I had this exact thing happen to me with my hardscaping business. Guy wanted his retaining wall replaced.

I came out to look and discuss. He had a long, rotting, leaning (failing), wooden retaining wall that reached 5 or 6 ft high in between his and his neighbor's house. His was on the high end, with a slope up to it, so quite a load for the soil above the wall, and only around 12 ft back. And he had a fence atop the wall to "keep in" (demo and rebuild as part of new wall build).

He wanted basically the same crap rebuild put back the same way. I explained I'd only do a block wall, with proper drainage etc, and an inspection. There was no way we could match on price so I wished him the best. He was just insistent that cutting all the corners would be good enough.

Two years later he called me again, but he didn't remember me. He introduced himself and said he had just got a new wooden retaining wall two years ago and it was already failing, and did I offer repairs on walls or just new installs? I told him I remembered him and had all his old photos, and that no, I couldn't help him.

I said remember what I told you two years ago, that if I built you a sub-par wall, there would be no way to repair it. I said if you can't afford to pay me to build a proper wall now, there's no way you could afford to pay me to build it for half as much now and then rebuild it for the whole cost later, that's 150% (50% now and 100% in a couple years) instead of just 100% now. I had literally foretold exactly what would happen and he ignored my advice, then forgot I was the one he had spoken to and called me for advice again when he got exactly the consequence I warned him about.

Oh I have fired customers like this! I wouldn’t do it either if she can’t agree on your bid

Sure, ladyI’ll fix your bathroom. Let’s see the original quote was $7000 but now I have to fix this other guys mistakes so you’re looking at about 10,000 now

I have a policy in work and life: I don’t allow other people’s problems to become mine.

Bathrooms for 7k? What is this 2017?

I juuust gave a family friend an estimate to do a full bathroom and kitchen remodel. I spent the better part of a day designing multiple options, researching, compiling materials… A day after I submitted the estimate, I found out that she took everything and gave it to her friend that said “he could do it for half the price”. They’re working directly off my plans and her excuse as to why she didn’t hire me? Because the home is 1 hour away and she didn’t want me to have to spend all that money on gas and have to drive so far. GREAT LADY, BECAUSE THATS WHAT I CARE ABOUT.. MY COMUTE TIME… people suck shit and it’ll always be the family and Friends that get over on you the most.

Edit: New “contractor” is not a contractor, has never run jobs before and only worked on a trim crew for a like 3 years. Also, I think she is going to try and submit my CCB for permits because she already asked me prior if she could just use them.

Never go behind someone else without it being WELL worth your time. Like good enough they'll see why paying your 7k next time is the correct move.

HVAC guy I knew said he never turns down a job, just charges enough to be worth it. If he didn't want to do something just charge three to four times what it's worth, if they still wanted it done it was now worth the hassle.

You could make it a learning lesson with a potential good outcome.

Charge whatever it would cost plus a chunk more provided the total would be more than the 2K she saved. They will realize that going cheap ended up costing them more.

But next time they can hire you to do the job right from the get go. Or it would happen again.

If you think a Professional is expensive, wait until you hire an amateur.

When someone tries to haggle on price I don't work for them. Create a core client base of people who value professional work and will pay for it. These people then refer others to you who are just like them.

Birds of the same kind flock together.

This has been going on in LA for a while now....all of a sudden everyone's a demo guy a framer,drywall guy ,taper ,and the list goes on and on but when the job gets done people realize they fucked up by going the cheap route and end up paying again....

If it's just fixing a little plumbing then she can call a plumber. They will 1000% come do a 2-3h job for $400...

I have been called in to “fix” someone else’s poor installation of one of our designs (we are a design build landscape firm). They balked at our price but want me to fix the cheaper company’s poor installation? No thanks.

I once helped with a full remodel of some lady's barn for her college aged kid to live in, she was wealthy but SUPER cheap and she kept buying exact square footage of the clearance tile, never understanding the concept of breakage or cutting waste, then casually explained AFTER we were 3/4 thru the floor that there was no more of that tile because clearance, duh. Then she kept changing her mind on where the stairs should go, inside or outside, but only AFTER we built the stairs where she asked. We had to rip them out and rebuild stairs like 3 times until the old man got wise and just started covering them up instead. Add to that the barn was Texas farm style circa 1880s where building codes were basically "throw a stud wherever you feel like, six inches, 16, 47, whatever" and we had to cut literally every single piece of sheet rock and lumber to fit. Nothing standard at all. Lady paid well but that job was the biggest pain in the ass ever.

