Advice on negotiating repair payment please.

what questions would you be asking a handyman to not end up paying $200 for a $40 job. He charges $40 an hour .
He said the repair wont be more than $250 and i urged him not to charge me more than what it takes. i'm unaware of any cost for materials though he is claiming it took him 2.5 hours plus $100 for materials. Even all new materials would be less than $27 and i dont see any materials.

He insisted on coming on a day when i wasnt going to be home, and i will never ever do that mistake again with him . I havent had problems with other trusted handyman or repair people over the years, but this situation has left me very uncomfortable.
i dont believe any materials or $100 of materals were used and i dont believe it took more than an hour which would make it a $40 job. i am having some handymen come around to give their opinion.

I think he is trying to stretch it to the original maximum estimate as if that was a fixed quote when i made it very clear that i dont want him charging for more than it takes to repair.

what questions would you be asking so you are fair but you dont pay $200 if it was a $40 job.

 

I think it might be to late. You could not meet with him and discuss the scope of work and you seem to think the job would only be 1 hours work., this should have been clarified before you asked him to do the job. When he goes to buy the materials you still have to pay him for his time.

 

The quote was 'it won't cost more than $250', he came in at $240. You're on a winner.

PS: most tradies wouldn't get out of bed for less than twice that on a small job.

 

Sounds cheap

 

handymen and gardeners do one or 2 hours work at $40 an hour.

 

I get the impression he has already completed the job ,and now you dont want to pay.
Maybe you should have employed a gardener, our charges $50 for 30 minutes work but he comes back every two weeks and repeats, he will also cut 10 other lawns a day , and he makes a living out of it.

 

i have been dealing with workmen and handymen for decades and been lucky to have honest ones over the years. i had a few very experienced handymen come around and have a look.
One said he didnt beleive at first that i was being cheated till he saw it
They all saw that there are no new materials, only some screws
and that it would have been at most 1 hours work so they said at most they would pay $80 for it. He charges 40 per hour.
I'm happy with the job and always very grateful, (There was wires and old rusty nails left lying around on public property, but i'm not going to mention that. plus he just dumped any old wood there where is wasnt before but thats ok also i dont expect him to pay for removal .One of the other handymen who came to advise me kindly picked up the old rusty screws left lying around in public property.)
I like this worker though i've only met him 3 times and he was very kind the first time and i was very grateful.. But my experience is that handymen and gardeners including him are paid by the hour. His rate is $40 per hour or 80 if its 2 men. I always do my utmost to be fair but i cant give away extra money.
i do my best to be fair . I paid alot recently to him for alot of work that he deserved and i like him and i'm happy with the job and very grateful. but i dont have extra money to give out $200 for a $40-$80 job.

 

I don’t know any handyman that would go to a job for $40. Most would have a min charge of say $200

 

He might be paid per hour but what about the driving to and from and to pick up materials. That is why a lot of them have a minimum amount or call out fee as yes the work might of only taken 1 hour to do it (you still haven't really said what it was) however if he has to drive 20 mins to go to the bunnings plus spend 10 minutes sourcing and paying for the materials and 20 minutes back who compensates them for that ~1 hour - or is this volunteer time?

 

So why did you go with this guy and not all the other handymen who reviewed it free for you afterwards?

 

I think this is the reality you have to face. It isn't just the time on the job - it's travel to and from, time to buy any supplies, and any job they may have given up to do yours.

$40/hour seems like an employee pay rate ... handymen have a vehicle to run, phone to use, insurance to pay - the list goes on. In my industry the standard rate to cover costs & make a profit is 4x employee cost.

 

Like many gardeners and handymen that i've used for decades, he chargers $40 per hour , 2 men 80 per hour and if its one hour then thats their cost of the various handymen and gardeners that i've used for decades

If theres another hour to buy screws i can pay for that but not 3 extra hours.

. He isnt a builder or plumber who chargers 200 minimum to come out. Even an enormous lawn like mine doesnt take more than 1- 2 hours to cut. Average lawns much less.

 

I would question myself as to why I accepted a quote of not more than $250 from the handyperson.

There really is no such thing as a $40 once off job.

 

I guess for the OP its hard to reconcile a claimed hourly rate with the final price. Its been an issue since cavehandyman days

 

He isnt a plumber or handyman who charges minimum 200 to come out . He is like many gardeners and handymen i know, who charge $40 per hour. I wouldnt use one who charges 4 times that amount, I used him and i know what he chargers. i've been using people like him for many decades I wasnt born yesterday. if its one hour thats what they charge if its 2 men one hour then they charge 80. ive used him and others like him many times. I didnt use someone else with other rates i used him.
I'm happy to pay an extra hour for picking up screws but not an extra 3 hours.

I was happy with the job. I was happy he did it straight away, i was happy with his big garden clean up which cost what for me is a small forturne but he worked hard and deserved every penny of it, I was grateful for another time he came and helped me and didnt charge me heaps, i'm not complainging about his job. I just want to pay his fair price not extra. if it was one hour work and one hour buying screws so thats what i want to pay, even a bit more maybe but i was advised not to that thats what it would have been .

 

If you weren't happy with his estimate of not more than $250, why did you approve his work?

I will give my trades approval limits, varying amounts depending on the job. If we weren't happy paying more than $100 for the work I think it's on you to say that in advance.

 

Did he give you a detailed invoice for the work undertaken? Still unsure as to what he actually did.

 

There was no detail of what exactly he said he did in 2.5 hours, nor of the $100 of supposed materials but a few of us looked at it, handymen and its clear it was done cleverly but would have been under an hour and only some new basic screws.

End of story he said he wants me to be happy and that he was happy to do it for even cheaper than 2 hours pay as long as i'm happy . i said i want to pay for 2 hours and i'm very happy how he did it very cleverly and that he did it so fast. He said i should tell him if I need anything else.. So alls well that ends well and my faith/trust in him is restored.

 

I am confused with the OP on this thread mainly because I guess we still don't know what the 'repair' was. A few screws doesn't equal $100 so clearly we don't have the full picture and people have already pointed out the cost that you are likely paying (e.g. travel, sourcing etc).

However as you have written above it has all been sorted so guess you can move on.

As a ball park typically with building materials it is 1/3 materials 1/3 labour and 1/3 profit = price you pay... So since it was $100 materials that would approx. equal $100 labour and $100 profit or $300 this is what I would use as an estimation for future = not saying it costs to install a $1,000 door hardware $1,000 in labour but it is a ball park figure.