What Is a Reasonable Labour Charge?

Rather than use websites I ring people I know for referrals. Over a few years I now have a sparky, plumber, hydronics expert, and carpenter who I just ring to get the work done, no formal quotes asked, just verbal ball parks. They have never done less than good work at fair prices and know I am not wasting their time when I ring and they treat me accordingly.

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As others have said get referrals from local people about local trades. Also don’t allow yourself to be time pressured. Unless there is water damaging the house or raw sewerage running across the floor take your time and if the first quote looks outrageous call it for what it is and wait for another. I sympathise that getting tradies to return calls and attend when promised is a frustrating and thankless task but one has no choice. If you find a good’n keep him/her.

BTW, if the fan had a standard power plug it does not require a certified person to replace it. The cutting/fitting requires no certification that is only required if it has to be wired into the house circuit.

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This is the best method usually - personal recommendation. However, I have had a number of instances when, for the particular job I need done, no friend or family has used an appropriate tradesman. In this cae I turn to hopefully reliable websites - however after my recent experience I will need to be even more careful.

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It also appears that Service Today is a business which provides a number of trade services (electrical, plumbing, HVAC/airconditioning/heating). Often the one-fit-all type businesses like these tend to charge more as they have significantly higher overheads and may contract some work out to others (which mean one pays not only for the contractor’s work. but a premium for the principal contractor to manage the service).

We tend to use good, reliable, local, small specialised trades-person rather than the larger conglomerate type businesses (like Services Today). We find that the service is better and cheaper…and for regular customer they will bend over backwards to make sure their customer is happy.

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Good point.

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There has been another conglomerate type tradie business mentioned on this forum…

which also charges exorbitant fees.

I have knowledge of two elderly Brisbane residences (two I help out/ cared for) which commissioned the same business and were in effect overcharged and serviced (Fallons replaced a meter box on one house when it wasn’t required as part of a new storage hotwater install and then the other Fallons recommending the replacement/move of an older switchboard on another residence, during a AC install, for $7K. Another electrician engaged for a solar inverter replacement said the switchboard was okay and didn’t need to be moved and even if it did, should only cost around $1.5k…fortunately I was able to provide advice with the second one before the old lady being exploited by the Fallon sales tactics). Unfortunately there are some tradie business which focus on making money from their customers rather than providing good customer service.

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These kinds of businesses are sometimes nothing more than fancy ‘appointment setters’ with no tradies of their own, just an on-call list. They get a call and they ‘publish it’ for an available tradie to take up just like a cabbie or uber driver takes a fare.

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Which inserts another layer of profit that will be taken out before the worker comes in the front door. And you have to wonder about how much responsibility the aggregator takes for the subbies.

I don’t have much faith in web reviews because they are so easily manipulated. On Product Review Service Today gets a strange pattern that I have seen before, there are many glowing reviews that sound so wonderful and a significant number of very bad reviews and almost nothing in between. Is it really possible for the service to be either great or horrid? I know some clients are entirely unreasonable and cannot be pleased but this doesn’t look right to me.

Cost is a major source of dissatisfaction. It seems that the $50 rebate if you complain about cost is common. Complaints of job padding (overservicing) were also common including accusations of being lied to about how much work was involved. They seem to put much effort into thanking people for good reviews and trying to deflect bad ones.

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That matches exactly with my experience. I too noticed a strange raft of “glowing” reviews. However, a woman from the company told me that the manager said, after “reviewing” the work that I had done, that he agreed that the unit was connected to existing wiring, no new switches were needed, and then went on to say that I should have been charged more! This was a ridiculous and patronising comment. Then she offered the $50 refund. None of this adds up. You may be right that this company is some sort of delegation team, who don’t do the work themselves but simply add a large extra layer between us and the tradie, a layer that eats up money.

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I agree with others that word of mouth recommendations are often best. If you live in SA then the RAA also provides a kind of “find a tradie” service where all tradies are supposedly vetted in some way. I haven’t used it myself but I do rate RAA high up in my list of trusted organisations (along with Choice of course) and I would expect them to look after their own reputation as a consumer based organisation by taking consumer complaints on any referrals seriously. The catch here of course is that you accepted the quote, but the the price does seem outrageous and their behaviour predatory.

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For Qld the RACQ has a service that provides trades 24x7.

There are reasons some of us might be critical of the motoring organisations and their marketing motives. It would seem unlikely members using these services would be exposed to shonky services or rorts. Value of course is relative.

