Cuffy/Skill - Stafford customer service thread - Stafford retailers reports.

Chillybean

Well-Known Forumite
I'm not penalising the carpet fitter rather the unrealistic quote that the Greyfriars gave for getting the job done. I'd expect a good professional company to know what they are selling and how to lay it and time to do so and charge accordingly. Which is the main issue.

In hindsight I should have bought the materials myself and got an independent to install for £450 which would have been a more realistic rate according to some fitters who have done rentals for me in the past. As Rudie111 says I failed to get a number of quotes but this is largely down to the various other carpet companies in Stafford/Cannock and Walsall I've used over the last few years providing good service and value for money, sadly not in this case.
 

c0tt0nt0p

Well-Known Forumite
Perhaps next time get multiple quotes in and then you can compare.
Exactly this!! Both times we've had people in to do carpets in multiple rooms they were different installers for the same carpet place. I've always marveled on how quickly they get things done.

The only downer the 2nd time around was they they didn't trim doors (using a fancy electric saw)...
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
Massive skill points to Church Lane Dentists.

My dentists (Hillcrest) have struck me off their patient list after they cancelled my last appointment as they were closed due to covid.

I had a filling fall out during covid, but no pain which was good cos you couldn't see a dentist.

Roll on nearly 2 years & it starts to hurt. Really hurt. So bad on Friday that I couldn't even move to take my shoes off after work.

Visit to church lane dentist at 1pm Friday, booked in as an emergency private patient at 4pm, check up, xrays & extraction done by 4.20pm.

Yes, it cost £140.00, which is quite a bit to me at the moment, but it was worth every penny, but I'm painless still 4 days on. Absolutely brilliant dentist, kind, friendly & excellent at his job...

I think if more people knew how inexpensive private dentist treatment is, they would look for it more.
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
Massive skill points to Church Lane Dentists.

My dentists (Hillcrest) have struck me off their patient list after they cancelled my last appointment as they were closed due to covid.

I had a filling fall out during covid, but no pain which was good cos you couldn't see a dentist.

Roll on nearly 2 years & it starts to hurt. Really hurt. So bad on Friday that I couldn't even move to take my shoes off after work.

Visit to church lane dentist at 1pm Friday, booked in as an emergency private patient at 4pm, check up, xrays & extraction done by 4.20pm.

Yes, it cost £140.00, which is quite a bit to me at the moment, but it was worth every penny, but I'm painless still 4 days on. Absolutely brilliant dentist, kind, friendly & excellent at his job...

I think if more people knew how inexpensive private dentist treatment is, they would look for it more.
Totally agree. Moving to Pure Dentist on the Eccleshall Road from an NHS dentist was the best thing I ever did for me and my teeth! Such superior treatment I can't even begin to compare!
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
Our cuffy with Greyfriar’s was pre-sales years ago tbh

We walked in there, young couple, wanted to talk carpets. The one time we wanted someone to actually talk to us in a store but instead all 3 of the staff were too busy fawning over an old couple and selling them whatever they were selling. It very much felt like a case of “oh that young couple won’t be buying anything expensive, we’ll focus on bleeding these OAPs dry instead”
 

staffordjas

Well-Known Forumite
I think if more people knew how inexpensive private dentist treatment is, they would look for it more.
We've always been NHS , but since moving will have to go private . Priced the nearest one up and is quite reasonable . Only a few days wait at most for non-emergency appointments as well , instead of having to book for 4-6 months time with my NHS one.

Since having to join a new GP practice , they are being a bit TOO attentive compared with my last ones and wanting to see me for tests and check-up......
Got away without having my routine 6 monthly thyroid blood tests for several years now at my Stafford GP practice (always the same results for years on same medication , so I wasn't concerned) as even before covid they seemed to forget about it. And they just kept dishing out the Levothyroxine, statins , and 2 lots of blood pressure tablets without testing that either.

