PING TMH

[Stephen]

I am unusual for someoone who is born profoundly deaf, I don't use sign language at all..... I hear with hearing aids, listen, lipread and speak....

[Huge]

I worked out the proportion of the cost of running my house attributable to my office, using the square footage and charged that. No-one ever complained about it.

[The Medway Handyman]

Some people want fixed price quotes - they end up paying more.

[The Medway Handyman]

Both. With e-mail they don't always give a number, they tend to be preliminary enquiries e.g. can you do/are you interested.

[The Medway Handyman]

Just an example of the calls you get;

Picked up the answer phone messages for today. Three messages, all from the same bloke wanting his gutters cleaned. He was shouting at the phone each time & sounded like a raving loon. I won't bother calling him back.

This morning, lady wanted a battery replaced in an alarm - could I do it today?

She hadn't actually got the 6v lead acid battery & had no idea where to get one.

She complained that another handyman she had booked hadn't turned up & wouldn't answer her calls.

I quoted £45 - she was horror struck. No idea what the handyman who didn't turn up had quoted, but I can guess why he didn't turn up.

[Nightjar]

...

Pity. It could have been a good USP for your business.

Colin Bignell

[Bill Wright]

When people insist on a fixed price for a job in which the snags won't be apparent until the job is underway, the only possible quote will be based on the assumption that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. You really can't risk quoting on an optimistic basis.

Bill

[GB]

£45 sounds pretty reasonable to me.

By the time you have been to wherever you go to get the battery on a Saturday, travelled to her, done the job, then got home again, how much would you be earning per hour?

And that's assuming you don't have to go round to her house first to check exactly what size battery it takes. How do you know it's 6v, not

12v, for example?

Do let us know if she gets back to you to accept the £45 quote.

[ARW]

TMH has WD40 not KY jelly in his van.

[dennis]

Maybe, but I doubt it was a 6v battery, nearly everything on normal alarms is 12v. Also does she know the codes as opening a panel on some alarms requires the engineer code to reset it.

[The Medway Handyman]

She quoted from the manual.

Not holding my breath....

[Bill Wright]

I've never come across a 6V alarm. It's probably really ancient and if you got the box opened you would find a mess of corrosion.

I had one the other week and the alarm was beeping a code that meant 'battery fault'. In fact the corrosion from the leaking battery had completely dissolved one of the terminals.

Bill

[ARW]

Some of the DIY wireless alarms use 6V. But you would need to know the battery size before buying one.

[Stephen]

For various reasons which is beyond the remit of the newsgroup, deaf adults are 4 times more likely to be unemployed compared to the hearing population. Part of this reason is the cost of communication support like sign language interpreters, unable to use a phone etc.

As a consequence, a greater proportion of these deaf adults will be on disbaility or means tested benefits when compared to the hearing population.

I believe that for a handyman business to work, its worth targetting the cash rich & time poort segment of the public.

People in reciept of benefits would struggle to qualify as cash rich & time poor.........

[Nightjar]

One of my cousins made a very successful business out of providing taxi services for people on disability benefits, specifically wheelchair users. He adapted all his taxis then sold his services to the local authorities, particularly for getting wheelchair bound children to and from school.

Colin Bignell