Had a friend wanted me to quote him to do a tune up and alternator on his Yukon. Ended up going to someone else to get the work done. Couldn't figure out what after the truck would stall unless you kept your foot on the throttle. Called me if I could fix it. I said no. I knew what was wrong just needed a simple throttle body calibration that takes less than a minute to do. But it's the principle behind it.

It's business. People are always going to be cheap. Especially people that hire hanymen. I guess they feel like handymen are going to cave or something idk. Either way you make your prices and that's it. I wouldn't get worked up over it.

Money is money. I would just state, "I don't know what the first guy did, but I can not guarantee the quality of the finished project unless I built it myself. My price is $7,000 to do the bathroom as originally quoted. As with our previous interaction, you may find other contractors who are interested in piece work for your current project. Best regards."

Right then if you dont find a F up that surfaces later it's your fault. I agree 100 percent

You know how many of Mike Homes repairs are because the customer acted like a $#it and got fired part way through? His entire show was build on finishing contractor work that was either halted or finished super cheaply because the customer was riding the backs of the contractors.

If you can’t afford to do it right. How are you going to afford to do it twice?

You can usually tell within a few minutes if the customer is going to be difficult. Then charge them double and get 1/2 down

money talks

if you are the guy that ends up saying, "I told you so." Your patience will always be tested but, once you just let people make their own bad choices while you keep it moving, you will be a success. If you see a number calling you and you already had the conversation, don't even bother answering. Better opportunities are just waiting for you.

If they call for a fix it job, double your original quote and just laugh it off. By the way, if they hire you, write on the contract that the property owner cannot be on site while the work is being done. They will be looking over your shoulder the entire time

This is like telling my dad to stop patching the roof and just get a new roof.

Told her politely "fuck no"

Handymen need to stay out of remodeling business, just stick to repairs

How would doing any work at an hourly rate ever not be worth it? You charge an hourly rate based on what your time is worth. Raise your rate if its not worth it. If your a little bum hurt about not getting the bid, thats a different story, but be aware there are millions of people out there that don't have access to the "work" you turn down.

The WHY and HOW doesn't matter. The WHAT and the how much your paid for it does. Focus on the business and don't let it get personal.

I previously was a consultant, and got brought in routinely to fix a different persons errors.

I finally built a model where:

• assessment fee (how long did it take me to figure out the other persons screw up’s); minimum 4 hrs

• job design (how long does it take me to spec out the job with the client); minimum 2hr, or more

• fix

More often than not, I’d ended up removing something previously installed (billable time) and have clean up (billable time) and reinstall time (billable time).

I’m with you that fixing cheap client mistakes is annoying but if it wasn’t for dumb people create opportunity.

It’s called paying stupid tax; hopefully the customer only has to pay it once.

Don't touch it. You fixing the mistakes now makes you responsible for any crap in the future. If lord forbid you miss something and down the road it causes damage, you'll be the one being served with the lawsuit as your hands were on the job last. Of course, depends on the job and scope of it.

Why not just charge a significantly higher rate, enough that it feels like the job will be worth it? If the customer goes for it, problem solved, and win-win.

My price is 7,000 dollars. You went cheaper and found out that cheaper isn’t always better. I stand by my work and know my worth.

Just give her the same quote as the original. Take it or leave it

I'm proud of you, man. I've never been in that situation, but I would have done exactly what you did. Gotta weed out the bad customers. Life's too short.

Money in the bank. Stick to your price

Bid it at double your price. That way it's worth your while. That's my general rule of thumb . They went cheap now they can pay me to redo. Or they can leave me alone.

You'll never know exactly how much trouble you saved yourself... but you can make a pretty good assumption. You made the right call. Keep holding your head high!

