How much is 'a drink' in payment terms for a tradesman?

Please do contact him, OP. One chance to do the right thing or take to social media to expose his really shit behaviour.

This is awful. I'm sorry to hear this happened to your elderly parents. He absolutely should have not accepted the money. I would take a drink to mean that, a drink. Maybe take his details and drop off a pack of beer/offer a bottle of wine. Failing that, £10 cash in hand.

Just so you can compare costs OP I've just paid an electrician £72 including VAT to take down two old light fittings and fit two new ones. One was a multi-light on cords that needed shortening to match another light. The other light needed moving about 30cm so new holes needed drilling and joists needed finding to attach the fixings to. He was here with an apprentice for about 90 minutes. The electrician who visited your parents is a prick not a decent person.

£20

He's taken advantage of them and should be ashamed of himself. £10-20 would be fair.

This really saddens me.

My DP is a tradesman and he would’ve 100% REFUSED to take that. He would’ve accepted an absolute max of £10.

DON’T use that tradesman again!

To take 60 pounds off an old
couple for changing a bulb is terrible. It makes my blood boil to think people like this are around and happy to rip pensioners off.

my DB friend is a tradesman and he regular does little job for the elderly I have read this out to him and he is mortified.

Maybe Im a bit dense but if I asked how much money I owe and someone said no charge just give me a drink I would give them liquid to drink not money.

Like a cup of tea, can of pop or maybe a bottle of beer if I had one and they drank alcohol.

He took £60 from pensioners for changing a light bulb? Bastard.

I do think you should contact him. Don't go in all guns blazing, start off softly softly, thanks for going to do the job etc but did he realise he'd taken their £60 shopping money after he'd said to your mum to just buy him a drink, which you'd have expected to be more around the 20 quid mark.
Even if nothing comes of it then at least he might feel a modicum of shame/embarrassment.

Yes, my elderly grandmother fell and broke a hip once because she was trying to force money on someone and the person was refusing.

The person who refused the money felt terrible afterwards and wished she'd just taken it - but frankly if she had taken it, she would have been taking advantage of a 90 year old woman.

Do a Google review and explain what happend. Let his potential customers decide whether he was being reasonable or not. £60 for a 'drink' after saying he wouldn't charge is an absolute piss take. £20 is nearer the mark.

I would give £20.00.

Oh I’m so sad he took £60.

yeah it does go both ways, this is why I insist on agreeing a price before and make it clear I will only pay by bank transfer or card.

I think one big issue with all this is he pretended as if he was being all benevolent and that he was not going to charge them. £60 is not no charge.

He should’ve been upfront and honest but sadly a lot (not all)of tradesmen are not. My mum was a single parent and I lost count of the amount of tradesmen trying to rip her off or outright intimidate her.

Wow, he took it all. That is really shocking.

I think if he actually wanted to rip them off he would have stated a price but it sounds like he thought your mum was offering him the lot, he may think they were well off! On the plus side you know he will reliably turn up if you need him again! Knowing a tradesman can be well worth the extra cash this time in the long run.

I think age is relevant. They're unlikely to be earning a wage at knocking on for 90. £60 is a big chunk of a pension.

Plus we all know that cognitive decline is linked to age - I would like to be clear that I am not saying this is the case for OP's parents - and arseholes will target older adults for this very reason.

My uncle is an electrician. He swapped out MIL’s outside light, job took 30 mins and he charged £15. No mates rates. I hate it when tradespeople don’t charge a proper price. It’s awkward and often results in a hugely bumped up payment.

I really wish you were telling that story though 😅

£20 for a day's work? Where is the cheeky fuckers thread?

In which case, OP can get a receipt and he can put his £60 through the books. Which of course he won’t want to do…..

I see what you're getting at, but he was clearly exploiting the power imbalance that he had over vulnerable people.

For starters, a younger person would have been far less likely to call out a tradie in the first place for a very simple job like this. If they had done so, do you think the tradie would have tried to get away with £60 for it, on a 'favour' basis?

Considering that they never offered him £60 - just asked which notes he needed and he grabbed the lot. Maybe their eyesight is very poor, or they have extremely painful arthritis, so they had to trust the man to take the right money rather than being able to give it to him directly.

Most people approaching 90 are very vulnerable, and they know very well that they are. If the electrician had told them with a threatening snarl that the cost of the work - even a 2-minute job - was £1,000, or £5,000, that they had to pay him now, most of them probably would if they had the money available.

It's the same principle as when a violent man intending robbery will seek to intimidate and overpower a petite lone woman in the street but wouldn't dream of trying anything with a massive 6'4" rugby player. It's not just what people try to do, but the grounds on which they have sized up and chosen their much weaker victim before deciding to deliberately exploit that weakness.

The first time I heard the phrase I was baffled. It was a young car mechanic who’d fitted a windscreen wiper for me (that I’d brought with me but wasn’t able to fit). It took him 5 minutes, I asked how much I owed him, and he said “just buy me a drink”. For a moment I thought he was asking me out, which would have been ridiculous - me a frumpy middled aged mum, him a young hunky mechanic. There was a very awkward moment while my brain processed it, and luckily I guessed he meant cash. I cringe when I think how awful it would have been if I’d said “you’re on, see you in the pub tonight at 8” !!