Quote:
Originally Posted by Sylvanfan
Charging travel time within the city of Calgary is BS. If the guy is that busy he should be able to schedule a small job so that he's not going from the South East to the North West for his next job. I get the impression that FG would have been somewhat flexible with his schedule had the guy given him a reasonable price. Most people need time to go to work so if FG is that far out of the way than start the day at his place and work your way back. Good for him for calling BS on this and not giving the guy the job.
Although I will admit that in any trade type bussiness if you see a job you don't really want to do, people will often to overprice the job so the client won't accept. In reality the customer would probably rather be told that the trades guys preference would be to not do that job.
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It is quite a long drive to go from the SE to the NW... especially cause there is not always a clear route to take! Fuel is not really cheap anymore, and after doing a few jobs that require long travels... even within city limits, it can sure cut into profit and the time it takes to do some of these jobs can practically wipe you out! I never charge for estimates, but I will factor time into the quote. If I am doing a job next door for a guy then he will get a decent price. But if I have to drive all over the city, check measurements a couple of times, go over designs a few times... then its going to reflect in the price.
Remember, people are trading time for money in every line of work! The more time it takes, the more it should pay.
As for trades over-pricing jobs, Shazam is absolutely right. No one can understand the concept of "we are just too busy". But if you price it through the roof, it tends to push people to the point of understanding
that they should look somewhere else. On the flip side though is if they accept the price, they're job "miraculously" takes priority over a few others cause now it is worth their time to stop what they are doing and work on your project even though they will get the gears for not doing the other stuff from other customers!
So either way, FG made the right choice adn should be able to find someone soon enough to help him out. I would wait to find someone though, drywall has got to be THE worst job to do!