Reasonable cost to bill

"user"

Making as much as a plumber would on this wouldn't be right, I think. I'd be happy with the $400 you made doing this in your own home & such. A "handyman/plumber" would charge about the same, though a plumbing shop would have charged about double.

Screw them.

I agree that making as much as a plumber would not be right I was concerned that this might encourage them to allow this to happen again as they could save money. I think they got out cheep and took money away from local plumbers that could have done it either at a premium or reasonably had they not been neglectful. The street service pipe was installed 2 months earlier. I know that they will mess with me on the cost and try to get away even cheeper because I do not have a basis for my charges. Jon

"Blackbeard"

How can you possibly charge that much and still be competitive? You can't possibly glue pipes that much better than the average Joe.

What he did wasn't exactly rocket science, and it wasn't an emergency situation. Not even Rotor Rooter has the nerve to gouge like that!

I'd bet you'd make more money if you charged by the cuss words you use!

It was an emergancy situation as I have a family with 3 kids and had to go to work the next am. There was to be no plumbing after 8am the next day and I would have had to take a day off work to let them in assuming they were able to find sombody to do it. The town is small and the sewer commision only meets once a month so one of the sewer commisioners also would have had to take a day off. I don't want to screw them but I do want them to pay the going rate. It was a very big hassle for me to straighten out what they messed up.

Yes inspected and done properly. they even measured the pitch on every line!

Supreme court Mike. A TV repairman gets a call, he plugs the set in. He charged for a service call minimum hour. Decision ; You pay what a person knows, not what he does.

I used to do painting and I would give a reasonable price and always do a perfect Job much better than what others would do. One day I submitted the price to a customer and they said how much to do a better job I added 30% and they said that is the job they wanted with no explanation and braged that they had me do the job at a higher price than what I gave them because they new how great a job I did at the lower cost and could only imagine how much better theres would be than the friends that recommended me. It was a case of the emporers new clothes! After that raised my price and got more work and people begged me to do their painting. Go figure!

Follw up, I went to the meeting armed and prepared. I had 2 bills 1 for

I'm just saying that I can't imagine people paying that much for plumbing work. Many lawyers don't charge $127/hr.

I wonder if Blackbeard would pay his car mechanic or an electrician or his furnace man that much. And then there are other plumbers who think that if someone else charges much less, that they're somehow stealing from them.

"user"

I reread your message, and I didn't understand the situation. Charge them $1000 for the labor. I'd sure be happy to get a grand for the work you described. I'd probably get it done a little quicker too.

"Blackbeard"

I was wrong about the emergency nature of this situation. I'll read things closer from now on.

How many lawyers in the yellow pages ? Most are bad lawyers.

I appreciated your input and I did raise the charge a bit. Thanks again Jon