Ripped Off (1 Viewer)

bringbackrattles

Well-Known Member
A customer of mine asked me today if I thought a roofer had ripped her off for a job he'd done ? She's elderly in her 80's and wanted a few slates looking at on her roof, as she was worried rain would leak through in the winter etc. He put 4 new slates in and charged her £300.00 !!
And she got him through Age Concern, who are supposed to help the aged. I told her to complain to them,but she won't. What a bastard !
 

NorthernWisdom

Well-Known Member
A customer of mine asked me today if I thought a roofer had ripped her off for a job he'd done ? She's elderly in her 80's and wanted a few slates looking at her roof, as she was worried rain would leak through in the winter etc. He put 4 new slates in and charged her £300.00 !!
And she got him through Age Concern, who are supposed to help the aged. I told her to complain to them,but she won't. What a bastard !
If she went through Age UK's Trusted Traders (I use them! Open to all ages :D ) then he should have had to put a quote in writing first before doing the work, which she could either accept or reject.

I've no idea what a fair quote is, but if she shows the quote to Age UK then they'll know if it's fair. If he didn't give a quote, they need to know he's not following their process.
 

Captain Dart

Well-Known Member
A customer of mine asked me today if I thought a roofer had ripped her off for a job he'd done ? She's elderly in her 80's and wanted a few slates looking at on her roof, as she was worried rain would leak through in the winter etc. He put 4 new slates in and charged her £300.00 !!
And she got him through Age Concern, who are supposed to help the aged. I told her to complain to them,but she won't. What a bastard !

These days £300 is probably not massively out of bounds for a morning's work, especially if he had a workmate with him.

I remember paying something like £200 for a similar job a decade ago but I also paid about £50 for a repair only last year, though I had some tiles left over from the previous patch the roofer was able to use. Pot luck, but I've saved the lasts guys number.
 

Nick

Administrator
Was it a proper company or a bloke who was self employed? Some roofing companies probably wouldn't get out of bed for less than that I don't think :(

Some also won't work on ladders, just scaffolding
 

bringbackrattles

Well-Known Member
She did say he quoted £300.00 before the job. She said to him that sounds a lot ? He was up there about half an hour. I went up to look for her and there were 4 new ridge tiles put in. So he did a proper job, but to me 300 quid for thirty minutes work sounds dodgy ? I said shall I contact Age Concern for you,but she said her son would do it as he too was a bit pissed off with it.
 

bringbackrattles

Well-Known Member
Was it a proper company or a bloke who was self employed? Some roofing companies probably wouldn't get out of bed for less than that I don't think :(

Some also won't work on ladders, just scaffolding
My son's a roofer so I'll ask him what he'd charge ?
 

vow

Well-Known Member
She did say he quoted £300.00 before the job. She said to him that sounds a lot ? He was up there about half an hour. I went up to look for her and there were 4 new ridge tiles put in. So he did a proper job, but to me 300 quid for thirty minutes work sounds dodgy ? I said shall I contact Age Concern for you,but she said her son would do it as he too was a bit pissed off with it.
Piss take imo if he only used ladders/roof ladders and not scaffolding, as that would certainly add to the cost.
 

Otis

Well-Known Member
She did say he quoted £300.00 before the job. She said to him that sounds a lot ? He was up there about half an hour. I went up to look for her and there were 4 new ridge tiles put in. So he did a proper job, but to me 300 quid for thirty minutes work sounds dodgy ? I said shall I contact Age Concern for you,but she said her son would do it as he too was a bit pissed off with it.
You can easily pay £300 for half an hour with a hooker apparently, so this all seems pretty fair I reckon.
 

skybluetony176

Well-Known Member
I don’t think it’s that unreasonable if he’s done a good job, so long as he’s done a good job. He’s running a business, it’s not as easy as saying he was only there half an hour and replaced 4 ridge tiles. He also has the unseen expenses such as the cost of running a vehicle, various insurances etc. before you factor in how much unpaid work he does going to see people to look at jobs that he doesn’t get. You can’t expect him to take that out of his hourly rate. If he’s done a shit job and charged her £300 I’d complain but the truth is a cowboy would not have only done a shit job but probably charged her a couple of hundred quid more.
 

Astute

Well-Known Member
She did say he quoted £300.00 before the job. She said to him that sounds a lot ? He was up there about half an hour. I went up to look for her and there were 4 new ridge tiles put in. So he did a proper job, but to me 300 quid for thirty minutes work sounds dodgy ? I said shall I contact Age Concern for you,but she said her son would do it as he too was a bit pissed off with it.
Ridge tiles a fiver plus each. Then the muck to mix. Fuel costs. Time spent travelling both ways.

Not a cheap job. But not expensive either. She was lucky to find someone happy to do a small job and not charge a fortune.

I once had a burst pipe fixed on a house I rented out on new years eve. Got charged nearly £200 for 10 minutes work. Could have done it myself if I could have got the flexi pipe that was used. They cost a fiver. But was happy to get the job done.
 

skybluetony176

Well-Known Member
Aye, not bad at £600 p/h with that logic.
He's charged her too much even with taking everything else into consideration.

