don’t come like that they come as . . do this for £x then that for £xx etc., etc,. no explicit materials specs and not material costing - ‘smoke and mirrors’ and to get to what the labour charge is I have to identify the materials, cost them and deduct that from the total, I do all that, then I send it back to them asking “is this correct, is your labour charge really £800 for one short days work” and I don’t get a reply back. I think that can be fairly described as an attempt to ‘rip off’?

 

[Forty_Two]

In my emails to these people (all of them) I have said "am I (the customer) entitled to an explicit, clear and honest quote starting with the labour charge for the job?

Am I ?