I now have to see the new doctors next week . Maybe shouldn't have knocked a stone off my weight on the forms I filled in. :rolleyes: And hoping they haven't seen me downing the pints of cider in the local :lol:. I look like an 😇 on paper. May have slightly 😉 under-estimated units per week......
 
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littleme

250,000th poster!
Totally agree. Moving to Pure Dentist on the Eccleshall Road from an NHS dentist was the best thing I ever did for me and my teeth! Such superior treatment I can't even begin to compare!
You really do get what you pay for. Excellent treatment & I wouldn't hesitate to go back.
 

Thehooperman

Well-Known Forumite
I expect the carpet layer to be efficient and do a good job it's was he is being paid for. However the time suggested by the Greyfriars was over inflated and unrealistic to the time taken and it was sold to me as time/price and not area that they later claimed. We all have our different ideas of what is fair value but what works out as £100/hr in my book is a little over the top, what do consider as a fair price? As a carpet supplier they should have better idea of how long it takes to install that type which is fairly easy to install and quote a sensible price.
So if they'd overrun would you have paid more?

They gave you a price that I assume you thought was acceptable and then did it quicker than they quoted.

I don't see where the problem is to be honest.
 

Chillybean

Well-Known Forumite
So if they'd overrun would you have paid more?

They gave you a price that I assume you thought was acceptable and then did it quicker than they quoted.

I don't see where the problem is to be honest.
No I would not have paid more unless I messed up on the size or the area had not been properly prepared which is my responsibility.

Yes I though the price they calculated was acceptable for a day and half job as they suggested but not for 6.5 hours work as it turned out which is vastly different, if not slightly over inflated. Had I known I was going to pay £673 for 6.5 hours work I would not have used them as this is way beyond the normal rate. Even when I explained to manager that it effectively was over £100/hr labour costs they agreed it was to high and blamed the fitter. If they had been professional, they would have had a good idea how quickly the floor could be laid and be more realistic in the quoting the price.

Possibly a poor analogy you book a nights hotel stay, you arrive and the room is not ready and they will check you in later at 6pm, in the morning they decide to kick you at 9am much earlier than you expected and what they previous had said. Naturally you complain and they say well you had a nights stay.
 

Chillybean

Well-Known Forumite
So you want to pay by size, but want to penalise them by time?
Sounds like the guy should have took more tea breaks then everyone would be happy!
What I meant is if I had messed up on the measuring the size used to calculate the area which meant that it would take longer to do, then yes I would have expected to pay more.
 

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
So you want to pay by size, but want to penalise them by time?
Sounds like the guy should have took more tea breaks then everyone would be happy!
Chillybean might not have offered even one cup of tea all day and the fitter was working like the clappers to get home for one.
 

Chillybean

Well-Known Forumite
Chillybean might not have offered even one cup of tea all day and the fitter was working like the clappers to get home for one.
For the record he didn't drink tea or coffee just water, in that respect it was cheaper. Got enough friends who are tradesman to know that they need PG tips and Digestive biscuits to function. :)
 
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Thehooperman

Well-Known Forumite
No I would not have paid more unless I messed up on the size or the area had not been properly prepared which is my responsibility.

Yes I though the price they calculated was acceptable for a day and half job as they suggested but not for 6.5 hours work as it turned out which is vastly different, if not slightly over inflated. Had I known I was going to pay £673 for 6.5 hours work I would not have used them as this is way beyond the normal rate. Even when I explained to manager that it effectively was over £100/hr labour costs they agreed it was to high and blamed the fitter. If they had been professional, they would have had a good idea how quickly the floor could be laid and be more realistic in the quoting the price.

Possibly a poor analogy you book a nights hotel stay, you arrive and the room is not ready and they will check you in later at 6pm, in the morning they decide to kick you at 9am much earlier than you expected and what they previous had said. Naturally you complain and they say well you had a nights stay.
Perhaps a better analogy might be you take your car to a garage to do a repair for say £350 and they say it will take two days to complete the work.

You agree the price and timescale.

They ring you 6 hours later and say the work's complete.

Would you then complain that you've got your vehicle available a day earlier than expected?
 