It is another option. It may be useful to Choice members if this and similar providers were assessed at some time in the future.

P.S.
Our local electrician

would have charged less than $200-$250 for a similar job including supply of a standard style extractor fan from their stock. Yes, there is a 3km trip from the workshop! No need though for a 60+km round trip and an hour to the nearest wholesaler or Bunnings. Items they cannot take off their shelf are ordered in and delivered from their wholesaler on a regular basis, providing you can wait a day or two.

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Fallons recommended the same to me, replacement of the switchboard at $5k. I’ve since had solar panels installed & whatever had to be done to the switchboard was included in the installation at no extra cost.

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My take on this is that you need to be very clear how much a given job is going to cost before accepting the tender. Electricians are outrageous and charge like wounded bulls. That said, as long as you are both very clear on what is to be done it should be easy enough to get a job completed without such ridiculously high fees.

I have used AirTasker a number of times and the way it works is pretty good. You provide clear information about the task including diagrams and photographs so that you both know what’s required. You pay Airtasker prior to commencement, and they only release the funds when the job is complete. I have had excellent tradespeople and haven’t (yet) had any problem.

The quote is clear, and provided you are sensible to analyse the task carefully it all goes well in terms of costs. The tradespeople have reviews on the site, and if they do a poor job they don’t stay on Airtasker long! Works well for both tradesperson and client.

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The cost does seem excessive. You should have asked for a detailed receipt so you can see how they calculated the charge. They may have charged you a call out fee, inspection and travelling time to purchase replacement unit and then installation labour.

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They said the call out fee was waived if the tender was accepted. As for the details I really don’t need them to know that the relatively simple replacement of a two heater exhaust fan unit by another one using the same wiring and ducting and taking about 60 minutes, which includes the trip to the shop to collect the new unit, should not cost $645 (after allowing $79 for the cost of the new unit). As I said, I will NOT make that mistake again. I will not use that company again and I am warning everyone I know to keep clear of them.

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You mention that you “had no choice”.

You DO have a choice. Don’t pay (or pay the amount you think reasonable) and invite them to initiate legal action.

Because their potential claim is less than $10,000 (it may differ in different States) the matter can only be resolved by a Small Claims Court. Solicitors are not permitted to act for either plaintiff or defendant.

The problem is that the vast majority of people who find themselves in these circumstances FEAR court processes. This should not be the case. If you believe that you have been treated unfairly, and are being asked to pay far more than the job warrants, let the Court decide.

The worst that can happen is the Court decides in their favour and you have to pay the amount demanded.

The legal process, however, is daunting and intimidating, and this works in the favour of the bullying companies and service providers who thrive on your temerity to take them on in Court. I’ve said this before…standing up to them is not something they welcome.

Here’s a trade secret…they are as reluctant to initiate legal action as you are to contest.

It’s not good for business to be seen taking customers to Court…and the consequence for them losing is much worse than the consequence of you losing.

Do a little research and stand up for your rights to fair and reasonable treatment by companies and service providers, including government agencies.

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Just my opinion, but I would not necessarily use the recommendation of the RACQ “Bank” for an automobile related job.

Totally agree. Although, not so good for the tradesperson if the client happens to be unfairly difficult.

I feel for you. It is outrageous.
Unless you are an anaesthetist.
If that is the case well…

https://choice.community/t/50-penalty-if-you-dont-pay-within-2-days-for-your-anesthetist/19680/46

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Why not turn opinion into experience and give it a go?

The perception may be well intended, however for those of us struggling to find reliable trades at a fair market rate? It is one option for Queenslanders to consider.

Ultimately the lowest cost is typically the local tradie we all use and trust. The one who gets so much local demand you wait in turn to get their service. The one you all found after trying all the others and paying those too much for a job half done. Sometimes we can’t afford the learning curve or to wait!

Nothing to do with banking!

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You didn’t add an amount for the cutting of the gyprock and make good. But I agree that the actual bill does seem excessively high.

Unfortunately it is stories like this that give all tradies a bad name. I once had to replace a ceiling fan. I bought the fan then had to get an electrician to install it. They were in my home for less than 10 minutes (they didn’t clean up, left little bits of wire all over the floor, the old fan and all the packaging all over the place. Cost? $194 (with a discount). Cost of fan? $155! Tradies are expensive.

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