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Bartering - in the opposite direction

A virtual pub for off topic, light hearted pub related banter and discussion. No trainers
Howyoudoin
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Bartering - in the opposite direction

#170143

Postby Howyoudoin » September 29th, 2018, 7:30 pm

Needed to call my usual guy out today to fix the boiler. Retired guy, lovely bloke.

Turns out he was here less than 5 mins, an easy fix for him and I was very happy that it seemed I wasn't going to stuck with a big bill.

But then he picked his tools up and turned around towards the door as if to leave before I had even got my wallet out.

"Hang on", I said, desperately finding my wallet. "Here, get yourself a drink", handing him £30.

"Nah. Give us a tenner", he said.

"Nope", I said. "Take £20, get yourself a few pints", I said, not knowing if he even drinks.

"Well if you're sure", he said.

I fully believe that when you find a good guy, you should keep them sweet cos you never know when you're going to need them.

OK, it was the easiest of fixes. But only for him, not me.

£20 is nothing for peace of mind.

Have you ever had an occasion when you gave more than what was asked for, because of good service?

HYD

melonfool
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Re: Bartering - in the opposite direction

#170151

Postby melonfool » September 29th, 2018, 7:48 pm

I always give the hand car wash people £10 when the fee is £8 - I suppose it's a 'tip', and using that analogy, yes - all the time. I always tip in restaurants, hairdressers, beauticians, taxis.

The guys who did my patio and decorating kept doing things and saying they would not charge me for them - three things I can think of: 1) they took the ledge off the patio door to fit the new patio and it broke, they said they would pay for it, I refused and told them to put it on the invoice; 2) they stood on the loo seat and it broke, they offered to buy a new one, I refused and bought it myself, they fitted the new one; 3) they forgot to check about where the skip could go and assumed the bit of pavement at the front of my house was/is part of my property, but it's not, and then they had to buy a licence, which is £60, they said they would pay as it was their 'mistake', I refused and told them to add it to the invoice - it wasn't their fault and had they realised at first it would have been on the invoice anyway.

The only one that was kind of their fault was the loo seat I guess, but it's a small cloakroom and I expect they stood on it as there is no room for a ladder, plus it was cheap and nasty and I was going to replace it anyway (and if they'd bought it, they would have probably bought another cheap nasty one, not much point in that!).

Mel

Itsallaguess
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Re: Bartering - in the opposite direction

#170154

Postby Itsallaguess » September 29th, 2018, 7:57 pm

Howyoudoin wrote:
I fully believe that when you find a good guy, you should keep them sweet cos you never know when you're going to need them.

OK, it was the easiest of fixes. But only for him, not me.

£20 is nothing for peace of mind.

Have you ever had an occasion when you gave more than what was asked for, because of good service?


The last time I did this was when my own boiler needed a part replacing that I couldn't do myself, and my gas-certified plumber came round on a Sunday to fix it.

He was on the job for a few hours, but when he'd finished I gave him 150% of what he asked for, with me having to insist that he took it.

This guy has in the past rescued me over a very cold Christmas period when a diaphragm failed many years ago, and I think respect and loyalty is a two-way street, with the only real value that I can add being the price I ultimately pay for his great service. The way I see it is that if they go above and beyond, then it's only fair that I do too, where I can....

Good tradesmen are like gold-dust.

Hopefully they think the same of good customers....

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

PinkDalek
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Re: Bartering - in the opposite direction

#170156

Postby PinkDalek » September 29th, 2018, 8:29 pm

Howyoudoin wrote:Have you ever had an occasion when you gave more than what was asked for, because of good service?


Yes, for instance, when we were rescued from an alpine road, after one of our snow chains had broken*** and we couldn't proceed, as others ahead had slid to a halt, causing us to stop. As it happens on the edge of the road, looking down hundreds of metres and worrying if we'd be hit by other out of control vehicles. We got out and tried to find somewhere safe but were not successful.

All other vehicles had eventually managed to get off the ice, one way or the other, and we were approached by a police car, an hour or so later, at about midnight. Typical good guy/bad guy approach but the good guy gave us a number to call and warned it could be up to two hours for the rescue truck to arrive. Rescue truck arrived half an hour later, sold us another set of chains, I think they replaced them but I can't recall who did that, and were embarrassed to say the charge was something like £80 in a foreign currency. I said I didn't expect them to have change so gave them the equivalent of £100.

Turned out to be a cheap start to the ski-ing trip. We'd phoned the hotel to say we'd be late and were told the booking was for the following night. No room at the inn, anywhere, so ended up paying for an overnight stay in an underground car park, for about a tenner.

When we got to the hotel later, we were told they'd made a terrible mistake. They had come out to try and find us on the mountain roads but had given up due to the conditions and wouldn't attempt to charge for the no show (as if).

