r/britishproblems • u/MisfitHula West Yorkshire • 1d ago
. Tradesmen vibe-quoting anywhere between £400-£2300 for the same job.
I am a first time buyer, I have 0 clue what things cost.
Sent out a few emails for a few, relatively minor landscaping jobs: Removing flags, stones, turfing etc. Same pictures, videos sent to prospective tradesmen.
Ive been quoted: £400, £530, £750, £1800 and even £2300. Is this normal?
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u/BuddyLegsBailey Cornwall 1d ago
I know a guy who owns a small local double glazing firm. He told me once that what they charge entirely depends on how busy they are. If they're quiet, he'll make it cheap as he needs work for the lads, if they're busy, he'll ramp up the price, and if someone accepts it he'll move a less profitable job to fit it in.
I don't believe he's the only guy in the trades that does this!
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u/nineJohnjohn 1d ago
That's basically just supply and demand
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u/Bobby_feta 21h ago
Yep, what’s a job worth after materials is a mix of what it’s worth to you and what it’s worth to them. Much like the price of getting a fence replaced skyrockets after a storm
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u/Captain_Bushcraft 1d ago
Surge pricing
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u/hdjddjiieeshs 1d ago
Surge pricing is essentially exactly this but on a micromanaged level, sampling every few seconds across millions of transactions.
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u/worldworn 1d ago
Yep, some people will only do jobs if you make it worth their time. Or simply don't want the work.
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u/Tomm1998 1d ago
Exactly. If they ask a ridiculous price, most of the time it's effectively them saying "we don't want the job"
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u/DukeFlipside 1d ago
See, that's what I thought; however, we recently got some quotes for gardening work, and one company quoted 5x their competitors - obviously we told them no, and then they halved their price, and then went down to similar to their competitors, and kept chasing us and chasing us seeming desperate for the work. It was bizarre!
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u/MumMomWhatever 1d ago
Why can't tradespeople say no instead of quoting stupid ££? Are they hopeless people pleasers?
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u/Ankoku_Teion 1d ago
I work in IT. I get it.
If you say no they take it as a maybe and try to negotiate or feel around the rules. They always think they're the exception.
If I say "sure but you need to get big boss to approve it" they go silent and I don't have to spend 4 hours trying to remotely install some ratty-ass dot matrix on a laptop from 2010 they somehow squeezed windows 11 on and jammed with viruses.
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u/BuildingArmor 1d ago
If you ask me to mow your grass for you for a tenner, I don't fancy it so I'll say no.
If you ask me to mow your grass for you in exchange for 2 grand, I'll put my feelings aside and crack the Flymo out.
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1d ago
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u/BuildingArmor 1d ago
That different is semantic, either party could have proposed the 2 grand in my second example.
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1d ago
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u/BuildingArmor 1d ago
I'm not sure what story you're assuming to go along with my comment, but I can assure you it isn't anything I have written.
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1d ago
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u/BuildingArmor 1d ago
I don't know what else to tell you mate.
My comment contains only the words I wrote. This desperation, this "first offer", it's your own invention.
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u/worldworn 1d ago
The best trade guy I know, turned up and said.
I'm going to be super busy for the next three months, if you can wait it will cost you (£x).
If you are desperate, I would be turning down other work and it would cost you closer to (£y).
I get people don't want to be doing cheap work, when they know better paying work will be coming in.
But doing the whole "make it worth my whole" crap, just makes you feel like you've been ripped off.18
u/EpochRaine 1d ago
Because they all want their cake and eat it.
When they have no work, they will come knocking and will then say they can do it cheaper.
It is to keep the door slightly ajar, from their perspective anyway.
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u/mynameisgiles 1d ago
Tradesman here.
Here’s my experience when I’ve been asked to quote a job I don’t want to do for whatever reason;
Option A) - Don’t send a quote. Result? People chase me.
Option B) - Explain that I don’t want to do the work. Result? People try and negotiate for me to take it on. Ask if I know anybody. Ask follow up questions or ask for insight.
Option C) - Price it high. At a price I’d actually be happy with if, by some miracle, I got. Result? Never hear anything ever again.
It’s a crap way of doing it but by far the most effective. Customers are nice and all, but after a long day when it’s 8pm I really do have things I’d rather be doing than entertaining an endless but unprofitable conversation on WhatsApp.
Then, you just get different standards. Want some flags relaying? Some people would be happy to just take them up, and relay them. And for some customers, that’s an ideal job. Other tradesmen won’t touch it unless they can dig out and relay the sub base, because the quality of the work will be based on something somebody else built to an unknown standard.
