Is it common to charge twice the cost for a part when you're doing a job? (plumbing, boiler etc)

Not what I'd consider "fair markup" but is it the norm?

Basically a supply and demand situation. If you have an Emergency call out "some" tradesmen see an opportunity to charge over the top rates for the part particularly if it's a "five minute fit" type of part as they won't make much on the labour element.

If it's a non Emergency get different quotes and take the one you get the best feel for from talking to the tradesman.

Just twice the amount?


On a serious note, are you comparing prices for identical products or different brands?

As a car mechanic I could buy a transmech clutch from Euros for £40 for example, but it's a fair bet I'd be replacing it again in 6 months or I could buy an Luk one at £100 and not see the car again anytime soon with a clutch problem.

You would have to give more info.

If they pick tiles up for instance it might take an hour to sort out at the supplier and bring back.
Then transport costs.
Money has to go through the business that has to have a cut as well.

Im asking about the "part"

Say if a part cost £50, would you try charging £100 for it?

tarkys_ears wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 11, 2021 6:01 pm

Is it common to charge twice the cost for a part when you're doing a job? (plumbing, boiler etc)

Not what I'd consider "fair markup" but is it the norm?

I personally wouldn’t I’d quote higher on the job as a fairer representation of service, but if you’ve been quoted low for the job that’s where the bloated addition markup will be coming from, it makes no difference at the end of the day the final price amounts to the same figure but if he’s charging high already & still making double on a part that’s taking the p155 to be brutally honest.

I was a Locksmith prior to retiring and I worked for a number of call out agencies... They used to charge £40 plus 1 hours labour (usually around £50+ an hour) plus VAT to replace lets say a Euro Cylinder (UPVC door lock) for a job that takes around 2 minutes. Thats £118 inc VAT ... it usually took longer to write the job sheet on average than replace the actual cylinder in the door.

You can purchase a decent quality euro-cylinder in most reputable iron mongers (assuming you know what size) for under £15 ...

tarkys_ears wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 11, 2021 6:18 pm

Im asking about the "part"

Say if a part cost £50, would you try charging £100 for it?

Try?
I've done better than that when I've found the genuine part online at a better price, most businesses have done if they're honest.
Look at Halfords, they're proper rip off merchants but they're a nationwide company and no one questions it.
Pretty much all of their products can be found elsewhere at far better prices and with a bit of nous you can learn to fit certain things yourself....

Main dealers are the same, their cars are built using the cheapest parts and their parts departments charge premium prices for a product that isn't really any better than something you can buy at a motor factor.

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 11, 2021 6:56 pm

Try?
I've done better than that when I've found the genuine part online at a better price, most businesses have done if they're honest.
Look at Halfords, they're proper rip off merchants but they're a nationwide company and no one questions it.
Pretty much all of their products can be found elsewhere at far better prices and with a bit of nous you can learn to fit certain things yourself....

Main dealers are the same, their cars are built using the cheapest parts and their parts departments charge premium prices for a product that isn't really any better than something you can buy at a motor factor.

Some people don’t need to question it because some people simply choose not to buy from Halfords, just because some people don’t make a song & dance about it doesn’t mean we don’t know what Halfords are upto.

Surely the question is, why - "Twice". This is the main thing here.

Twice doesn't mean anything to profit. It means bugger all.

tarkys_ears wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 11, 2021 6:18 pm

Im asking about the "part"

Say if a part cost £50, would you try charging £100 for it?

Never .....

Jakubclaret wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 11, 2021 7:04 pm

Some people don’t need to question it because some people simply choose not to buy from Halfords, just because some people don’t make a song & dance about it doesn’t mean we don’t know what Halfords are upto.

I know people don't, but that's how they've made their millions.

Their workshops are also just as notorious for doing it, I know that because I've sold them the parts and heard their markups and again people just trust the brand.

If the objection is to the amount being charged for a part, then that's just a fact of life.
You can either shop around if you've got the luxury of being able to do so, or just accept it in this instance and let it go.

As someone else said, it isn't just the cost of the part it's sourcing it, getting it and transporting it to the job and it all costs time/money but I'm sure it would be cheaper than paying the tradesman his hourly rate for collecting and transporting said part.

A garage won't charge you the time your vehicle is sat on their ramp unable to move whilst they're waiting for a part just to be clear.

How do you know how much he actually paid for the part?

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 11, 2021 7:23 pm

I know people don't, but that's how they've made their millions.

Their workshops are also just as notorious for doing it, I know that because I've sold them the parts and heard their markups and again people just trust the brand.

If the objection is to the amount being charged for a part, then that's just a fact of life.
You can either shop around if you've got the luxury of being able to do so, or just accept it in this instance and let it go.

As someone else said, it isn't just the cost of the part it's sourcing it, getting it and transporting it to the job and it all costs time/money but I'm sure it would be cheaper than paying the tradesman his hourly rate for collecting and transporting said part.

