Is this a reasonable price for an electrical job?

[abitgutted]

I need two under cupboard lights fitting to my kitchen cabinets. The mains wiring is already there from the last set, but the connections need changing and he needs to rewire the supply from 12v to 240v. I am supplying the lights, so his quote is purely labour.

The quote I've had is £168, which I thought was a bit steep! But maybe I'm out of touch!

Well can you do it yourself? Id usually get at least 2 quotes to compare though

Sounds like a small job that will only take 1-2 hours tops.

The problem with this is always you end up paying more because you are paying for the time to get to and from the job across only 1 job.

If you want the best prices it is best to save up lots of small jobs and get them all done at once. That way the travel time is distributed across all the jobs.

But at £168 we are hardly talking massive elite level scamming. As pp says, if you think it should be cheaper get some more quotes. There will almost always be someone on here that thinks it should be done for £10. Whether you can actually get that price is another issue.

It's probably a job that if you got 10 quotes from qualified people they would come in between 95 and 200.

You'd be better off getting a few more quotes if you're unsure. You'll get wildly varying answers from the mumsnet 'experts' , most of which are not sparky's and don't price up jobs.

I had someone change an extractor fan and wire it into the lights switch and an outdoor plug socket added, an hours work all in parts and labour £150 + VAT I thought that was extremely cheap. If you aren't sure get someone else to quote. However this would be a job they'd fit in around a big job and many wouldn't take it on or think it's worth it.

Could you buy rechargeable under cupboard lights?
They are inexpensive and do the job well.

Do you mean changing from 240v to 12V? The other way seems odd. You just need a converter you could wire yourself and you have the lights already. It doesn't really sound like a lot if there is travel and a vehicle and it will probably take up half a day in total, but if you can't afford that I would look at doing it yourself.

This is what I have. They are magnetic, and come with metal stick-ons for the underside of the cupboard, so are easy to remove for charging, or repositioning.

Not quite sure what you mean by "rewire the supply from 12v to 240v" but if that means adding/removing components and wiring, which might well require proper testing and certification then it's probably reasonable. Twice as much would be too expensive; half the price would be suspiciously cheap.

I bought some of these from Amazon. Had to return them. They would need recharging every single day, for about 2 hours! Useless!