electrician charges $200 for changing GPO

so our PM hands us an invoice of a sparkie in QLD charging
- 150 for the call out fee + hour
- 50 for the GPO (with oven hob switch + 2x powerpoints in 1 plate)

We don't really know if the oven hob switch is a normal 240v or requires a special voltage.

1. 150 for the callout + 1st hr... are they for real? or am i out of touch with today's prices / services.
This job wouldn't of taken more than 15mins...
2. that 3 gang GPO is massively charged.

The agent is great, however, this invoice seems a little high...

 

Yes

Linky - that's 10 amp not 35 amp as required for an oven. Also doesn't have 'Oven' on the switch. Linky

 

I can understand why some call out fees are charged, however callout fee AND hourly fee for a job of switching over the GPOs? That does not add.

 

Sparkle might've had to drive to Bunnings

 

Did he have to test and diagnose the fault first before he replaced the part? Allow driving time to get there.

 

In Sydney, most of the licensed trades (sparkie, plumber) that are good, charge between $130 - $165 for their callout which usually includes some element of labour (somewhere between 15 mins and 1 hour). Sounds like your $150 is with 1 hr included.

I guess even if they are on site for 15 mins, there is time spent travelling to & from, booking in the job, invoicing, organising materials etc

The GPO does sound a little overpriced..

 

Maybe look at it from the other side..That trade will take up too six years before you can be a lic contractor,much the same as plumbing and run a small sole trader business model under a abn and the way they define themselves and the conceptual framework of the business ,most are just one man set-up's ..
Once you look at the daily costs to run that business ,from the van insurance work-cover just for a start then the 200 bucks in my opinion is in line with the job,as there's no such thing as a free lunch and there's no such thing as free money..
The sparkie we use has 30k worth of materials in the back of the long base merc van and will quote over the phone ,then it's yes or no..

 

I've found sparkies in Brisbane area generally expensive, comparatively to other areas.

My latest prop statement had a $400 charge to change two power point and a light batten.......had spiel about fault finding the light circuit which was tripping.....it's not that bloody hard though, turn all lights off, reset circuit breaker, turn lights on one by one to discover problem...5mins.

I think it's just a supply demand issue in that area at the moment. Here in Newy generally can get a sparkie for hourly same as a good handyman.

 

And what if it wasn't as simple as the fitting it's self tripping the circuit? What if it was an Active to Neutral short in the cable in the wall, what if it was a faulty switch mech, what if it was a high resistance connection within the vast amount of joints in a lighting circuit, overloaded lighting circuit, or even possibly a faulty breaker?

Don't be so quick to assume a tradesman is trying to rip you off there's a reason why the electrical trade is a four year apprenticeship with a final week of Capstone testing before you get your licence.

 

I'm a electrical contractor and just looked at one of my wholesalers online pricing for that GPO -$28 for the power point $21 for a switch Mech that is suitable rated to the load of a oven.
$49 total. I'm sure my in store price would be a touch cheaper then these numbers... but looks like its fair.

As for the $150 call out, We are just like any other business, we have high overheads I've got 5 cars on the road, that's 5 rego's (commercial so cost more), 5 car insurances, tolls(commercial again so cost more), fuel, work cover,public liability (among others), licensing fees, marketing, vehicle maintenance, workers sick/annual/public day's off. Then we have to deal with free quotes which have to be made back somehow, I've seen it plenty of times on this forum "get at least 5 quotes" for a job that's worth $200. Then you've got the websites like hi pages, service seeking, one flare who charge the tradies a fee just to have a chance of quoting the job (if the customer is even serious to start with) Don't get me started on all the large corporations worth billions who take 60 days from end of month to pay a tiny invoice.

Also, it may have been a 20minute worth of work, but then add the 20minute drive to get keys from the estates office, the drive to the house, the drive back to drop the keys off again. More time taken to do the ass covering paperwork electricians need to do then finally create an invoice which you will need to spend more time chasing up when it goes unpaid for weeks/months.

 

It was the light fitting itself....simple stuff......anyway I was just mostly making an observation that in Brisbane they seem to be in short supply and can therefore charge accordingly....and good luck to them if that's what the market is for sparkies in the area.

 

Old mate Jim's Mowing is like nearly $100/hr, it's not just sparkies, pretty much any self-employed service contractor needs to be charging at least $75/hr to barely make minimum wage net.