A garage won't charge you the time your vehicle is sat on their ramp unable to move whilst they're waiting for a part just to be clear.

You pay extra for the convenience it’s a 1 stop shop away from the brake fluid you pick the kids helmets up etc, in a fast paced society some people just don’t have the time to go to 4/5 other places, I can buy cheaper food than I can from Asda but I go there because I want to buy a card or pick some medicine up or buy some socks from George as well as the food shop, you pay extra for the convenience.

As most people know I worked for RR.

I looked after a part that cost us £560 to buy from the supplier.

British Airways had an emergency request for parts , we charged them £12,680 each for 22 parts.

When BA challenged the price I was asked to attend a meeting to come up with a justification, I told them to FO.

tarkys_ears wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 11, 2021 6:01 pm

Is it common to charge twice the cost for a part when you're doing a job? (plumbing, boiler etc)

Not what I'd consider "fair markup" but is it the norm?

Yes.

I worked for a company that made showers they would charge sometimes up to 10 times to the end user for spare parts.Some people would go to Argos and pay for a new shower take the part out of that shower as it was cheaper to do that than pay the full price.
It was also known that some people took the shower back to Argos for a refund minus the taken out part.

Lowbankclaret wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 11, 2021 7:45 pm

As most people know I worked for RR.

I looked after a part that cost us £560 to buy from the supplier.

British Airways had an emergency request for parts , we charged them £12,680 each for 22 parts.

When BA challenged the price I was asked to attend a meeting to come up with a justification, I told them to FO.

No wonder Singapore is looking to get the work out there...

tarkys_ears wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 11, 2021 6:18 pm

Im asking about the "part"

Say if a part cost £50, would you try charging £100 for it?

No.

tim_noone wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 11, 2021 8:47 pm

No wonder Singapore is looking to get the work out there...

Think the strike action has put a big spanner in that.

Just so you know parts made in Singapore are more expensive than the UK.

The normal mark up for a part would be the difference between what you can get it for having a trade account and what a customer could buy it for plus perhaps 5-10% .

Possible mitigating factor: has the tradesman had to buy more than one of this part and he's only selling you one with the possibility of not getting rid of the others?

Or is he including as part of the mark-up, the labour element of going to fetch it?

Heathclaret wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 11, 2021 10:04 pm

No.

That is funnier than it should be.

Depends the cost of "the part"

A lot of magazines or brochures will have a price in for the parts however at the trade counter you'll probably pay 50% less anyway.

We used to mark up our parts, but all depends on the the size of the job, the length it took and the cost of the part, as usually it would be a case of

Get a call
Book in the job
Go to the job
Diagnose the issue
Brief chat with customer
Ring through to trade counter/suppliers
Go pick it up there and then
Return, sometimes a bit later with traffic and distance
Fit part
Run test and make sure all is working well
Get haggled on price
Write out receipt

30 minute job has taken up 2 hours of your time, quite a bit of driving and ringing around.

Sometimes the part might not even be in, and it's a call back a week or so later.
Sometimes after leaving you get a call saying actually they wont bother, cant afford etc ( you having lost time )
Sometimes there might need a bit of after care

Also you've got to factor in business costs too.

Only speaking from the point of a one man band self employed tradesman.

My business is a reseller for large capital equipment and everything is marked up 40%, cost rarely comes into things when you sell on the value added to your business and continued support you get. Obviously it’s different to small products.

It’s your choice, you either pay it, or you don’t but it’s pointless moaning about it, we’ve all got to earn a living.

If it is a fault that you yourself could diagnose, obtain the part and fit it yourself then you could argue you have been overcharged.

If however it is not something you could do then you are paying for the trademans knowledge and expertise so yes it is common.

We hardly ever mark up on what we supply. For instance, if we are up grading a bathroom, we will recommend two companies we deal with to our customer, the companies provide a free design service. If the customer is happy with the design they pick their new shower, bath etc we and give them a price. There is a small difference in public and trade price, not much. We pass on the full discount and charge for our time and whatever else is required separately. We don’t mark up on anything most of the time. If we do, it wouldn’t be more than 20% and only if it is a low cost item. If the customer wants to buy the bathroom equipment on line, the fitting price will be based in the job itself.

I’m not saying tradesmen shouldn’t mark up, just that we generally don’t and if we do, it’s no more than 20%.

An engineer was called out to fix a large machine in a factory. He replaced a screw and left 5 minutes later after handing over a bill for £500. The factory manager said that was ridiculous and that he wanted a detailed breakdown of the costs and so the engineer gave him a new invoice -
For replacing a screw - 50p.
For knowing which screw to replace, £499.50p

ClaretCliff wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 12, 2021 4:33 pm

An engineer was called out to fix a large machine in a factory. He replaced a screw and left 5 minutes later after handing over a bill for £500. The factory manager said that was ridiculous and that he wanted a detailed breakdown of the costs and so the engineer gave him a new invoice -
For replacing a screw - 50p.
For knowing which screw to replace, £499.50p