This is why the ecomony is bad...
 

I sent a half dozen emails yesterday to companies around my area to have someone go on my roof and install christmas lights. I did them on the first story and don't want to kill myself, plus I dont have a huge ladder.

Of the emails I sent 3 replied and 1 phone call. The phone call was someone only interested if they go out and buy the lights and then take them down.

The three emails, two asked "whats your budget?" to which I replied "can you just give me a quote to install lights across my roof?" No response.

So I called all the places, minus the one I spoke to earlier. Two of them gave me some absurd prices. Another one said he would do it, but he wants to see if he has any other jobs today if not he'll call later.

Left a message for another one (who didn't even have a custom message on his cell phone, wtf?) and the last actually gave me a decent price. I said ok great, when can you be out here and he said "I schedule times a week out" so I'm thinking hes booked. I asked "can you be out here sooner" and he said "yeah, I have nothing going on, but I will have to charge you an extra $100 as a rush fee."

WTF? This is something I never understood. Why are you advertising if you don't want business? And if you are hurting for money (as the last guy told me) why would you try and nickle and dime someone? Instead of him just doing the job, instead he now lost out on an easy $200.

In short... the economy is bad because everyone is lazy and looking for a hand out. No one will get up and work, but rather just complain about it. sheesh!

:2 cents:

I'm busy right now watching TV but if you pay an extra $100 I'll come out right now since I've already seen this episode of Oprah.

So you can't afford it, and that's why the economy is bad?

Tell us what the "absurd" prices are, and let us judge if they are absurd.

You are asking someone to, by your own admission, risk their life to hang your lights. A trained professional who needs insurance and proper equipment.

How much were the absurd quotes?

i completely agree, my experience is similar. i won't go into the whole story or else i'd get pissed off about it again! :1orglaugh

Well obviously, you need more illegal Mexican immigrants where you live...

there are Jobs.. But people dont want them. They dont want to take a job at Mc D's until they can find something better.

they would rather complain about it.

post what you want done on craigslist. some odd jobs guy will be on it in no time.

Need cliffnotes

I agree that there are jobs out there but using mcdonalds as an example is pretty useless.. mcdonalds doesn't hire 45 year old ex union workers.. they hire kids and older ladies for the most part... and even when you get the job the hours are so low that nobody could live off that income... That goes for most fast food places i would imagine.

When I couldn't find work years ago I just worked for industrial temp agencies, was some of the hardest backbreaking work i have done in my life, but it got me by and was consistent for a while, until i figured out how to make some dollars with my pc anyway ;)

Quotes from other places were around $50 to $80/hr. The one company changed $210/hr because they were a "licensed electrician" and another was $175/hr with a $25/hr ladder rental.

I don't care if you have a medical degree, that doesn't mean you get paid 2x more to hang lights.

And a ladder rental? WTF, isn't that part of renting your services? Its not that I can't afford that, its not a question but the prices

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh true true

Im glad I managed to knock some sence into you. Now all you have left to do is watch me die... :disgust

$50 an hour sounds fair to me. Especially since it'll probably end up being at least two guys so that's $25/hr for each. The ladder fees sounds like bullshit unless we're talking 10 stories up or something like that. What do you consider fair per hour?

yeah I picked up on that too. That has to be the most ridiculous BS I have heard in awhile. He just told the potential customer that he is not working and then tries to slap a 'rush' fee. Damn that is some nuggets right there :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

How's $50-$80 per hour a ridiculous price? Yes the real electrician is expensive but your paying for a trade rather than just a random odd-job man.

Either you made a mess of asking for the quote and they thought you were a time-waster or nobody actually wanted to be falling off of your roof when they could be safely indoors mending a washing machine instead.

lolz so many people were thinking this exact thing, those guys work HARD and are thankful for the money

read... $50/$80/hr is fair... $200/hr is NOT.

I was finally able to get a hold of a company that will send out 2 guys at $50/hr if I pay cash (gee, wonder why lol). That is actually below what I thought as I figured $50/hr for one man was pretty fair, but whatever.. I'll give them a nicer tip :thumbsup

people just don't want to work, it's gotten ridiculous, no wonder we can't get out of this economic depression

hanging xmas lights is a trade?

as long as they don't take 3 or 4 hours to do it...