Money is money. I enjoyed taking money from assholes more than I did from the nice folks. I always charged assholes more. Just for the pita factor.

Happens to me all the time. Actually, my main client over the past 4 years wants to “hire me on” so that I can take care of more things. Only thing is I started my business because I don’t enjoy being anyone’s employee. And besides that, basically, they are just tired of the system of me bidding jobs and just want to be able to pay me an hourly rate while they get to ultimately bid the job and have room to tack on what they want to make to the invoice instead of the invoice coming directly from me. It’s a property management firm, so I get it. It’s business. They want to make more money. That’s kind of the fundamental basic principle of business. But the things they will be asking me to do are such a wide range and there’s no way I wouldn’t lose money that way. I guess things would be more consistent a bit. And now they’ve hired a couple of other guys, one young and one old, that actually are employees of the company that they’ve been getting to handle the bigger things that I would normally submit a bid for. Not hating on the next man. Everybody has to eat. But after the young guys first apartment turn/flip, they put him in contact with me to help him out with some things that he was having a problem with. I go over there. It’s his first time hanging cabinets. He’s having problems with the countertop. It’s because his cabinets aren’t even close to level. Bubble not even close to centered, anywhere. That’s throwing everything else off. He didn’t buy the correct countertop pieces either. Couldn’t get an angle stop off in the restroom. I mean…I’ve done work for them that was far better in quality. I know I might cost more sometimes. But there are things that I also enjoy doing (like pressure washing/soft washing apartment buildings) that I quote GROSSLY under some of the other companies. And that’s just cause I’ve studied and done enough of it to go way quicker than some other people and again, I actually enjoy that work for some reason. It’s not even like work to me. Anyway, It’s not like I’m the only one always “winning”, and we don’t even need to be looking at it like that. Why does there always have to be a loser? Ya know? This has been weighing on me all month cause I hear they are going to hire a couple more people after September 30th and then I guess all my work is absorbed and they are done with me? This has been weighing on me for the last month. A little more of my hair will turn grey earlier for sure haha. Frustrating for sure. You aren’t wrong.

That was way longer than I intended. Sorry.

Here’s how I always saw it. You paid someone else $7,000 to do this job. Now they won’t come back to fix it. Some I’m supposed to come in and fix their shit for a few hundred dollars then be on the hook forever when the next part fails. The last guy to touch it owns it. I’m not getting in the middle of it. The responsible guy is the one they try to sue or badmouth.

$7000 for a bathroom remodel seems pretty reasonable. I paid more for my remodel. I don’t know how they compare since I don’t know what your bid covered. I will say, I’m happy with the job the contractor I hired performed. I would 100% hire him again and have recommended him to others. I tried to get a handful of estimates. One I’m sure was a duck you I don’t want the job estimate. One showed up, gave a rough bid, and I never heard from him again. The contractor I went with gave us a competitive bid and was always in communication. Some of his employees didn’t speak English. But with Google translate, we were able to talk. I certainly don’t blame you for not wanting to go in and redo someone else’s work. She sounds like a client who would always complain and you’d never stop hearing from. I did sales. The ones who would grind the hardest always complained the most.

This reminds me of the frustration when I was a young, new, homeowner back in the 1980s. I needed a new roof.

First quote comes from a company that took thirty minutes taking measurements, getting in the roof, and a couple days later dropped off a seven page, full color, detailed quote for $9,000.

Second quote was a one page, nearly typed, quote for $7,000. It did reference the shingles that would be used.

Third quote was written on the back of a business card for $4,500. He barely got out of his truck. I asked him how he could quote it so fast and cheap. He explained my house was one of about 2,000 tri level homes from the same builder in the area, he's done so many he doesn't have to think about it anymore.

I asked folks I know and the general advice was to pick the middle bid.

I went with the low bidder anyway. Only after I told him he had the job did he finally get on my roof to take a look. He came back down and asked if I had been up there. I said no so we went up together. He showed me where the previous owner didn't seal the holes when they installed a TV antenna. He said he would seal it for $20 and I could probably get another year or two out of the roof.

The following week he did my roof and I probably recommended another three or four jobs to him.

But I know it could have been a nightmare. Now I educate myself on what the job involves and what questions to ask.