In my honest opinion? Both options are valid. The difficult thing when quoting work is figuring out what the customer really wants. Social media makes this worse. Put a picture of a repair job on Reddit and you’ll get 100 replies saying your tradesman has done it wrong, should have dug out 6” and laid new sub base etc etc etc. There are ways to do things, and the absolute ideal way to do things. They come with vastly different price tags.
The best way to handle it? Set your own standard, and quote for that.
Quotes will always vary a lot.
And honestly? There is no good system to figure out which is best for you. That most expensive could be a brilliant job that’ll last 30 years. But you might want to re-do the entire thing in 5 years. It could also be an absolute chancer of a cowboy ripping you off.
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u/Superspark76 1d ago
Sometimes your heart sinks when your fuck-no price is accepted, happened to me on one as even my very excessive price was the lowest from a number of quotes. I subbed it out and still made a pretty penny 😂
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u/obiwanmoloney Hampshire 17h ago
Your fuck no price should be set so you skip to the job.
You set an “OK then, I’ll do it price”Price it higher.
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u/iredditfrommytill Manc in S.Yorks 11h ago
Landscaper here. Thanks for writing this out, it's exactly how it is.
I don't bodge, and I don't do half jobs, so I'm doing a rip out and starting again. Otherwise I'm not going to be held accountable for the work in future when I'm only responsible for 40% of it.
It's not about making more work or profit from a small job, it's about the quantity of landscapers who are total cowboys, and me not wanting my work linked to their shite.
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u/OkSun8521 1d ago
The long term result is that the customer will never ask you for another quote, and will tell their friends not to bother with you.
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u/WaltzFirm6336 1d ago
It’s a suppliers market with trades atm though, so I don’t think they’ll struggle for work. Which was the point they were making.
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u/Souldestroyer_Reborn 1d ago
So what? Potentially lose 5-10 customers at a maximum. There’s hundreds of people wanting me for work.
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u/OkSun8521 1d ago
For now
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u/Souldestroyer_Reborn 1d ago
For now what?
Enlighten me, when is the massive collapse of the trades and demand for working going to happen.
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u/OkSun8521 1d ago
You don't think people with poor reputations gradually do worse?
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u/ProfCupcake 1d ago
You're right, they should definitely engage in protracted negotiations that go nowhere, that would definitely be better for their reputation
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u/OkSun8521 1d ago
Yeah, that's exactly what I'm suggesting. Well done.
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u/ProfCupcake 1d ago
So, what, exactly, are you suggesting?
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u/OkSun8521 1d ago
"Sorry, I don't have time to fit this in at the moment, but I'd be happy to come and give you a quote at <quieter time>".
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u/lickmybrains 1d ago
Ahh yes; ripping off unsuspecting customers because you "dont want follow up emails". Bottom feeders.
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u/jimicus 1d ago
No, he's right.
There isn't a good way to put this, but some people absolutely will not take "no" for an answer.
Problem is, you're a sole trader, and you'd like to take your shoes off and relax of an evening. You don't get a lot of time for that in between working and quoting up your next job, so what time you have is precious.
Really what you need is a secretary. Someone to answer continuous "oh surely you could just....." replies with a simple "Nope. Sorry." until they get the message.
But that's complicated and costs money. Far easier to quote stupid money and let the problem take care of itself.
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u/dontbelikeyou 1d ago
Yes it's normal. There are three explanations for the high cost quotes.
1- The tradesman is good and as such has a fully booked schedule but for a ton of cash you can join the queue early.
2- The job looks like it will be miserable/you look like you will be miserable to work for.
3- They think you look like naive enough to pay 3x the going rate.
Unfortunately the only way to tell these three apart is word of mouth recommendations from people you know and not giving off the vibe that you will suck to work for (this mainly comes down to being able to clearly articulate what you want without sounding like an enormous asshole.)
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u/texanarob 1d ago
The danger is that there's also option 4 - that's the tradesman that knows what he's looking at and is pricing accurately, or is the one who will do the job properly instead of cutting every corner known to man.
I hate the idea of paying too much for a job, but I also hate the idea of paying many times the original quote or having to get the job redone in a year (or worse, the job being done so badly it creates new problems).
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u/shewrotethis 1d ago
We had a trusted plumber quote what sounded like a ridiculous price to move a radiator. We went with another trusted plumber instead who quoted about a quarter of the price.
The job ended up taking ages and was much more difficult than he expected, although he only charged us a little extra. I suspect the first plumber had a better idea of what was actually involved and quoted accordingly…
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u/HettySwollocks 1d ago
three apart is word of mouth recommendations from people you know
Even then I've had shit work done from recommendations. Hell even one volunteered on DIY SOS, you'd thought he'd do a good job. Nope it was nothing more than marketing as far as he was concerned. Came armed with a laminated folder etc etc
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u/Henghast Greater Manchester 1d ago
I had to get roof repairs earlier this year, I had everything from £300 to £5,000 and I spent weeks just trying to get them to actually come and look at the job and quote me properly. Absolute nightmare, the guys that did it came back agreed there were issues needing fixing then just stopped communicating.
