Rant about contractors that don't show up. Must be millionaires that don't need work!

[dhal22]

I don’t know why these contractors charge so damn much…being licensed by the state, keeping up with continuing education , business insurance, workman’s comp, quality tools and equipment, trucks ,trailers , office space whether in a business park or at home, paying architects and engineers when needed, unreal hours and trips to the counties or cities for a measly unneeded permit just so some jerkoff inspector can turn you down because you didn’t do it his way, slowing the job down… to hell with code.
Juan and Hosea can do it without all the BS…

A good contractor whether he works from home or an office and keeps up with code and outfits himself with quality tools and equipment to do a professional job won’t be cheap…he also won’t ask for a deposit because he won’t need it to fund the job and knows he will get paid for the job because he will give the people exactly what they ask for.

Always ask for supplier references and make those calls if in doubt.

AMEN!!

 

[renagadeinjun]

I don’t know why these contractors charge so damn much…being licensed by the state, keeping up with continuing education , business insurance, workman’s comp, quality tools and equipment, trucks ,trailers , office space whether in a business park or at home, paying architects and engineers when needed, unreal hours and trips to the counties or cities for a measly unneeded permit just so some jerkoff inspector can turn you down because you didn’t do it his way, slowing the job down… to hell with code.
Juan and Hosea can do it without all the BS…

A good contractor whether he works from home or an office and keeps up with code and outfits himself with quality tools and equipment to do a professional job won’t be cheap…he also won’t ask for a deposit because he won’t need it to fund the job and knows he will get paid for the job because he will give the people exactly what they ask for.

Always ask for supplier references and make those calls if in doubt.

You can get it done cheaper but you have to cook mexican food ..............
and OP did you call ICE ?? they may have picked up 'Juan' & 'Hosea'

 

[killerv]

Plumbers do not charge $900 an hour. Maybe with a backhoe and a helper but even that’s high.

Well, let me tell you my story. Pump alarm going off in overflow tank. First house with septic system. 500 gallon overflow tank with exposed cap, no backhoe needed. Called what I thought was a reputable plumbing business in town. This isn't exactly something you can google and spend a few days learning to fix yourself, not when your family can't flush a toilet, wash dishes, shower, etc. Sent truck to pump out tank and check on the pump. To pump out the holding tank was 600ish for a 500 gallon. Is what it is. So the pump had burn up. They sent a worker at lunch to a local supply place and picked up a $900ish pump and the cheapest plastic float valve they could find. Took one hour to replace pump and that included a trip to Ace hardware because the didn't have a coupler on the truck. $3800 bucks. So 600 for the pump out, going rate around here at the time. Lets call the new pump and float 1k. In the end, that's 2200 bucks for one hour of labor to install a new pump. Very expensive lesson learned, I can do it myself next time minus pumping out the holding station. And of course they wanted to take a check with them, I told them I'd come to the office in the AM to discuss this. When it came down to pay the bill, they did knock 500 off because I was obviously not happy and said they do not charge by the hour, they simply have a spreadsheet with their prices they go by. I was realistically expecting maybe 2250 at most after them telling me what the pump cost. I asked them, how many people out there have 3800 bucks accessible, he said "they don't, and they put it on a credit card." Fortunate I did but it stung. Told our maintenance guy at work about it and he just got the same job done for 1600 bucks.

That plastic float valve lasted a year, thank goodness I kept the old metal one and hooked it up and the pump started working again. I knew as soon as I saw them install it it wasn't gonna last. Why would you put such a cheap float valve on a very expensive pump? Repeat business I guess.

This same company has been seen and known for emptying their tank trucks in city gutters in the middle of the night. I also later found out the guy that gave me the price had a bit of a drug problem at the time, and probably needed all the commission he could get.

Lesson learned. I love fixing stuff myself and the reward of it afterwards, but this was just one of those time I couldnt do it, shop around, etc.

 

[Alpha5717]

Plumbers do not charge $900 an hour. Maybe with a backhoe and a helper but even that’s high.

I contacted a plumber to replace a pressure relief valve in my water heater. I'd have done the job myself, but I was freshly out of surgery. He charged $50 to come out and said he'd apply that toward the job. I already knew what was wrong and had the part to fix it. The guy rummages around in his van for 45 minutes and comes back with a "proposal" to do the job for $245. I told him to go Hell. I called a handyman that helped me out and did the job in 15 minutes flat. Sooo... I am assuming that a plumber is as competent as a handyman. $245 for 15 minutes work. A little math says that works out to $940 an hour.

I had my septic tank pumped. They were here less than half an hour. It was two men. Charge: $926

A guy advertises on tv that he will do a tub to shower conversion. Price is around $16,000. The cost of materials is less than $2000 leaving $14,000 and the job is done in one day. If they use two men and they do the job in seven hours that works out to $900 an hour.

A woman argued this with me on another site and said that plumbers only get between $45 an hour and $150 an hour. I told her I'd give her a finders fee of $200 if she found a plumber that would swap out my tub for a shower for $200 an hour. That was over a month ago. Yep. It's $900 an hour.

 

[Alpha5717]

This^

People who have never owned a business think that if someone shows up at there house and charges $800 for something that only takes an hour to do, that person is literally making $800 and hour and is ripping people off.

They have no clue.

The problem there is that my father owned a business... a construction business. It don't take $800 an hour to make a REALLY good income and provide a service. You're wrong. Having done accounting for several businesses like that, many times the owner is making more than a surgeon.

 

[Alpha5717]

You can get it done cheaper but you have to cook mexican food ..............
and OP did you call ICE ?? they may have picked up 'Juan' & 'Hosea'

You hate a free market economy. I'd bet dollars against doughnuts that all those little brown guys are "illegal" to you. The way the free market economy should work is I offer to pay what I can. If someone wants the job, they take it.

 

[dcline9163]

I just had my septic pumped $400.00. I am going to sell my house so I was going to get a letter for real estate agent. Well the lines were bad so I had an infiltrator system put in, another $5500.00. But I wasn't going to sell knowing things wasn't right, that's me.

 

[Fatal_Bert]

The problem there is that my father owned a business... a construction business. It don't take $800 an hour to make a REALLY good income and provide a service. You're wrong. Having done accounting for several businesses like that, many times the owner is making more than a surgeon.

Your father owned the business, not you. Pipe down. The fact you talk about work like it's an hourly wage running a business says it all.

 

[joel2000]

HEY!! I get it now…. Knowledge, experience, tools ,equipment and overhead should not be figured in to the price of a job..color me dumb… we should only charge for the amount of time it actually took to do the repair. AND, that hourly charge should be what a normal working guy gets paid….
Here’s an idea…next time you need anything done…do it yourself! Don’t call a professional and you won’t have anything to bitch about. Never done it before??? YouTube it! GFL…

 

[Blue bio balls]

HEY!! I get it now…. Knowledge, experience, tools ,equipment and overhead should not be figured in to the price of a job..color me dumb… we should only charge for the amount of time it actually took to do the repair. AND, that hourly charge should be what a normal working guy gets paid….
Here’s an idea…next time you need anything done…do it yourself! Don’t call a professional and you won’t have anything to bitch about. Never done it before??? YouTube it! GFL…

Word