Re: Grrrrrr

Not all tradesmen. I'm honest as the day is long and have never ripped anyone off in my 50 years as a Sparky. You don't get work if word gets around that you are a rip-off merchant and can't be trusted.

Re: Grrrrrr

Judd . Of course you are . And of course not all tradesmen do this . No offence intended.

But there are some that are they meet a vulnerable person and decide to take advantage it's happened to me

Just wished you lived near me I'd have you on my first dial list

Re: Grrrrrr

I'm not saying that the first electrician who came was trying to rip me off but he just led me to believe I needed a metal consumer box for my own safety.

Anyway I decided against it & cousin Reg came yesterday morning & fixed the new waterproof junction box.

I didn't expect him to do it for free but when he only asked for a fiver I was dumbstruck. Of course I gave him more. I pressed a £20 note in his hand.

Problem solved now (Until the next crisis) I'm learning all the time how to make decisions on my own - don't like it though!

Re: Grrrrrr

I wish I'd known you were a sparky, I've just had one in last week to put two 3 way lights up in my living room.

When we moved both lights worked then for some reason one stopped working. My ex nephew in law came to look (he wasn't an electrician) and he didn't know what was wrong with it and we ended up with both lights not working after he had finished faffing about. We've had no lights in living room for quite a while but we had plenty of light with standard lamps and little lamps throwing out light.

We had been talking for ages of getting someone in to look at it and replace the ugly light fittings that were up. Bought some new modern ones from Argos and got a Sparky in, we were really worried about being ripped off which is the reason we never got anyone in sooner. My friend recommended this bloke, he came, he fixed whatever was wrong and now I have two lovely new lights up in my house.

I don't know the going rate but he quoted me £72 so we decided to go with him, the bill ended up £90 odd because he hadn't quoted for VAT. He wasn't at my house long at all but I don't feel like we were ripped off.

We he a good price?

Re: Grrrrrr

Not a bad price, it's the VAT that's the killer. I would have charged around £60-£65 depending on if it was a straightforward job. I presume he checked that an earth was present at the light fitting positions?

Re: Grrrrrr

You may not say so, but I do. £175 for a small piddling job is daylight robbery.