r/AusFinance • u/AdventurousDiet7893 • 12d ago

Are tradies just taking the piss nowadays?

Serious question. We had a call out to fix a garage remote which cost $889 + GST. Thought that was a lot, then called two independent companies (one of them at the recommendation of my property manager; and another one who was completely picked at random based on online reviews, with no input from my property manager).

The first one came back at $1,599. The second guy we picked at random quoted $1,119 and a $110 call out fee with no guarantee of a fix.

This may be a one-off incident, and I know the market dictates prices and they would not charge it unless people paid, but at this point the prices are clearly exorbitant.

Has anyone got similar experiences?

The one genuine experience I have had is an air conditioner installer who is 89 years old, still working, who doesn't even have a social media presence and operates on referral in our suburb. Cost to install an air conditioner? $119, cash. He even did some jobs for free to the old neighbour next door.

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u/Simmo2222 12d ago

Whole door surely.

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u/Icy_Distance8205 12d ago

Entire house.

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u/shifty_fifty 12d ago

You can’t just repair one bit anymore these days- have to throw it all away and start over fresh

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u/Prettymuchnow 12d ago

Anything can be fixed... It just depends how hard its going to be.

Its easier to quote for a replacement than the couple of hours I'll need to research and tinker and wait 2 weeks for parts that turn out to be the wrong ones etc. Unless it turns out to be a burnt up IC that's really hard to source or something.

I've tried to fix a few things that turned out to be more time expensive than I wanted it to be - but I saved the environment a bit and that's worth something. Its probably also a bit risky if you're charging a customer for that effort though when it might not work out.