Manchesters Builder's pricing: a VERY common trick

GREATER MANCHESTER, U.K. - Feb. 23, 2014 - PRLog -- Every builder knows that they will have to pitch their prices alongside their competition: other builders. Pricing is a tricky thing: price too high and you don't get the job; price too low and you end up paying for the job yourself! We all do the same thing: estimate as best we can what will need to be spent on materials, how long will it take, and factor in some profit, so that we can feed our families.

What a lot of people DON'T know about this process is that it is all too frequently open to abuse. Because builders know the importance potential customers attach to the initial quoted price, they will go in with what looks like a nice, low price. Very tempting for the customer, especially if the contractor in question also have a good reputation. What they don't tell you is that they conveniently fail to mention further work that they know the project will involve as it progresses.

Here is a recent example: a customer in Hale wanted a quote for a large double extension. Sensibly he approached a number of local builders (http://webuild4u.co.uk) . Also sensibly, he discounted the very cheap and very expensive quotes. So he was left with a few guys in the middle. Closer examination of these quotes revealed that all but one had failed to include the extensive work to the existing roof that was going to be required to integrate the new part of the building. This came to several thousand pounds and, by leaving it out of their initial quote, they created the appearance of being very reasonable. Once they were well into building the extension, far too late for the customer to change their mind, they would no doubt approach the customer for the extra money needed to pay for this work, as if it was as much a surprise to them as to the customer.

This is the problem: providing cheap quotes by neglecting to include significant parts of the background work, and then hitting the customer for more money once it is too late to back out.

We Build 4u does not believe in this practice, even though many have advised us that we will lose potential customers by 'not playing the game'. We regard it as dishonest. It can also cause great distress, especially when the customer has already allocated what they can afford and can't just go and get more out of the bank. Our prices are fully inclusive of everything but things that REALLY can't be anticipated, such as finding that a kitchen 'solid' floor was more or less made of sand when we removed the wonky floor tiles to do a kitchen refit.

Make sure you scrutinise the builder's quote properly, and it might not be a bad idea to make them sign a statement something along the lines of: 'I confirm that the price quoted includes all work that could reasonably be anticipated for your project, and that I am not concealing extra work that will later incur you with extra costs.

We wish you all the best of luck with your projects. Luckily there are a fair few honest guys out there too, so we don't want to cast to much gloom over our fellow builders!

Visit http://webuild4u.co.uk for details