Flat rate of handy man

[Maricia]

Got a diy dude via neighbour hood app to place some lawn edging and before hand asked his rate and was told £ 50 flat rate and I assumed it meant either for one job or minimum cost for appearance and as I was busy left it with my husband and thought to check out his skills and pricing by having this job done which he did excellent and worked full day yesterday and today 3 hours but was shocked when charged £ 600. Have I been taken for a ride ? I usually pay £ 25 for DIY jobs and just feel a bit unprepared for these billing but paid and learned hard lesson of need to sort fixed price for a job instead of hourly rates and still in the dark on exact definition of flat rates

Shocking! I really think you have been taken advantage of to be honest.
I have a handy man who is a trained plumber/gas engineer but can do anything including complex joinery. He charges £180 per full days work (I thought that was steep but do trust him).
My gardener is £45 for 2 hrs work and he works flat out.
I am in a professional well paid job and I get £30/hr. I want his job!!

He obviously meant £50/hour which is steep. But I have heard through the grapevine that in London at least this is the going rate for a handyman. Mainly because they do lots of piddly little jobs and they are in demand. I guess save these guys for hanging pictures on walls or whatever and hire a labourer for a day's worth of work and it will cost more in the region of £100/day.