Shock at Holts auction charges

[gingernut]

No idea of their real figures. They give a service and thats their rate, all in black and white with the odd stinger thrown in for the unwary.
Agreed its not a cheap service; nor are Gas Certificates or pluming issues, dentists or anything else. Get someone else to do something then its going to cost loads of £££££'s.

Anyway, don't think Holts is any better or worse than anyone else. Thats all.

Everybody in the UK wants to earn £500 a day.
No matter how simple their job is.

I get annoyed with heating engineers who fix a boiler in 4 minutes charge £90 and don't tell you what the( obviously simple ) problem is.

And who can afford to pay a dopey Solicitor £250 per hour plus vat so it's really £300 per hour.

My teeth cost me more than any other single household expense last year.
Only for a Crown and a couple of filling repairs!

I could go on!

[Jerry Cornelius]

I get annoyed with heating engineers who fix a boiler in 4 minutes charge £90 and don't tell you what the( obviously simple ) problem is.

To be fair, I am sure you are very sensible, but from experience with the great british public, if gas engineers went round telling people what was wrong with their boilers it wouldn't be long before some idiot caused an explosion trying to fix something themselves, and then they or their insurers would try to blame the engineer.

I can see why they don't.

[Lakey]

Everybody in the UK wants to earn £500 a day.
No matter how simple their job is.

I get annoyed with heating engineers who fix a boiler in 4 minutes charge £90 and don't tell you what the( obviously simple ) problem is.

And who can afford to pay a dopey Solicitor £250 per hour plus vat so it's really £300 per hour.

My teeth cost me more than any other single household expense last year.
Only for a Crown and a couple of filling repairs!

I could go on!

If you asked for an itemised bill from the heating engineer, it would probably look a bit like this

Doing a four minute fix = £4.00

Knowing exactly what to fix and how to fix it = £86.00


If they have studied their trade for years , and it is their livelyhood - you cant blame them I suppose

[gingernut]

It doesn't happen to me as I have a plumber my age who has done ours for a few years.

But all three of my kids have had it this winter.
I think their systems lose pressure which is often easily fixed by opening a valve or two.

Off topic sorry.

[Garvin]

It doesn't happen to me as I have a plumber my age who has done ours for a few years.

But all three of my kids have had it this winter.
I think their systems lose pressure which is often easily fixed by opening a valve or two.

Off topic sorry.

Sorry, another off-topic post because this thread has drifted off topic...

When I got my first Morris Minor (second hand - it was the '80s) it came with a shop manual aimed at the ordinary owner which told him how to bleed the brakes, grease the steering rack, suspension trunions etc - things that were potentially life threatening if you got them wrong.

As well as the the many smaller service jobs, it also addressed quite major things like renewing the timing chain, clutch plate, thrust bearing and so on and so on, all of which I tackled at some time or other.

No wonder there's so much hostility towards experts these days; we're not trusted or encouraged to become one ourselves!

[gingernut]

Good point Danny.

[Phil Russell]

Totally agree with Danny. My own take on it is that most youngsters, and by that I include any person drifting towards their 30s, have not been encouraged to mend things themselves (OK, a few exceptions, but generally true) due to the route that technology has drifted over the past few decades ... a throw away culture enhanced by an inability to get spares anyway. Gone are the days when airgun instruction manuals gave detailed instructions on how to strip it down, replace mainspring and piston washer. If this meant dismantling the trigger (as on several Webley and Air Arms early rifles) then instructions on this were included together with reassembly instructions. My first pcp, an SM100 even gave instructions on how to adjust the power.
A sign of the times no doubt. As they say, today knowledge is power. Or not as the case may be.
Cheers, Phil