Asked by tradesman to pay £30 for a quote?

If many people are anything like those who say they want to buy something via Facebook marketplace or free sites, then don’t turn up, I guess it can be as bad for tradesmen.
So many are now busy fitting out new houses nearby so it is hard to get tradesmen at all.
I have just had a tree surgeon call. He looked at the problem and will send me a quote, free. I won’t bother asking anyone else to quote as this chap did some work for me earlier in the year and even did some extra without additional charge.

hugshelp

I'm finding it is becoming more common, when you can get someone out for a quote at all. Several trades people have started asking for photos via watsapp and will come out and give a free quote if it looks appealing, otherwise will turn it down. It's not a customer's market at all these days. Always ask if there's a charge. Worth offering to send photos for a rough estimate first if there is.

Crikey! First I've heard of that one - ie sending photos by WhatsApp. So what do those tradespeople do when someone can't do that - ie because they're not that techno-literate?!!

Based on my experience in the summer, I'd be surprised if you get what I would call a quote at this stage. You should get estimates, but even then, they will be provisional on layout and choice of tiles and fittings, and not binding.

Why would a company draw up an itemised quote with drawings and meticulous costings, only for you to say that on reflection you want the shower on the other side of the room, have changed your mind about the tiles and decided on a different type of loo? He'd just have to do it all again. When you have agreed to go ahead is the time for that, obviously after agreeing a ballpark figure.

Maybe it depends on area, but I think you might find that things have changed, and customers struggle to get good tradesmen, rather than the other way round. It took us ages, as we wanted a reputable company. I think we started looking around in January, and it was August when the work was done. We also got three people out to give us ideas and estimate costs, and none of them quoted in the first instance - they all gave us rough drawings with suggested layouts and a rough idea of the cost of each. If you flat out refuse to co-operate with the way they do things, it might not be easy to get someone willing to accommodate you.

I'm finding it is becoming more common, when you can get someone out for a quote at all. Several trades people have started asking for photos via watsapp and will come out and give a free quote if it looks appealing, otherwise will turn it down. It's not a customer's market at all these days. Always ask if there's a charge. Worth offering to send photos for a rough estimate first if there is.

No way would I pay for a quote or an estimate! We are currently waiting to have an ensuite bathroom replaced, and followed the RECOMMENDED advice of having three quotes done before choosing which builder to use. At £30 a quote, we would have been £60 down before even being sure we could afford to have the job done. As far as builders are concerned, you would be mad to accept paying for a quote, regardless of how much time is involved in travelling and the preparation of it. To me, it's part and parcel of advertising your company, if you're not prepared to put a foot through the door without payment, I'd expect to be ripped off right from the start. I also think it's highly likely that builders include any costs for quoting, in the quote itself, without our being aware, so requesting money beforehand, isn't likely to get them through OUR door.

It probably took an hour with travel, the visit and preparing the quote, so I would think £30 as reasonable.

It may have been that if you used them the £30 would be deducted from the final bill.

Are people recognising that there is a difference between an estimate and a quote?

An estimate might be verbal and say 'this should take half a day and cost £X for labour and £Y for parts, whereas a quote might have technical drawings and will list all parts and materials used, give measurements and explain exactly what will be done and to what specifications. They even list things like the cost of waste removal and skip hire.

They are very different.

Absolutely not. It's completely different from a call out. He/she is coming to give you a quote for work, you don't ask for expenses if you go for a job interview. They are pushing their luck.

I've just been asked for a £25 payment prior to quote which will be deducted from final invoice. It's a small business I know and they explained that quotes can take them up to an hour or more and with people hunting around for cheap quotes, or just wanting speculative quotes they can be out on quotes all day sometimes.

Or apparently they go to quite a few quotes to find nobody is there.

They just can't spend huge amounts of time and manpower doing them in the hope that they will get the business, or that someone is actually at the property when they get there.

I was happy to pay as I know them and I was 99% confident that I'd give them the work.

But if you're having a large job done and go for a few quotes it could land up being very expensive.

I have had quotes for call-outs which probably amounts to a quote as they are coming to see what the work entails and give you a cost. Probably standard these days.

I was told I would be charged £75 for a plumber to assess the job and send me a quote. I did agree to the work and the £75 was deducted from the final bill.
Many people would take advantage of tradesmen if they didn't charge. After all time is money.

It's difficult. We had the bathroom done recently, and I was surprised at the lack of quotes. We saw three companies and they all wanted us to agree a layout and which fittings we wanted before quoting.

At first I was concerned, as it's difficult to make decisions without some idea of a ballpark figure, but after a while I understood. It was a combination of not wanting people to take their ideas and go to someone cheaper, and the fact that that writing a detailed quote must take ages. They have to make drawings and work out prices for everything from a bath or shower to tiles, nuts and bolts, and some of those will vary in quantity depending on the chosen layout.

The company we went with gave us a ballpark figure for the layout we chose (after much discussion about the pros and cons) and a list of all the items they would use (eg the type and make of tiles, the size and brand of the bath etc), and we agreed the price with a contingency in case they found rot under the floorboards or something. It was done on email so we both had a record. They didn't charge.

I've seen some tradesmen's websites state they charged for quotes. I guess it rules out competition because you're less likely to ask for more than one quote. One tradesman who usually charges (but didn't charge me) came in at more than double the other two quotes. He might as well charge because he's unlikely to get the work if he's competing against others.

We were told it would be £50 to quote for a repair to our door. We refused and went elsewhere. The only time that has happened to us, can only hope it was a one off.

It depends what sort of job he was quoting for and if the £30 would be deducted from the eventual bill.
Not quite the same but I once posted a Rotary watch for servicing as it had not been used for some time. They wanted over £100, so I asked for it to be returned unserviced, costing about £9 for registered post.

Georgesgran

Don’t mind a call-out charge, but I wouldn’t be very happy to pay for a quotation/estimate unless they’d been asked to travel well out of their area, or would deduct the charge from the work, if it went ahead.
However, I did pay Goldsmiths for an estimate to repair a ring, which they then deducted from the final bill - but they explained that before I agreed to the estimate being done.

We always ask if there is a call out charge, sometimes is unavoidable, but wouldn’t even think to ask if we would be charged for a quote, has never happened.

Don’t mind a call-out charge, but I wouldn’t be very happy to pay for a quotation/estimate unless they’d been asked to travel well out of their area, or would deduct the charge from the work, if it went ahead.
However, I did pay Goldsmiths for an estimate to repair a ring, which they then deducted from the final bill - but they explained that before I agreed to the estimate being done.

Correction we used MyJobQuote

We use MyJobQuote

We have had tradespeople round earlier this year and none of them charged for a quote.
I think that is taking the Mick.
😳

I recently asked a locksmith to sort the lock on my front door. He said the call-out charge would be £30. I really didn’t care because I couldn’t leave the door as it was. He came, sorted the problem and charged £75

It might depend on what he was quoting for.

I can't remember what we used to do when we had our roofing business. Certainly there was no charge for an estimate, but we may have added a sum for a quote to the final invoice.

Will he refund the quote money if you accept the offer?

I can understand that tradespeople probably have to deal with a lot of time-wasters, so I can understand why they would charge for a quote. Even my dental hygienist asks for a deposit, but she takes that off the eventual charge.

If his total charge is competitive and you liked him, I would accept.

I’d tell him to get lost