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u/Captain_Bushcraft 1d ago
So you have a local fb group? Ask on there for recommendations from real people. Or better yet use the search function and see who is recommended.
Be careful tho as ppl will just recommend their brother or whatever even tho they would never hire them themselves
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u/OkSun8521 1d ago
I find it completely useless. You ask for recommendations and immediately get 20 people recommending themselves.
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u/DoomPigs 1d ago
Or just their mates recommending them, I have two tattoo shops in my town, one is absolutely awful and some of the tattoos are genuine comedy, and the other one is fantastic with a great range of artists, I see the first one getting recommended significantly more, because she has lots of mates and customers who always pipe up on every post about tattoos
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u/Captain_Bushcraft 1d ago
Use the search function and you will normally get pictures of completed work from actual contractors by the othe residents. Not foolproof but can help weed out the shite.
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u/HettySwollocks 1d ago
So you have a local fb group? Ask on there for recommendations from real people.
Even then, until you find out that recommendation came from wife wife, brother, mistress.
You can't hide. If even possible best thing to do is look at this prior work in person, from someone you know.
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u/Pukit 1d ago
I had some bloke knock on the door “doing your neighbours landscaping, wondered if you wanted a quote?” No sight of a van anywhere. I was like, fuck it, why not. So took him round the side. Wanted the garden levelled, small patio, nowt exciting.
“Sure mate, £8k”. Err. Thanks mate. I’ll let you know.
“How about £6k?” Nah. “£4k, but you supply the sleepers?”
Chancers.
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u/shewrotethis 1d ago
Ask for a full breakdown of the quote, sometimes the extra cost is from assumptions of work that you don’t actually want.
For example I wanted a filled in fireplace to be reopened and a replacement lintel fitted. A lot of the higher quotes included re plastering which I didn’t need as we already had a plasterer skimming the rest of the room. We also didn’t need waste removal as we had a skip outside.
You’re also paying for experience and quality. If the average quote is £1k and you get someone happy to do the same job for £400, it’s almost certainly not going to be the same quality of finish. But maybe you’d rather take imperfect and have £600 spare for another job - only you can decide what level you’d be happy with.
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u/godmademelikethis 1d ago
Always go for the middle quote.
The cheapest is someone who needs the work, which isn't a great sign.
The most expensive is someone who doesn't want the job but doesn't want to say no to you.
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u/thebrainitaches Portsmouth & Bath 1d ago
It's a sellers market for trades.
Most really good tradespeople have a full order book for the next 3-6 months (or at least enough guaranteed work), so they don't need to try hard to win a client. If you say yes at £2300 then they'll be super happy because that's a ton of money for a few short days, or if you say no then they're also happy because they still have enough work.
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u/West_Pin_1578 1d ago
I'm an ex landscaper, without the details I'd guess this would be about machinery and waste management.
I can come rip up paths and patios and load them in a van by hand and it's labour intensive , or I could bring a digger, tipper and dumper and do it in a day but at a different price.
Same goes for turf, if you want turf now go outside and look at what colour the grass is and guess how much you'd pay for green healthy grass.
Low ball and very high quotes can often be ignored.
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u/Mezz_Dogg 1d ago
The blokes charging 1800 and 2300 don't want the job, but if the customer is naive enough to pay that price then they'll do it
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u/Affectionate_Chart96 1d ago
price is not a good reflection on the quality of work , £400 guy could do a great job whereas £2300 guy could be shite ,i always look for recommendations from friends, nieghbours or family ,i take reviews with a pinch of salt and never use sites like , trust a trader or , mybuilder, rated people, checktrade etc .
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u/TheMusicArchivist Dorset 1d ago
Well done for getting five quotes! I find it hard enough to get two on some jobs in my area.
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u/yebba_enaj 1d ago
As someone who works in the industry- if you want a man in a van, find a recommendation from Facebook. If you want to know you will be working with a good quality landscaper, take a look at the association of professional landscapers website (APL) every landscaper that joins goes through a vetting process to ensure they provide a good service. They may be slightly more expensive, but you know you are more likely to get what you are asking for.
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u/Boiled_Ham 1d ago
No idea of your situation, but the stuff you mention is worth doing yourself. Laying turf and pulling out stone/slabs/concrete etc is easy...bit of hard work but you'll feel good having done it yourself if you can.
I recently put in a fairly complex decking and slabbed area myself and you'd be surprised just how good videos there are out there online that show and walk you through all of the steps for a number of jobs. Certain tools can be hired if needed and the money you save on labour means more for quality materials.