That’s not the logic at all. The guy has to travel to the job, between jobs, probably made multiple visits including doing the actual physical work, spends hours of his life looking at jobs quoting and then will only win a percentage of jobs he’s spent a lot of time on, pay for a van, insure a van, fill it with fuel, maintain it, buy tools, business insurance, public liability insurance etc etc. It isn’t easy running a business. For it to be £600 an hour his next £300 half hour job would have to be next door, he would have had to visit both jobs to enable him to quote at the same time etc etc. Any notion that he’s just put £300 straight in his back pocket and he’ll do that another 15 times in an 8 hour working day is naive. The bloke has a right to earn a living and if he’s done the job correctly and to a good standard £300 isn’t a bad price.
 

Marty

Well-Known Member
That’s not the logic at all. The guy has to travel to the job, between jobs, probably made multiple visits including doing the actual physical work, spends hours of his life looking at jobs quoting and then will only win a percentage of jobs he’s spent a lot of time on, pay for a van, insure a van, fill it with fuel, maintain it, buy tools, business insurance, public liability insurance etc etc. It isn’t easy running a business. For it to be £600 an hour his next £300 half hour job would have to be next door, he would have had to visit both jobs to enable him to quote at the same time etc etc. Any notion that he’s just put £300 straight in his back pocket and he’ll do that another 15 times in an 8 hour working day is naive. The bloke has a right to earn a living and if he’s done the job correctly and to a good standard £300 isn’t a bad price.

I agree, I've done jobs for people who almost expect it for free, they don't see all the hidden additional costs. We priced quite expensive purely for the fact that going into most jobs you're opening up a can of worms. Been on some jobs that have gone on for days more then they should have and have been hassle from the start.
 

vow

Well-Known Member
That’s not the logic at all. The guy has to travel to the job, between jobs, probably made multiple visits including doing the actual physical work, spends hours of his life looking at jobs quoting and then will only win a percentage of jobs he’s spent a lot of time on, pay for a van, insure a van, fill it with fuel, maintain it, buy tools, business insurance, public liability insurance etc etc. It isn’t easy running a business. For it to be £600 an hour his next £300 half hour job would have to be next door, he would have had to visit both jobs to enable him to quote at the same time etc etc. Any notion that he’s just put £300 straight in his back pocket and he’ll do that another 15 times in an 8 hour working day is naive. The bloke has a right to earn a living and if he’s done the job correctly and to a good standard £300 isn’t a bad price.
It's one job, quote for a four tile roof fix for £300, rip off. Should have been around half that.

Unfortunately, the roofer has took advantage of an elderly woman and overpriced a job that she was very worried about leaking through, wanker.
I hope he's reported to this age concern, so he can't rip off anyone else.
 

vow

Well-Known Member
Also, what's this bullshit about "if it's a good job, then it's ok to overcharge/quote". It should be standard that any tradesman would do a "good job" and not just the customer that gets lucky finding a good tradesman, especially from a trusted trader, age uk site.
 

bringbackrattles

Well-Known Member
Also, what's this bullshit about "if it's a good job, then it's ok to overcharge/quote". It should be standard that any tradesman would do a "good job" and not just the customer that gets lucky finding a good tradesman, especially from a trusted trader, age uk site.
My son told me earlier that a roofer he worked for would always quote over the odds to the elderly, saying theyve got lots of money,and will pay as they're not clued up etc. Not saying all roofers are like that but these types are just after cash.
 
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shmmeee

Well-Known Member
£300 is double what my day rate as a supply teacher was. No job security, had to travel all over for work and interviews.

Fuck off is it a reasonable amount for a half hour job with £5 of materials. If workmen can't spec a job or select appropriate clients they should learn that rather than passing the costs on.
 

Covstu

Well-Known Member
We had a roofer out the other month to replace a few tiles and make good a few slipped tiles. That cost us about £200 and they were there for about 45 mins. I would say based on this, it was a bit steep.

We got ours from checkatrade
 

bringbackrattles

Well-Known Member
Got talking this morning to a customer about this, and he had a similar job done last year. Just a few new tiles/slates put in and old ones taken out. He got charged £100.00 took the roofer about an hour. Now that sounds reasonable to me.
 

Nick

Administrator
Did she get multiple quotes? It could just be rather than ripping her off he just has a higher rate.

I've had it with tradesmen before, some have a much higher day rate than others. Then have to balance out the rate with the person to choose who to do it.
 

bringbackrattles

Well-Known Member
Did she get multiple quotes? It could just be rather than ripping her off he just has a higher rate.

I've had it with tradesmen before, some have a much higher day rate than others. Then have to balance out the rate with the person to choose who to do it.
All she said was that she rang Age Concern asking for a roofer, this chap turned up quoted her the price, she said that sounds a lot for a small job ? He must have told her that's the price, and did the half hour job.
 

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