We were therefore given a slap up meal and wine on the house the following evening. That was quite amusing in itself, as they had previously alerted us to them being a gourmet style restaurant and we probably wouldn't have bothered eating there otherwise, preferring to venture into town, on foot!

I think we left a tip. ;)


*** More likely I hadn't fitted one of them correctly in driving snow and with freezing hands. Thus the admonishment from the bad guy cop and from my passenger, who shall be nameless.

bungeejumper
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Re: Bartering - in the opposite direction

#170157

Postby bungeejumper » September 29th, 2018, 8:30 pm

I once did similar with a plasterer. Wanted to charge me £40 for the morning's work, which would have included a 30 mile call-out journey. I wasn't having that. :P

It paid off several years later, when I needed him to strip and replace four ceilings. (We're talking listed lath and plaster here.) He was a star that time as well. One of my better investments.

BJ

Howyoudoin
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Re: Bartering - in the opposite direction

#170161

Postby Howyoudoin » September 29th, 2018, 8:54 pm

Fab stories!

Well done folks, makes a nice change from our usual moans.

HYD

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Bartering - in the opposite direction

#170194

Postby UncleEbenezer » September 30th, 2018, 1:43 am

Not really so different to giving a tip, is it? And I think you meant to say "haggling".

Real generosity is perhaps to tip when you have no expectation of using them again. I live on a hillside up a lot of steps, so when I have a delivery (got a new sofa a few weeks ago) I think the delivery men earn a tip if they do the job with good grace. And of course they're working for the retailer, not for me at all.

I have a gardener who has now also become a personal friend. His charges are very reasonable, and I've overpaid once or twice though not routinely.

orchard101
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Re: Bartering - in the opposite direction

#170286

Postby orchard101 » September 30th, 2018, 4:12 pm

I found a man who repairs electrical equipment. He is very up front and says it will cost £40 if he can fix it and nothing if he can't.

To date I have called him out twice, he fixed the problem. I could not afford to pay him extra but I recommend him to all and sundry who will listen.

stevensfo
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Re: Bartering - in the opposite direction

#170287

Postby stevensfo » September 30th, 2018, 4:16 pm

I had terrible pain from a wisdom tooth for a few years, Dentist in Stevenage said they'd contact me, never did. In Poland on holiday and pain gets so bad my wife drags me to Dentist who says "Come back in the afternoon". He's proud that he speaks some English, gives me plenty of anesthetic and extracts tooth, with a lot of horrific cracking noises, but I feel nothing. Having insurance, I whisper to my wife to ask for an itemised bill, expecting hundreds. Bill comes to about 10 quid!

Fortunately I managed to press quite a bit more than that into his hand!


Steve

wheypat
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Re: Bartering - in the opposite direction

#170459

Postby wheypat » October 1st, 2018, 12:09 pm

My wife has set up her own gardening business and many people over pay her - she charges £15/hr and one lady pays here £25. My wife refused to accept it till the lady said her previous gardener charged £25/hr and was there for 2 hours where as you're doing the same job in 90 minutes to a higher standard. When the weather isn't great this lady gets her lawns trimmed first.

brightncheerful
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Re: Bartering - in the opposite direction

#170512

Postby brightncheerful » October 1st, 2018, 2:36 pm

And I think you meant to say "haggling".


?

Or a Dutch auction. where the starting price is say £x and the bidders each offer less than £x until when there are no more bidders and the last bid wins.

--
I experience the op's frequently, Not only in my dealings with others, but also in their dealings with me. Others suggest that I am undercharging and they would prefer to pay more. Who am I to argue if more that i normally charge is what they want to pay.

Gengulphus
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Re: Bartering - in the opposite direction

#170711

Postby Gengulphus » October 2nd, 2018, 9:14 am

brightncheerful wrote:
And I think you meant to say "haggling".


?

"Bartering" is trading one type of non-cash goods or service for another - e.g. when one allotment holder has a glut of plums and another of gooseberries and they swap their surpluses. So bartering in reverse is just another description of bartering! And with cash involved, what was described in the OP isn't bartering. "Haggling" is trying to get a seller to accept a lower price or a buyer to pay a higher price, and what was described in the OP was trying (and succeeding) to get a seller (of a service) to accept a higher price - i.e. the reverse of the first of those.

brightncheerful wrote:Or a Dutch auction. where the starting price is say £x and the bidders each offer less than £x until when there are no more bidders and the last bid wins.

That's a bit garbled. In a Dutch auction, the basic procedure is that the seller sets an asking price of say £x which is above what they expect to get, even on an exceptionally good day, and then successively lowers it, down to the minimum level they're willing to accept. At each stage, potential buyers can bid, which just means saying they're willing to pay the current asking price (they don't name a price themselves). First bidder wins, terminating the auction. If nobody bids even at the seller's minimum acceptable price, the item has failed to sell.

Gengulphus


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