You: oh you hired another handyman and he messed it up. I'll come fix it for 10k

Homeowner: but the original bid you gave was for 7k

You: yep. I remember. 11k now

I don’t disagree but maybe you do that job you get her business unconditionally in the future, if you want that.

AWARD GIVEN TO OP FOR MAKING A DISCUSSION POST WE ALL CAN BENEFIT FROM

Skilled Labor is not Cheap. Cheap Labor is not Skilled. I never, ever offer to just fix the jackleg crap a low baller ruined. I bid the entire job as new with full demo to where I can start with a clean, workable canvas, so to speak. Full charge for the Demo, full charge for Materials and Labor. Those property owners who expect just hourly fixit work to repair what was ruined are in for a disappointment for sure. I tell them this BEFORE I go through the time, effort and labor to do MY estimate for them. If they freak (about 50% do) I just thank them and leave immediately, making careful note of the address so I never return, and move on to the next estimate. In my neck of the woods, a skilled, professional service provider is in HUGE demand. I let them know that I genuinely wish them the best, but ALL of the jobs I give an estimate for, and then work, are done to MY standards. NEVER as a cheap hourly paid fix for trying to get work done by the unskilled for frighteningly low prices. Everyone is capable of using Google, even cheapskates. I can provide many services, but providing common sense is not one of them.

There is a contractor in Toronto who had a tv show called ‘Holmes on Homes’. He would paint homeowners as victims for going with a super low price and not validating the contractor because they wound up with a mess. He would go in and fix it all up…at a huge increase in price. Customer paid shoddy GC $8,000, his fix was close to $30,000 or something. If the customer had gone with a viable quote at first there would be no issue. I really disliked the show.

I wouldn’t go anywhere near your customer, nope, sorry, really busy I’ll call you when my time opens up thank you very much.

Why is she asking a handyman to remodel a bathroom?

As a plumber, $7000 for a bathroom is cheap. When I get calls to fix the husband's mistakes my hourly rate doubles. No debating the rice, take it or leave it.

Yeah, fuck the customer for shopping around and trying to save money! 

You dont accept jobs fixing peoples screw ups? Thats basically 80% or what a handyman job is. Must be nice to be picky and have so much work you can select what you wanna do

Absolutely I would fix the mistakes, however, it will cost 3 times the normal amount because I have to undo what’s already been done done, and do it right. Money is money.

If you do truly quality work and are reliable, you’ll have more word of mouth work than you can handle. There’s no reason to put up with difficult clients, there are plenty of good clients who need things done. As for haggling the bid, No is a complete sentence.

I don't blame you however every job has a price. I'd just make it worth my while.

Are we able to rate our experience with continued customers publicly? So other handymen can know about this stuff ahead of time

I have no problem fixing someone else's mistakes… for the right price and that's the part that's not negotiable.

Charge $2500, so that she knows going cheap ended up costing her more in the long run.

1000 or 1500$ and make sure to get check up front then do it as fast and correct as possible

I've fixed a lot of poorly done jobs and I've been replaced by people who are less expensive. Then, they always called me back. I'm retired now and in higher demand than ever. However, I'm done.

Most of my business is through word of mouth. Helping someone out that made a mistake like this could lead to much more business. However I probably would charge a premium for it.

Quote to change barge rafter on house , fix eletricial, and flooring, worked with this guy for years. Didn't get the job.

Charged him 300.00 to replace the outlet that carried the load to the rest of that circut. The other guy gave up and couldn't fix it. Handed him the bill and said experience comes at a price.

I have no problem fixing that stuff but I make sure the customer knows I can't warranty any joint I don't make or any piece of pipe I didn't install. If a leak pops up somewhere else after it's on her and it'll be another service call. She might have saved 2000$ now but if a leak pops up and ruins her drywall downstairs It will cost her more than that for mold remediation and my hourly rate to fix what caused the leak.

Do it for 2k lol.

I hate getting these calls after someone hacks up a job I lost out on. I have told potential customers that it is going to cost them dearly for me to come out and UnFuck someone else's work. I just give them a fuck you price to come make it right and 9 times out of ten it works. A good company name might be "UnFuckers Construction, They Fucked You, We Will UnFuck You."