Chillybean

Well-Known Forumite
YES if the time had been inflated to increase the price, wouldn't you? So take your example of the repair costing £350 priced at roughly 8 hours at £44/hr and yet they know the job will take 4 hours how would you feel if they phoned up after 4 hours and said your car is ready.. Happy and thinking great value for money?
 

Thehooperman

Well-Known Forumite
YES if the time had been inflated to increase the price, wouldn't you? So take your example of the repair costing £350 priced at roughly 8 hours at £44/hr and yet they know the job will take 4 hours how would you feel if they phoned up after 4 hours and said your car is ready.. Happy and thinking great value for money?
I would decide whether it was the right price for the work and be quite happy if they got the job done early.

You're effectively asking for a fixed price quote not an hourly estimate so if they finish earlier or later than quoted is somewhat irrelevant and the agreed price is the price you should pay.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I've done a few laminate floors over the years. In my experience, it's the edges of the floor that take the time, rather than the area, as such. Cupboards, hearths, door-frames and entries, rising pipework, etc, are what take the time.

If I was going to do it properly, I would consider creating a formula based on perimeter and the number of corners, rather than just the area. The open area, with full boards, can be slapped down very quickly.

The worst one I ever did was also the smallest, by far - a Z-shaped kitchen, with few straight lines and little parallelism. It took a lot longer to do than a big, open room with about ten times the floor area.

I intend to do the Shed here one day, but it's basically a rectangle, with just two doorways, one 'pipe' (bringing the electricity in) and a hearth - it's part of the reason that I have got all the benches and shelves hanging off the walls, rather than having legs. It will also make sweeping easier than "going round the legs" all the time.
 

Chillybean

Well-Known Forumite
I would decide whether it was the right price for the work and be quite happy if they got the job done early.

You're effectively asking for a fixed price quote not an hourly estimate so if they finish earlier or later than quoted is somewhat irrelevant and the agreed price is the price you should pay.
Going back to the start they provide the quote for a day and a half work which is fixed but calculated using an hourly rate, the job is completed in 6.5 hours which is significantly different from what they said. Effectively instead of paying on their quote an equivalent labour charge of £56/hr I'm paying £103/hr. I think I'm well with in my rights to ask why the discrepancy in price from original quote and the best way to do this is in labour cost. £/hr. In my opinion they overly costed the job and quoted by saying it would take longer than it did which is poor service.

A fixed price quote is essentially calculated as an hour rate in the same the way a quote to do a certain area is calculated by the time it takes to do a specific sized area. The common denominator for calculating cost is time in one form or another. Much in the same way people get paid per hour or used to calculate a day rate.
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
Going back to the start they provide the quote for a day and a half work which is fixed but calculated using an hourly rate, the job is completed in 6.5 hours which is significantly different from what they said. Effectively instead of paying on their quote an equivalent labour charge of £56/hr I'm paying £103/hr. I think I'm well with in my rights to ask why the discrepancy in price from original quote and the best way to do this is in labour cost. £/hr. In my opinion they overly costed the job and quoted by saying it would take longer than it did which is poor service.

A fixed price quote is essentially calculated as an hour rate in the same the way a quote to do a certain area is calculated by the time it takes to do a specific sized area. The common denominator for calculating cost is time in one form or another. Much in the same way people get paid per hour or used to calculate a day rate.
I'm not with you on this. They quoted on the time they expected and I assume blocked out that time to do your work. Yes they got it done sooner but I doubt they've made any money from the time freed up or been able to do any other work, so they lost the time they quoted for as time to earn even if they got your job done quicker than quoted for.
 

Chillybean

Well-Known Forumite
I'm not with you on this. They quoted on the time they expected and I assume blocked out that time to do your work. Yes they got it done sooner but I doubt they've made any money from the time freed up or been able to do any other work, so they lost the time they quoted for as time to earn even if they got your job done quicker than quoted for.
Given the time I had to wait for the job to be done as they're busy, I'd assume differently but you have an equally valid point.
 
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