Am I being ripped off ?

[MamaJules34]

We had a joiner round to give us a quote.

£900 for the following:

To fit two shelves in three cupboards (2 airing cupboards and one cupboard downstairs).

2 poles (clothes poles) in two cupboards.

£900?! Aibu?! That seems extortionate?

Just say thanks but it is more than we wanted to pay

'£350 for wood plus £70 for clothes poles and sundries.
plus labour at £480, so a total of £900.'??

It's £20 an hour for labour?! So 24 hours worth of work?

I'm shocked that anyone would price themselves out and not get the job in the current circumstances.

Cash in hand!

Aaargh so you want it done cheaply via cash in hand

You're taking this a bit personally, a simple no thank you and get more quotes, I know we're all short on stuff to do but you're massively overthinking this imo

That’s fucking ridiculous. Please don’t pay that 😂

My DH is a carpenter and he said he charge half a day-day rate plus materials. Materials depends on what you want he assumed the shelves were not particularly expensive wood given an airing cupboard. So his estimate would be £250-£400. Depending on size needed.

You are being ripped off. I guess this guy has added on a tax in case he catches Coronavirus off you.

Tell him to get to fuck. He has wrongly assumed you are loaded due to your new house and is trying to take advantage of that.

My dp is bloody useless at decorating so we always pay for someone to do it. Have gone with recommendations every time and all quotes have been reasonable.
I would ask for further breakdowns of his costs and then tell him no chance.

There are always people who are handy who offer services like this nearby.
Have you thought about asking on local social media?

Good luck

£350 for wood? What are you having them made of, sandalwood or something?

My ex was a carpenter. He was the world's slowest, most perfectionist carpenter. Even he could do those jobs in a day.

If your builder is charging £480 a day labour, he is ripping you off. That's over £2k pw!

Get yourself a Collins DIY manual. I'm cack-handed and not very practical, but even I've managed to do jobs like that with the help of the manual.

I don't believe he 'doesn't want the job'. He's taking the piss and thinks you're well enough off to fall for it.

I paid £250 to get a small (less than 1m wide) canopy taken down outside.
The actual work took him about 30 mins max but he strung the job out - went to collect this that and the other several times 'from his lockup'

Massive pisstaker but I wanted the job done so that I could get on with other stuff.

He quoted for other, less urgent, work and told me how worried he was about his job. His wife had been laid off too.

Had he charged reasonably for the first job I would have used him again. Not going to though.

@northernwarrior

Thanks, that's really helpful.

It's an empty house. Brand new! No one in it to catch anything off. We've just had it built.

Aaargh so you want it done cheaply via cash in hand

Or maybe the tradesman does?
Makes no odds to the person paying! What has the OP got to gain?
The tradesman however... quick money, no tax...

Thanks everyone.

To those saying I'm overreacting, I do find it insulting that someone would quote that. I would love to have a handyman who I could pay every so often to come and do jobs. I wanted some walls panelling too but I won't even bother asking him now. He could have made a lot of money off us in the long term.

I do think it's a total piss take to quote something high. He's a family friend too so was keen to use him. Annoyed that he would rip us of.

And to the poster who said I'm cheap... if you had all said this was reasonable, I would have gone with it. I wanted to know whether my expectations are too high!

How do I deal with this now

You just say “no thanks that’s more than I wanted to pay”

Great, thanks.

I sent a text saying thank you for your quote. Would you mind letting me know the breakdown of the materials and I could see if I could source them cheaper.
I also recapped what I wanted doing to make sure we're on the right page before I say it's too toppy.

Haha yep he’s definitely trying it. Total rip off quote

Just say no and shop around. Sounds like a job for a handyman rather than a joiner really....

You are being totally ripped off. 900 quid for some shelves and 2 poles?? My nephew is a joiner works on a day rate. That would be a week's worth of work for him!!

Total rip-off. The timber will be a fraction of what he quoted for what you need. Softwoods and MDF are very cheap. If he is using dowel for the clothes pole, it will be less than £10, fixings are pence. Of course he adds a margin, that is a given, but not that much!
Labour costs should be the biggest item by a mile on this job, I’d expect around £200 - £300 for labour. Don’t forget he spends time picking up the materials and has overheads. His material costs are a joke though.

Ok, good to know.

Why do people do that?! I'm so disappointed and bordering on angry.

I'll check on social media but don't want to be told off for looking for someone during the pandemic and don't want to explain the house has just been built, it's empty etc.

But even if you can save £100s on the materials, he’s still ripping you off. £480 for the labour is a joke.

£900 I used to earn that in a whole month when I first started working! 😳

I think that is a rip off price. I bought a Victorian knock down wardrobe from eBay and forgot to collect the hanging rail from the seller who lived 100 miles away. Went to B and Q and bought a length of rail, unfortunately it wasn't strong enough for my clothes so I went back and bought a length of metal railing which I then, without the intervention of testosterone, sawed to size.

I think that job is at most a half days work for a competent joiner, but would be prepared to pay for a day's work plus materials.

ridiculous quote

He's taking the piss, and I'd reconsider the friendship

Get yourself on youtube op and save a fortune!!
You don't need a penis to handle power tools!