Well it sounds a bit like you called the wrong people to be honest. Isn't there a handyman service in your area you can call?

$50 to $80 plus equipment rental is fair. Under the table $25/hr is fair as well lol. Blame the government for that.

I read all you said and think that if I was looking for an electrician I would probably call them not email

PS Electricians are not the only ones who don't reply, I think I need to start a thread about your fellow webmasters hehe

An electrician is a trade, like a plumber and a carpenter.

Just because they are hanging lights doesn't mean they suddenly woke up that morning and became cheap unqualified labour.

some people are just lazy.

Just the opposite around here, people are hurting. I ask a local handyman how much to replace my front door. I have the new door and frame.

Total job 15 bucks. And no I did not forget to type a zero there...

I don't understand what you are complaining about.

You are asking people to do a potentially dangerous job that you don't want to do, for a price you don't want to pay, at the busiest season of the year for this job. Shouldn't they be complaining about you?

agree with 1st post

it's the busiest time of year for them?

The prices some contractors charge for things is crazy. A few winters ago we had a real heave snow and the carport on my house collapsed. The next day I had a guy drive by and stop to bid on the job to clean it up. He actually tells me to my face that we can work out a deal to charge the insurance company more than needed and we can split the difference. He bid $750 to clean it up and another guy bit $550 to clean it up. It took my brother and I about 2 hours to have the whole things tore down and stacked then took it all to the dump the next day.

When it came time to rebuild it I got quotes that ran from $4,000 up to $9,000. It was crazy.

why would you try to hire an electrician to hang xmas lights?

I feel your pain! My girlfriend and I bought a new house when we moved to Canada 5 months ago, the basement was unfinished but that didn't bother me since I got a great deal on the house and the basement was HUGE and just what I wanted.

I've had 6 people out to give me quotes to finish from top to bottom, probably looking at spending $25,000 by the time all is said and done... 1 person gave me a quote but only after 4 weeks of me hassling them and then quoted waaaaaaaay too much, another guy who seemed cool and was actually a referral from someone in our office promised to email me a quote but 2 weeks later still hasn't. Other people have just blew me off too... it's not a big job for a professional company, but it seems no one needs the work!

I think I might have finally found someone by accident who lives round the corner from me, he built his own house and I can reference that when checking his work. Here is hoping anyway.

Spot on. That's why I tell people no matter what if you're a hard worker then you'll succeed in business. The idea isn't as important as the hard work because so many others don't put in the work.

Fuck knows, ask bossku69.

i see, he left that out in the op.

America is just becoming more like Europe. Do you have any experience with the service industry there?

I'm working for a client and asked him about his choice of a hosting company. He told me he contacted ten companies via email. Seven of the never replied. Two of them replied with a spam email with a list of prices. One company called him, and thus got the business. (And I know this looks like a bullshit spam because of my sig file, but it's a true story.)

I don't understand this either. The economy is so bad, but yet people are turning down work left and right. At the same time I drove past the mall today - the one that is half burnt down - and there was not a parking space in sight.

Sounds like you neeed to look up this guy.


http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...eh-awesum1.jpg

what are you guys smoking? I have no idea how big the house is, but assuming an average house... it's a few hours of work tops for a single person... if you know where to look, it's a $50-$100 job... anything more than that is overpriced...

hey ross...if you are in the to area...the guy who did my basememnt is awesome.
hes the guy a contractor will try to get to go in and do all the work.

if you want to know about him hit me up...i made him a website..lol
anyway, to save money he will do things like have you bring down all the drywall and wood etc...flooring...and then just let him go...he did my whole basement in two weeks.
its been awesome for 2 years now

oh man that sucks, i only charge an extra "rush-fee" as he put it, if i have a lot on and it requires me working out of schedule through the night

I would recommend Craig's List as well. Oddly enough, you usually end up finding good people in the strangest places. Sometimes Craig's List works, sometimes it doesn't. Would be great if there was a reliable way to find reliable people, but it's pretty much hit or miss. Once you find someone good, you always want to keep them around.

we have lots of mexican immigrants where i live but they call them Thai people.

What is "absurd" prices? You do understand that they likely pay through the ass for insurance since they get on people's roofs. Not to mention they pay out of the ass for workers comp for their employees.


