Feeling a bit ripped off

[restofthetimes]

aibu to think that a handyman who costs £30 per hour and stays for for 3 hours and 15 mins should not ask for £120?

He was round earlier on, asked for £120 when he left and I agreed. On reflection, I have since texted him to say I'm transferring £100, he said not, then I offered £105 but he's insisted on £120.

I have paid him £120 now as a bit scared of him and its not worth it for £15.

I should have confirmed about part of hours beforehand I know. But feeling ripped off.

Yes, £30 an hour. From which he pays travel time; works van tax, insurance, MOT, petrol, etc; depreciation; tools and other work kit; accountants; possibly various apps for bookkeeping, appointments etc; PI/PL; advertising; tax, NI 2 and 4, gets no sick pay, no company pension input; no money if no appointments; all sorts of trade listings, affiliations; maybe a VA or other part time admin, and on and on and on....

You may have guessed, I am self employed and it is an absolute shoo in that, after tax etc, I lose about another 10 - 20% of my income in essential on costs.

So £30 an hour (or part thereof) seems a good price for a competent tradesman to me!

A handyman earns £30 per hour? That's crazy!

Yes but he pays his own national insurance, has no guaranteed minimum number of hours, no sick pay, no holiday pay, no pension.

Totally agree that an hourly rate usually means per hour or part thereof. Also an hourly rate isn't the best way to pay for work - you negotiate a price for the job which needs done as an hourly rate is just an incentive to be slow.

There is absolitely no reason to leave anyone a bad review because YOU have misunderstood common charging convention, and didn't think to get clarification. You are also totally unreasonable to agree to one price and then try to get away with paying less. That's the absolute definition of a cheeky fucker.

Totally agree that an hourly rate usually means per hour or part thereof. Also an hourly rate isn't the best way to pay for work - you negotiate a price for the job which needs done as an hourly rate is just an incentive to be slow.

Conversely, having negotiated a per-job fee, you discover (as we did) that the hourly rate works out to about £100/hour .

That's all about transferring risk though.

Under a fixed price the instructee is taking on the risk of unforseen circumstances and prices accordingly.

Under hourly billable that risk is with the instructor.

Also an hourly rate isn't the best way to pay for work

That's not true. It depends on the job and who you are getting to do the work. If you have a workman that you trust then an hourly rate often works out better as they don't have to factor in 'what if' costs.

I pay my plumber and my electrician per hour. (Or part hour 😉) They've both worked for me for years and years. I've never felt ripped off once.

Suddenly £120 per day for my mum's handyman (who works hard, not just sitting around drinking tea and chatting) doesn't seem too bad. I thought it was steep.

Are you happy with the standard of work?

I think the "rip-off" occurred when he didn't say "well you're paying for 4 hours now, you've got another 45 minutes so what else would you like me to fix?".

But I don't think you can do much other than be more careful next time.

Hm...

I personally have (up to now) also rounded up to half an hour.

I didn't know that this was wrong.

Chicken - he charges £30 per hour as he doesn’t work every hour in a day so has to have a rate that covers him for this. As a teacher you get paid every hour you work - apart from of course your unpaid overtime

I think the "rip-off" occurred when he didn't say "well you're paying for 4 hours now, you've got another 45 minutes so what else would you like me to fix?".

That would have been very polite. But maybe a bit too much to expect.

On the other hand.

the OP could have insisted that he used to 45 mins to... have a look at something else, I suppose.

I thought that was standard practice so imo yabu.

Even if your right in thinking he shouldn't round up.

You had allready agreed on a price you can't then in agree it if there is nothing wrong with his work.

Quite. What's wrong with a warning abou his pricing structure. You can big up how good his work was and just say with you'd known that you still had 45 mins of the last hour left as you would have consulted him about other things. It's not like you're lying, and what are these review sites for??

Feeling awful now. Dh was chatting with him over a cup of tea (grr) and he was saying how he grew up so poor in Poland he had to sleep on a shelf above the fire with 3 siblings to keep warm.

Christ I can just imagine as a lawyer trying to charge my hourly rate for a ‘part thereof’..

To be fair if you agreed and he left you should have just paid it, I would have queried at the time.

I think you're unreasonable to have a "check the pricing".

It's common practice to charge "per hour or part of". My time is billed (as a consultant) in the same way.

£30 doesn't seem so bad as he came to your house. If it's 30 minutes drive and he works for an hour then it's £15 p/h. He needs to make a profit and average it out. Some jobs will be better for him than others. There's also the cost of tools, transport, advertising, insurance etc. That isn't pure profit.

@chickenowner

My time is billed at £450 an hour. You aren't actually paying for the hour only, you're paying for the decades of experience and qualifications.

In a free market though, if you think you'd be better off as a handyman then you should. That's the wonderful thing about it. What skills do you have? Do you have the money and expertise to set up , advertise and run your own company? Do you have savings to get you through any 'dry patches' when people aren't looking for you to fix things?

I’ve never had this. Trades have always in this case rounded to the nearest half hour, which seems far fairer to me. I hope you can find another handyman next time and agree the terms better.