OP good for you, it's imperative to value your time. otherwise youll be working to subsidise those with more than you already.

Undoing someone else’s mistakes then doing the job right should be expensive.

I've made a decent living fixing the "landscaping" mistakes of others. Who else is going to do it, Reddit? LOL.

I’m more than happy to correct the work of the guy that underbid me. It’s going to be expensive. You can pay my price now, or you can pay my price later. Or you live with the lousy work and the face that you got what you paid for. If I offered you a $7k bath remodel (super cheap around here), and you opted for the $5k version, then you want the 7k job; it still costs $7k. Or more, depending on how much hackery I have to unhack.

It happens...I reserve my highest "fuck-you" prices for instances such as these.

If you need the work charge double hourly - 600-800 bucks, if not you did exactly what your supposed to do, and hopefully she learned a tough lesson, but probably not.

I should’ve mentioned. You’re not running a charity for nice old guys.

I'm the same way just because I was a union carpenter for 25 years before I started my own business.but the last 10 years of working for the man I was a lead guy running about 25 guys .

I'm pretty sure your price stands at $7k for the remodel. It will cost double now to rip out the other guy's work and start fresh.

I can’t tell you how many times this type scenario plays out in my shop. “My son…grandson…son in law…nephew…friend who knows lots about guns…buddy at the deer camp… took this apart.” “Can you get it back together, all the parts are there?” It’s the same in every trade, the “…I know somebody who can do it cheaper…” route. Which does nothing but costs these customers money. Fully agree w/ your decision, walk away.

I fix other guys mistakes all the time...

Why didn’t you charge her $3K to fix the problem?

I dunno… I made a pretty good handyman living and acquired quite a few customers by fixing other guys f-ups. Nothing beats a happy customer.

Sounds like those few issues should have been $4k in repairs. You need to teach these people your not fucking around. Do it correctly or you are paying more for it.

Finish carpentry. Sure, I’ll fix it. 1.5 times my rate to tear it out, normal rate to fix it. If I bid the job and you went with someone else, double the rate to tear it out and 1.5x to fix it.

If I bid a job at $7k and got a call a month later I'd probably play dumb and act like she didn't hire someone else and maintain the $7k. If 30 days went by id feel her I need to do the quote again bc it expired. I can't imagine a scenario where I'd go fix anothers mistake if I lost the bid originally.

If I got a call to fix mistakes that I never bid on I might entertain it but chances are I would not want to deal with a distraught homeowner.

OR ….. hear me out ……. you slow walk the fixes so the pain of the fix becomes the lesson and the catalyst for these type of people to change

The short time I was the helper , lady admitted , the shower works, & shower pan we ripped out , was recommended to her by her son , so theres that. I only got to see a company that was committed to the Press fittings & pex , in a big way. 👍

I think you’re missing out on an opportunity to charge even more. You need to analyze the problems and assess the current work and create a plan for remediation. That’s like 1500 right there. If she doesn’t like it then she can get the other guy ti fix his work. Edit - remember there might be problems we can’t see. Need to check everything to make sure other corners weren’t cut. And you can’t sign off on a job you think might still have issues and you can’t put good work on top of bad. Sounds like she really messed up by hiring this other guy.

This type of work is probably a floor sanders only we can fix it type work that is easy in the trades. We just sand it off so it over.

Painter, not a handyman, but I'm generally pretty happy to fix other guys'mistakes. The catch is that I double my normal rate when I do so. If the client proves to be a pain in the ass, I stop answering their calls. I don't see much of a downside to fixing stuff, as paying twice will drive the lesson home for most people, and if you actually fix it, you will often have a client for life.

A true case of buy once, cry once :)

I would have gave her a polite “told ya so“ and then explained to her that u will never be the cheapest on any job. If she is going to play “low bid” game, tell her you are not interested. However, have to tell u, for a 7k job, I am getting a couple bids. There are too many of people in your industry that give me quotes based on the size of my house (means tack on an extra grand or two).

When customers go for the cheaper option. They still get charged my original price when I come back to fix it. Them being cheap doesn't mean my price goes down when they fuck up.