Oh wait, I see you said "$200".... LOL that's not absurd, you not taking into account all of his costs. If you want someone to come out and do your lights for $50 or whatever, go to Home Depot and pick up a mexican in the parking lot. If he falls off your roof and gets hurt you fucked. I aee you are in PA, not exactly nice working outside this time of year, snow on your roof? insurance and workmans comp is got to be very expensive for them.

Now, why some people run ads but don't get back to people or act unprofessional, it happens all the time especially when you deal with plumbers, electricians, grass cuters, one man or couple employee operations.

This has nothing to do with why the economy is bad btw.


Not where I live. It was Mc Donalds too. Last time I drove through it was 11pm, the guy who took the order/my money looked about mid 50s the one who handed me my food at the next window looks in his 60s. Both Men, and both were white working at McDonalds. I felt sorry for them, seemed like the type that retired, thought they had enough to live on but since the market tanked in recent years (or they didn't save enough) they had to go back to work.

More and more older people are going back to work and fast food is one of the places they are ending up.

You people posting in this thread, you think you would have an understanding of overhead and business costs. I guess not, because when you say you have companies come out and quote you "way high", but you find joe your neighbor who is an accountant by day do it for a lot cheaper... no shit. He has no overhead and no insurance, no workers comp, no warranty, etc.



Why do you people act so dumb founded by this. Come'on use a little common sense. How many of those emails went to the owner of the company who said, "oh damn, another client i don't want any more clients, let me turn him down." You think you guys would understand how this works. Most of those emails went to a $8 an hour sales rep who doesn't give a shit and is terrible with getting back to people or just simply doesn't care. Some of the emails probably went to companies that were no longer in business, closing down, or are mickey mouse operations and don't check mail often. Then there is the people "in business" who should have never tried to start a business and they wont be in business for much longer. You find everything I mentioned in every industry and it has ZERO to do with the economy, if the economy is bad, good, or great. Shit has been like that for as far back as I can remember.

+5 who doesn't understand the cost involved with running a business. How much overhead do you pay, how much do you pay for insurance, workers comp, etc... to do the work yourself.... NOTHING.

There is a reason that the companies were bidding $550 - $750 they have bills to pay. Lets see, you wanted them to tear it down, load it, transport it to the dump, and dump it (was there a charge to dump, most places do) and it was two of you. So they would have had to put two workers on this, which would have likely taken them 4 hours to go there, do all the work, loading, clean up site, go to dump, dump, clean truck, return to office. They spent money on gas, the company had to pay for vehicles, ins for vehicles, and 8 man hours, which might have cost them $150 - $200 by the time they paid they taxes, then there is workers comp tacked on, cost to dump the debris, the companies overhead... Jesus christ, do any of you own your own business are all of you just retarded ?

but why would you hire some company for a bullshit job like that and pay $500? A job like that is perfect to invite some neighbor over, pay him $50 bucks, knock it out in an hour or 2, and then spend the rest of the day watching football and drinking beer together...
at least that's how it's done around here... :thumbsup

It's important to set the price not too low and not too high. The price has to be the correct amount. More money can be charged for quicker service / rush utility / transportations / incalls (rather than outcalls).

wtf i put an ad on craigslist and had some teenager answer it and he did it for 50 bux and some lunch

I agree. You can often find people working off the clock that charge "pennies on the dollar" compared to what other businesses might charge.

Will, you claim nobody understands what running a business takes. The buyer never cares what expenses the business has, never. They don't matter to the buyer. If I can pay an off the clock guy $100 to do a job that a company wants $500 for, guess what I'm doing?

Several years ago I bought a plasma from Best Buy. They offered installation service. I thought "great, this will work out real slick." Until they told me it would cost $500. Basic installation, no hiding wires, no special setup. Drilling a couple holes in the wall and lifting it up. Yep... it took 2 guys and a 12 pack of beer... hell of a lot cheaper than $500 from the great "business with insurance."

lol i had that bullshit but they wanted to charge me $1200 to hook up everything and calibrate my tv with some special dvd and device they have blah blah blah

i told the guy he was crazy and said ill give him to do it on his off time and ofcourse he said no but his cell was written on the printed out quote

so i took the hint and called him .. $100 lol