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’?
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 ?
Maybe its different in your country, but in California here in the US, all these two things do is identify you as "a problem customer" so anyone would quote you more because they dont actually want the job (evidenced by the lack of response you say you get when you send this out).
I am not in either of these professions myself (nor any of the material trades, I work in IT). I am not a fan of people looking down on others, though for their profession. Not liking the pricing, sure, ok thats fine. There is a lot more that goes into a job than the actual what you see billable stuff.
There is a cost for "the truck", insurance for it, the parts they carry, etc. A "Truck roll" costs a person / company a certain amount just for showing up, even if they dont do anything, in mileage to get there, depreciation and insurance on the truck, etc.
The customer will not know or care about any of that (and that is perfectly fine). We as customers are not supposed to care about the licensing and insurance costs the electrician / plumber etc needs to pay. THEY need to care about it though, and its all part of doing business that they need to account (and bill) for.
If you get 3 quotes and they are all similar, you can rest assured that is the going rate for it, regardless of whether you think its appropriate or not. If its not, do it yourself, and thats fine too, but then to start insulting people because... im not sure, other than a need to insult people.... shrug.