DIY store prices

[Tim Streater]

No reason to do that. Car now has 400 or so miles less on the clock.

That wasn't my experience. The National rail website allows you to get prices depending on which train you take. In our case we could travel off-peak and I have a DOF [1] railcard too.

In this case *lower* costs. We were staying city-centre for a few days and it would have *cost* to park the car during that time. So we walked from the station, not far although I wouldn't have wanted to do it in heavy rain. Nor would I want to do it frequently, but then that's also why I've always avoided any job that involves commuting.

I agree that's a bit unusual, but if the situation arises then do it.

Depends where you're going.

See above. Certainly if we're doing a day trip to London, we'll take the train.

In general, I'd say that we shouldn't be looking to build more high-speed trains. Instead use the money to upgrade what we already have, f'rinstance.

Or possibly scrap the trains and pave over the right-of-way, to be used by lorries and buses *only*.

[1] Doddering Old Fossil

[Owain]

Depends if you use satnav.

Owain

[Ronald Raygun]

Not enough, I feel, to make a significant difference.

But it's not straightforward to quantify this meaningfully in the context of deciding whether to make a particular 10 or 400 mile trip.

Aren't I? The marginal cost of the trip is £2.50. As a result of making the trip the total cost of motoring goes up by this marginal cost.

Yes, OK, I'm duly embarrassed by that slight mistake.

That's because the other costs are annual, not trip-specific.

The whole point is that I do not ascribe the "standing" costs to *any* of my trips, I ascribe them to my policy decision to have a car.

I know, but the point here was that because the per-mile costs are reduced, it's not sensible to make decisions about making a trip on the basis of the total per-mile cost. Once you've got the car, the cost of an extra trip should not be costed at 33p/mi but at 12 p/mi.

Fair enough, but I have an anecdote of my own:

Some years ago I needed to travel from Scotland (where I live) to Cornwall, and because the purpose of the trip was to meet a boat on which I was going to sail back to Scotland, the obvious way to get down there was by train. But there were no cheap fares available, and the one-way ticket was only a couple of pounds less than a return fare would have been. So for a laugh I looked into the cost of going by hire car. I was surprised that it turned out that this was significantly cheaper than the rail fare (for *one* person), even allowing for the cost of petrol and paying extra for the one-way hire. So I drove.

[The Medway Handyman]

Talking out of your arse again Dennis?

No business sets its rates only to cover actual costs you idiot. The idea is to make a profit.

I don't quote silly labour rates. I don't have to.

Yeh right.

[The Medway Handyman]

No you wouldn't - you don't have the balls. You would complain to anyone you thought would listen.

This one does.

[The Medway Handyman]

The mark up covers the costs involved in having things like picture hooks in the van idiot.

[dennis]

So why are you having a dicky fit then? I haven't said you do. However you stated that rates would have to go up if you didn't mark up the parts.. so what does happen when you quote £x labour + £y parts for a job and the customer says OK here are the parts, you do it for £x? So are you going to claim that you quote enough labour to do the job and mark up the parts anyway or that you do quote silly rates and rely on the mark up?

Yeh they do, they must be honest.

[dennis]

So the handyman hasn't gone to get the parts but is still charging for them then!

[ARWadsworth]

What do you want TMH to do? Give the parts away for free?

[Adam Aglionby]

genews:g8vNo.21664$ [e-mail]...

Nope, he has already taken title to goods, which has to be financed and provide storage and stock control which also has to be paid for and after all that he is still happy to offer his customers a saving on retail.

Cheers Adam

[Jim Newman]

My, this has been fun!

They see it as perfectly normal, but want to beat the crap out of anyone who says so.

Charming bunch.

140% mark-up!

[Tim Watts]

Christ you are thick dennis.

The mark up on goods brought specifically for a customer covers, amongst other things, keeping utter trivia like screws, hooks and rawlplugs in the van.

[Tim Streater]

And providing same for free.

[John Williamson]

"Included in the quoted price", surely?

[Tim Watts]

In effect, yes. But by spreading the cost of buying trivial consumables over all the customers you will avoid the nonsense and huge time wasting of trying to account for ten-penny parts - so overall everyone wins, a tiny bit.

Unless the customer specifies a particular fancy wrought iron hook, picture hooks are probably van stocked consumables for many handymen.

[ARWadsworth]

If they are so useless that they cannot hang a couple of pictures on the wall then they deserve all they get.

[Man at B&Q]

genews:e93No.13547$ [e-mail]...

Try reading the company results, rather than what some journo wants you to read. The last full year results for the HMV group included growth of 3.1% and record sales of over =A32bn. The recent "bad news" was an update covering a short period and they made it clear that they make most of their profit during the christmas period yet to come.

MBQ

[dennis]

TMH can do what he wants, he is not the subject of this discussion even though he probably thinks he is. He just keeps butting in and demonstrates just what some handymen are like.

As for the handyman.. either he keeps a stock of parts or he fetches them, the way TMH is saying things the handyman is keep stocks and still charging to fetch them, must be something Freudian.

[dennis]

You are thicker, that isn't what was said. It was more along the lines of the handyman keeping a stock of parts and still charging to go and fetch them. Do read what has been said.

[dennis]

So someone with arthritis deserves what they get then? I always knew you were a nice person really.