Job costs more than quote

Well, by the clarity of the question I would say communication is the key!!
Are you saying that someone has quoted for a job without looking at it, the job has now been completed but the original quote was to cheap? Unless a contingency clause was in the quote and can be justified then tough in my book

 

My company doesn't have a rep in a back office as it's only me! However, if I give a quote but find that I have overlooked something then I take it on the chin. Everyday's a school day for me!

 

Same here NoOhm, fortunately it doesn't happen very often!

 

And then the times you have quoted for something really expensive which you don't end up needing or buying "Priceless"

 

cash, cheque or bank transfer for me.

 

Yes Mark, I think I've only ever been asked a couple of times in the past several years!

 

Same here. Rarely asked for card anyway. Lots of people want to bank transfer now.

 

I take card payments but try to keep it for smaller jobs 2.5% charge does not sound a lot but on a biggie it mounts up

 

Mark, are you asking about working for a company that says, for example, we've a premises that needs XXX doing. Do it and we'll pay you YYY ? Get the customer to sign an attendance sheet, and send it back to us.

But it's ended up costing you more?

If that's the case I've had no luck wringing any extra out of them the few times I've done work like this. I've generally had to chase for payment as well. Never again.

 

That's not a working practice I'm party to (remote quotes from someone other than myself).

If I was a customer that had been told a fixed price over the phone and a sub-contractor was sent round and asked for more money, I'd want to take that up with the company that gave the quote. Or pay them (the original company) the full amount once I'd received an invoice.

Where does the £38 figure come from, BTW?

 

Just my 2 pence worth:

I assume this card reader relies on mobile phone working/having a signal
The overhead of using it
I have also heard of people having funds stopped (or is this a Paypal thing?)

 

I was a sole electrician and often there was too much work for me to cope with so I would bring in outside electricians to do the work. Some times a quote and some time estimate and some times by the hour.

With a quote that was it which ever what job went. With estimate 10% was OK and 20% was pushing it but I would pay extra where it was clear the job was larger than expected. Where we had no idea of how long then day rate was used.

However with a quote it was important we did our job too. If an electrician arrived on site and could not get on with the job due to something we had done wrong he would be paid day rate while he twiddled his fingers. Contracts always said any alterations must be in writing. Very easy for some pen pusher to say can we have that put here instead and then we would be charged for the extra work so always alterations had to be in writing then at least I would know who said it.

The same with domestic easy for lady of the house to ask "can you" rather than "can you at no extra charge" which are very different questions. So at bottom of many contracts I see all alterations must be in writing.

I was careful to include all work must comply with BS7671 unless written permission has been obtained and safety features must not be worse than any existing safety features. Been caught out with E-Stops removed so was careful to include that with all contracts.

It's normal to have a working relationship and some bending is required. But there has to be limits. One job they were prancing about on the roof without hand rails or safety harnesses and I brought them all down until they had the safety equipment required. The contractor wanted to charge me for time loss I refused as it was clearly his fault he should have had that to start with. But waiting for hard hats and hi-vis I paid as to me my fault I should have told them it was required.

 

In answer to the question, it depends on what the contract says! I'm here as a DIYer but in my day job I am a systems sales designer and construction contract negotiator for specialist M&E services. My experience as a customer of occasional trade services is that generally "contract" documentation is fairly c**p leaving everybody in a difficult place if the quote is just wrong. My advise would to always write out a brief "scope of work" - what you are going to do, what materials you intend to use, and what it is going to cost. If you incorporate this into an "order acknowledgement" form to the customer, you can also have small-print in Ts & Cs that say if additional materials not specified are required, then these may be charged extra. Up to you then how you play it when the job overruns. Doesn't need to be reams of formal contract, but a brief description of works written out can save a lot of pain. When issuing Ts & Cs your terms on an order acknowledgement usually trump previous terms on e.g. an order. "battle of the forms".