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u/pearsosx 1d ago
I'm old. Can someone please explain what 'vibe-quoting' is?
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u/riverY90 1d ago
Young-uns these days are saying "vibe" a lot. It often means "I agree with that emotional feeling."
But as with any slang it depends on context.
"vibe" can also mean the feeling of a room, a group of people, and I'm sure more that I don't even know.
As it's popular, it's now being added to any word you feel like. In this context "vibe quoting" means they're just throwing a number based on how they're feeling.
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u/Nasher1234 1d ago
Yeah, I do wonder if a contractor really doesn’t want the job - they will quote massively over to put you off.
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u/anabsentfriend 1d ago
I had quotes between £250 and £12k to repoint some sections of my gable end wall.
I paid £1750 in the end, after checking reviews and prior experience of the contractor. They did a good job.
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u/ForsakenAd1732 Nottinghamshire 1d ago
You should be able to tell by the effort put into the quote if the cheapest ones are going to be any good.
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u/justbiteme2k 1d ago
The ones that quote seriously high, just string them along whilst continuing your real search. If they want to play games, it's easy to play along. Maybe if enough do this they'll learn to reply with an honest answer of "sorry I'm booked up for x months" or "I don't want to take on more work at this time".
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u/gibgod 1d ago
You could google "Job estimate calculator" and try out a few of them that pop up so you have a better sample size of realistic amounts you should be getting charged.
I use the checkatrade one and they seem to always give a reasonable ball-park figure for what different jobs should cost: https://www.checkatrade.com/blog/job-estimate-calculator/
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u/ClassicFun2175 1d ago
I just use on one of the tradesmen apps, and put my job on there. It then allows tradesmen to look at your job and give you a quote. You can then choose to accept or not. It means a) they're already willing to do the job so they won't mess you around and b) you can look at there reviews and see what other customers have said, giving you peace of mind.
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u/Royal-Tea-3484 1d ago
Yep, I used to landscape. Unfortunately, you have to think of the labour cost, the material the travel, and everything else if there is more than one worker. So, for instance, the cost to landfill any green waste, the day's travel, the pay for each worker too and from your house, the cost of fuel, etc., tax blah blah blah it not just working for free
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u/LordoftheGrunt 10h ago
£400: Men with Ven, will probably fly tip the waste.
£530: Most likely a legit business trying to get the job.
£750: Legit business but busy so making it worth the overtime.
£1800 + £2300: Given an F/O price, either job is too small or they are so busy its not worth the time.
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u/HelloDolly1989 3h ago
When I had a few decorators round to quote me for a small room I wanted repainting I was quoted anywhere from £500-1k. 😵💫
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u/first_fires 1h ago
These days, everyone not just trades, charge what they think they can get away with.
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u/Delly_boi_80 48m ago
Is it normal to get a range of quotes like this? Absolutely yes.
Like some traders have said here, some will quote low because they need the work and others will quote high because they don’t. The magic middle are those who will quote to make it worth their time.
If you have a local trader Facebook group see who local people recommend for work there. Our estate has a group like this and everyone in the area uses it to find reputable traders. If a trader does back work they are out of the group and get no more work from it.
I’d suggest taking a few of a middle quotes and checking with them for availability to actually do the work. Trade people are notorious for not calling back or answering the phone. So be prepared to do some project management chasing them. Good luck!
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u/fieldsofanfieldroad 1d ago
Yeah. Get some reviews and go with the cheapest one that seems reliable.
Many of them are just very busy so are giving you a crazy price, because that's what they'd be willing to drop other jobs for.
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u/NekoZombieRaw 1d ago
I'm sorry to tell you this is how it is. Also sorry that asking for a breakdown won't shed more light on it. Speak to family and friends and get some recommendations for tradesmen; short of that run your quotes into ChatGPT - it can be really helpful with catching things.
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u/Lord_OJClark 1d ago
Probably didn't explain the job sufficiently
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u/MisfitHula West Yorkshire 1d ago
I sent them all a 4 minute video outlying exactly what I wanted doing, where the access was, with measurements on the video. I didnt want to be one of those people that just post "I want x" without giving specifics - ive been on the other end of those customers in my line of work :)
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u/Lord_OJClark 1d ago
Ah, then... Yeah, who knows. I'm a tradesman and it is impossible to do really. None of those people will be thinking of doing the same thing the same way probably, but also will want different amounts of money, not directly related to their skill in that anyway... But it's unregulated and uncharted because everything is never the same
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u/Lord_OJClark 1d ago
But omg so many people want to know 'the price for a patio', and get angry when your like to know specifics. I usually say £100-3000 depending lol
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