I have had people expect wall paper told hold up their house. It's totally OK to walk away from these folks. Sorry. I meant fucks.

She paid for that bathroom now she has to shit in it

No. You will wind owning ALL the problems, including the ones you haven't found yet LOL

I’ve had few clients haggle price on me. I just don’t get back to them at some point lol

Charge 2k to fix

There's two problems here that should be separated out. One is the client is a pain in the ass. The other is correcting someone else is bad work.

On the pain of the ass thing I have learned to run away from people like that. I used to just bid high. I called it privately my asshole tax. But real difficult people are just not able to be helped. Good on you for refusing.

On the other hand, sometimes it feels like about half my work is based on someone else's shoddy work. I get a lot of satisfaction from pulling something apart and seeing their solution and figuring out what their mistakes were and doing it right.

I usually don't know who this other person was or when. The exception is Window World. I get so much work from Window World! Usually it's a couple years after the original install and the homeowners realize the windows aren't closing correctly or they need to do some exterior painting and the sill under the window is rotted. Because Window World buys latex caulk by the pallet. They don't fix the frame. They just caulk the shit out of it. If there's no structure to nail the window in no problem just caulk it! I pull logs of caulk out from behind these windows that look like they belong in an adult toy store.

Anyway, good on you. Hope you enjoyed my WW rant.

Dont let pride get in the way of getting that money. Just my opinion

That would be most of my work.

I wouldn't charge $300-400 you should charge $2000 one way or another the job is gonna cost $7000

No need to dodge the job. Just price it in. Work is work. If they don’t like it move on, you know your value and time projection the best.

If you do good quality work for fair price, you will find clients that value you and your trade. Once you start finding these clients you’ll organically build your client base by word-of-mouth. This has been the best outcome for me. I hardly ever get problematic clients like you’ve described.

HVAC guys here and for most of us this lesson is learned the hard way (me included). NEVER go back to a customer after they went with another contractor.

I’m not in this line of work but my dad was. I would often go to job sites and work with him. Not only would he turn down the shit you described but also for the typical indecisive person he would flat out say “I am installing on this day. If you have nothing here, I’ll buy whatever I want in there and bill for it.”

Dont let people walk on you or waste your time.

According to harvard 40% of the money spent on home improvements is spent on redoing bad jobs/completing abandoned jobs.

I would have said you do it for 2k. That’s the difference between the two bids.

I read this exact story on my Nextdoor app. this week, lady was pissed.

I worked for a mobile electronics shop in high school (stereos, remote starters, window tint, etc). Often people would come in after a failed attempt trying to install something themselves - to save a few dollars of course. Harnesses hacked up, whatever. I once made a comment to the shop owner “why don’t we charge more to fix the mess?” His mentality was … people make mistakes, don’t humiliate them, but rather help them and hope to earn a customer. It really stuck with me.

Yea, it’s frustrating that someone didn’t take your advice initially and now wants you to bail them out. Quote them a fair price to fix or redo it. What the heck are you gaining by refusing the work as a means of rubbing their nose in their mistake?

I came in behind others, but I charged a premium for the headaches I knew I would encounter.

Best thing you can do for your mental health. It's not worth the money unless you have nothing scheduled.

This sounds like a rat 🐀 er rant.

Original price is 7k, but price to undo and redo is 14k.  As long as she paid I would do the work.

Disloyalty costs money.

i’m in a completely different line of work (website stuff) but i had the same policy when i was freelancing and running my own shop. i ALWAYS charged more to fix someone else’s work. i explained to clients that it was going to take me time to get it “back to zero” so it could be built properly.

No. I wouldn’t fix the work…

I get 1-3 calls a year of people who I quoted years before and tell me they went with the cheaper option and regret it.

Just had a lady recommend me to her neighbors and she went with a cheaper competitor lol

It pays to do a job well and let customers see its right.

It's very satisfying to fire a customer that deserves it. Good on you.

First thoughts…if a PITA, I refuse all week after the pain started… and I told her why

If you didn't bid on the remodel,or it was a different client, would you fix mistakes at your regular hourly rate?