To think that tradesmen take the piss with their rates?

[Pomegranatecarnage]

Just that really. I have had a few repairs needed and some DIY recently. I paid £130 to have a leaking toilet valve fixed (it took 45 mins), £75 to have a pull string light replaced (10 mins) and then £270 labour for 6 hours work putting up some shelves, a small area of tiling and replacing skirting boards. He arrived at 10, left at 12 for lunch, back at 2 then was finished by 4pm. I can’t help wondering why I spent 5 years at University to get paid far less per hour as a teacher.

Well, being paid in cash means he won’t be declaring it to HMRC, will he? Tradesmen often want to be paid in cash for this very reason.

My dh is in a different trade his is £100 ph plus vat. Or £750 per whole day Inc vat.
It's not just the hours they are there. It's the sourcing materials prior. travel time , some of dh jobs are an hour away so that's 2 hours in total in the day gone before he's earning, their overheads, accountants, trades bills , Insurances Wear And tear on their tools.
It all adds up.

My dh gets cash on a lot of jobs. I can assure you he isn't one ' of them' who doesn't pay it In. Every job is Invoiced whether the customer wants one or not.
Yes they often say ' how much for cash' and he says the same price.

No, not every profession
No other profession has the potential for hundreds of young minds stifled, potential lives ruined, every year
Or, conversely, no other profession has the chance to inspire so many

The thing is though, an individual child is not going to be stuck forever with one shit teacher.

This
My husband works in this area and it's really not just money in their pocket, there is so much more to it.

This was exactly how I dealt with it, you want to pay cash - fine, you don't want an invoice - I just won't give you your copy.

I still priced it up the same, paid tax etc.

Ultimately, I certainly wouldn't have risked the penalties of tax avoidance for someone else to benefit from a cheaper bill!

My tradie has just been, with another one from his company, to fix a new boiler. At 7am on a Sunday morning they were at my door. They would have been here yesterday, but their van broke down and rather than letting me down, they worked on a Sunday morning, having already worked last Sunday to identify the issue. They sourced and installed it, checked my pipework, cleaned up after themselves, bled all my radiators while they were there, filled in all the paperwork (gas safe certificate etc) sorted the warranty there and then and even set me up on their system so that I can get booked in for the boiler's annual service with them next year without the need for tracking this on my own. All for less than the Google AI bot estimated it would be for my type of house.

Given all the work done, the drive, the insurance needed, the materials themselves (boiler, extra pipework, sealant), the tools and the fact that I paid for the work of two of them, this was the opposite of a pisstake. Good tradies exist, but if you pay the first one you find (been there, done that) and without even checking reviews (ditto) then you pay the price.

You are very lucky, it seems
However as someone whose been developing for over thirty years a
van breaking down excuse is as old as the hills
Lets not forget they woke you at 7am on a Sunday
Id be very peeved about a Saturday cancellation after waiting a week anyway and then a 7am wake up call on a Sunday.

Everything they’ve done though including putting you on the books for a reminder next year is standard stuff.

Let's not forget they came out for a 7am start on a Sunday, meaning they had to be out of the house by 6.30am latest - probably earlier, given that they needed their other person to arrive, too. They were flexible enough to fit me in on a weekend, because my job means I cannot do weekdays. The broken down van came complete with pictures and subsequent injury which he showed me this morning, so I'll err on the side of belief this time. And, having dealt with many a heating engineer before, this was not only quick but also definitely above what appears to be industry standards.

But they may be stuck with one shit teacher for a particular subject for 3 or 4 of their 5 secondary school years.

That happened to me with Maths. Was my best subject at Primary, but got the same completely useless teacher for 4 out of 5 years at secondary. I ended up with a poor grade. Then took it again at college with a different teacher (obviously) by evening class and got an A a year later, then took A level and got an A. I managed to recover it, but I could so easily have been one of the many "I can't do maths, me" type of people, due wholly to crap teachers rather than lack of ability.

Same happened with our son who got a crap English teacher for 4 out of 5 years. He's articulate and well read, but his English Lit and Lang GCSE's were his worst out of the whole lot. Again, because he'd been stuck with a crap teacher for year after year.

Students can survive a crap teacher for one year, or maybe a couple, but when it's the same for the majority of their secondary school year, they've not a hope!

You're paying for their training, tools, time, travel costs, admin time, collecting materials, Software for accounts/invoicing, stationary, NI, sick pay, holiday pay etc. Being self employed they don't have anything provided for them like you would if you were employed. They also don't get paid if they're off work so need to charge reasonable prices to cover loss of earnings whilst unable to work.