Aibu to not want to pay the full amount?

[gingerginger2]

We had a quote for some work in our garden, which was £1300. we agreed to it, mainly through inexperience I think.

The Gardner’s came to do the work today and it took 3 of them 4 hours.

Given that materials could be bought for £300, aibu to not want to pay them £300 each for a half day?

I‘ve questioned the invoice and they said they estimated it would take a day, and they only quite by days.

We did agree to the quote. But it feels like a total rip off.

The work they did is ok. Sufficient. No above and beyond, just sufficient.

PS... Mean 660 per day or over 150k per annum

Surely it's what's reasonable?? Wohdkbt a small claims court see this... Any lawyers advise??

Am sleepy... And my brain hurts

Also, can you be entirely certain of the material costs? As in, is that the amount that they told you or have you looked online yourself and found similar materials? The reason I ask is there may be more materials involved that you're unaware of and if you don't know the exact amount of materials you need such as slabs, sand etc then you're not going to get an accurate price for the materials that were actually used.

They didnt get the quote wrong.

They gave you a price for the job

You accepted it.

If it had taken them 2 days and they had tried to charge more you would be pretty unhappy.

If they have done what they said they were going to do, pay up and next time ask a few more questions.

Also how do you know that the materials were 300

As I said, i‘d Be embarrassed that I quoted so innacurately!

You do realise there is more than one way to quote, right? It's not universal that you estimate the number of hours, multiply that by an hourly rate, and add on materials costs?

It’s not about what they got paid though. You paid for a job to be completed. I had my garden landscaped. It cost £8k. It took 5 days. I don’t sit there thinking it’s £1,600 a day, just that it costs £8k to get my garden done. You’ve got the wrong idea

They aren’t ‘freelance’ - they are professionals working for a business. Office costs, insurance, employers national insurance, pensions, office staff etc are all part of the price you want to pay, as well as the expertise.

£300 to do it, £1000 for knowing how to do it.

You agreed to the quote. It really is that simple. You need to pay.

So business works it's OK to massively over quote and rip people off??

Yes I understand I'm estimating how long something takes... But if it takes massively less time... Shouldn't I re calculate or offer 5o do another job in that time?

If it had poured with rain and they had difficulties doing the job and it took a whole week, you wouldn’t pay extra because it took longer than expected.
You were quoted for a job.
The job was done.

Pay up, you agreed to it, you dont have a leg to stand on

They quote by the day because some jobs throw up problems that mean it will take the full day and even if there are no problems, they can’t Book the rest of the day with another job incase there are problems with the first job. They have to get £X amount per man per day so that’s what they quote.

Regardless of all that they told you the job would cost £X, you agreed to pay £X, they completed the job, so now you should pay £X. You agreed to it.

Yabvu I’m afraid, they quoted and you agreed. You could have got other quotes and really you should have. It is terrible to consider not paying.

You are not paying just for time, but skill.

It’s not just labour and materials. You are also paying for all sorts of different insurances, training, vehicle maintenance and purchase, marketing costs, holiday pay and pension and NI for staff, administration, etc etc etc

It’s up to the buyer to analyse Quotes and make sure they don’t accept the rip off ones- surely that’s obvious?

As others have said, you did agree the quote.
But you also said they did and only Ok job.

Do you mean it could have been completed better?

If they had spent longer on the job, do you think you would be happier with it?

If the answer is Yes to the above, you should tell them so.

I wouldn't be paying full price, after a quote for a certain amount of time to be spent on a job. Then to find they have done a fast, half arsed job in half the time.

@IamtheDevilsAvocado A rip off would be someone quoting a price and then trying to add to the bill after the event. Asking the customer to pay an agreed price is not a rip off, it's a contract. And no, judges are not arbiters of what is good value or not.

So if you paid £1300 and materials cost £300, then the 3 gardeners earned £83 per hour each for the 12 hours of work. That does seem v expensive for a gardener... were they doing very skilled work?

Would you have been happy if they had taken a week? Do you just feel ripped off because they did it so quickly? Could you have done the job?

Might be worth asking if they’d refund you some, if they finished sooner than expected, but be prepared to pay up.

Hmm - OP as you are paying £1000 for 12 hours work, that’s effectively £83 per hour! That’s a lot for gardening. Usually it’s more like £25?

Would you have been happier if just one guy turned up and did all the work himself taking the whole day?

Nit picking a job after completion to get the price down is shameful.

They did they job quoted at the price quoted. There Is no suggestion here of shoddy work, so trying to find an excuse to lower the price is pretty miserable

In future, always get three quotes for any job.

It's sounds like it's a project fee, not an hourly rate. I'm freelance and tend to charge project fees - if I finish in less hours than I projected when I was putting the quote together then yay for me; if I don't then I suck it up and take the hit. Most clients don't know my hourly rate.

You didn’t pay for the time, you paid for the job.

How do you know the materials were £300 ?