Shocked by peoples reluctance to spend relatively small amounts on a bike.

[pplpilot]

Dont get me wrong, I love shooting weddings. I also love getting paid though! My charges are very reasonable.
These are small instances where people try to haggle. I had a lady try and haggle me down once for a wedding, as she had spent too much on the ice sculptures....! Nice to know where her priorities are! Frozen water which will be gone in a few days or photographic memories which last a lifetime.

It's the 'friends' that expect it for next to nothing that irritate me. You always end up in the same conversational loop -

"yea but my uncle John has a nice camera that takes great photos, it cant be that involved..."

Whatever.

 

[Dan B]

thought it would take about 3 days and said that I wanted £300.

Obviously I don't know the specifics of your skillset, but I reckon this undercuts the going rate for contract programming by a factor of three or more.

 

[ColinJ]

Obviously I don't know the specifics of your skillset, but I reckon this undercuts the going rate for contract programming by a factor of three or more.

It wasn't a big job. I said 3 days because I knew if I'd said I thought it would take 1 or 2 but it ended up taking 3 or more (as these things often do) then I would have another argument on my hands. I guaranteed to do the work for £300, no matter how long it took. In the end, it took just under 2 days. I thought that I might want to work there again in the future so I had decided not to take advantage of the situation to maximise my short term gain.

I know people who were making £50k-70k p.a. freelance about 13 years ago, but I never had the stomach for it. It sounded very stressful, involved long periods away from home, and an ability to lie through one's teeth about past experience to get the work. I remember one guy many years before that, blagging a job on the basis of 3 years of (totally fictitious) experience in C. He spent his first couple of months with a copy of Kernighan and Ritchie balanced on his knees under his desk!

 

[KneesUp]

I get similar often at work.

"£3 to print off a few bw sheets of paper? Must cost you 5p"

"Yes, plus the £100,000 a year for rent, wages, leasing, computers, software etc etc etc "

We have customers paying a few £ to those paying several thousand for large print orders. The arguments are ALWAYS at the bottom end.

I get sort of the opposite - I work in an independent shop and we often get people coming in asking if we will sell the jewellery/cards/whatever that they make. The pitch is normally "I sell them at craft fairs for £10 each, but I could sell them to you for £8" or whatever. They almost always look put out when I point out that the shop costs rather a lot to run with rent, rates, utilities, insurance, wages, tax and VAT and that we'd need to buy them at nearer to £3.50 to make it worthwhile. They seem to think that us paying the running costs of the shop and having enough left over to eat it excessive profiteering.

Unless you've seen the costs, I don't think many people truly understand them!

 

[Gravity Aided]

Quite true. And the fact the fact that you employ yourself and others on what profits there are is commendable.

 

[MarkF]

I charge £60 per sq/m inc materials and labour (usually), and I tell the customer this in the initial conversation. So, armed with a sq/m price and knowing the size of their structure, the cost is pretty obvious, or at least you would think it was........................

 

[CopperCyclist]

A very reasonable price for the parts - let alone the work!

I'd have been tempted to say "Tell you what, go look up on the Internet the price of a new wheel, a new cassette, new cables and a new chain, as you may be able to do it yourself with YouTubes guidance. However, once you've found the price of te parts alone, come back to me and I'll do it for £90"

 

[Cyclopathic]

A very reasonable price for the parts - let alone the work!

I'd have been tempted to say "Tell you what, go look up on the Internet the price of a new wheel, a new cassette, new cables and a new chain, as you may be able to do it yourself with YouTubes guidance. However, once you've found the price of te parts alone, come back to me and I'll do it for £90"

To be fair to them I used the existing cassette. I have found pricing jobs to be one of the most difficult things about being a freelance mechanic. I am definitely at the low end at the moment but will be upping things a bit from now on. Not dramatically. I am going to aim at being about mid range compared to other independent bike shops. I like to think that I give a good service and that I am honest with customers about what they need. After that I do the jobs to the jobs as if it were my bike and give advice accordingly.

I'm quite optimistic about things and although I get one or two customers who don't really appreciate the price of things I get more who are happy to come to me and are glad of having somewhere a bit closer to where they live. This post was really a frustrated rant at the time to get it off my chest rather than having to be rude to the customers. They are actually a nice couple and good people but even good people can p##s one off sometimes.

 

[markharry66]

up your prices if you are cheap people are inclined to treat you that way and you also get the wrong sort of customer

 

[on the road]

up your prices if you are cheap people are inclined to treat you that way and you also get the wrong sort of customer

That's a good way to go out of business, if you up your prices then people will just go to someone who's cheaper and they'll get all your business.

 

[Cuchilo]

That's a good way to go out of business, if you up your prices then people will just go to someone who's cheaper and they'll get all your business.

Very true if you are just starting out and have no customer base to spread the word about your services but if you don't want that kind of work then your prices will need to be higher as the costs are . If youre willing to repair old gear and get it working for a bit then you are going to get that market . If you only replace parts and up spec things you get into that market .

 

[User6179]

I charge £60 per sq/m inc materials and labour (usually), and I tell the customer this in the initial conversation. So, armed with a sq/m price and knowing the size of their structure, the cost is pretty obvious, or at least you would think it was........................

I hope your not a window cleaner

 

[SpokeyDokey]

That's a good way to go out of business, if you up your prices then people will just go to someone who's cheaper and they'll get all your business.

People don't buy on price alone.

 

[I like Skol]

People don't buy on price alone.

But, it is a BIG part of the decision!

 

[screenman]

That's a good way to go out of business, if you up your prices then people will just go to someone who's cheaper and they'll get all your business.

So wrong on this, I am one of the more expensive in my trade and see off competition all the time.

Buy cheap buy twice.

Nobody ever regrets buying quality.