The Handyman Can (Maybe Charge Too Much)?

July 24, 2015 8:23 AM

My mother lives in a condo building; they have a handyman they recommend for minor repairs since their responsibility 'ends at the walls of the unit', or so says the unit owner's book. She's wondering if he overcharged her in a big way - snowflakes inside.

Anyway, she moved into this building ten years ago. It has a patio, which has a screen door, and in those ten years the screen door has never worked right - it jumps out of its track, it squeals like a banshee, and you need to exert way more force to open or close it than you'd expect for a screen door.

The handyman was over a few days ago on another matter, and she happened to mention her screen door woes to him - the screen door came off, he said he'd take care of it and bring it back 'good as new'.

I got an outraged call from my mother this morning, which boiled down to this:

* He charged her $125 for replacing the wheels on the edges of the door and swapping out the screen itself for new material.
* She looked on Home Depot's website and found her model of screen door for some 65 bucks.
* He didn't tell her in advance what kind of cost to expect.

She feels taken advantage of, and I don't know what to tell her - is sixty dollars' worth of labor out-of-bounds for this kind of thing? Should she complain/demand a refund/whatever? I rent, so I have no earthly idea about this sort of thing.

Thanks!

posted by ThePantsAvenger to Home & Garden (14 answers total)

$125 to fix a problem that's been bugging her for 10 years seems like a bargain to me.
posted by brentajones at 8:26 AM on July 24, 2015 [16 favorites]

Response by poster: and of course I forget to mention notable details - she's in Illinois.
posted by ThePantsAvenger at 8:26 AM on July 24, 2015

If it works great, that is $125 well spent.
posted by stormygrey at 8:30 AM on July 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: There still would have been labor in the trip to Home Depot and then installing the door. So that $60 "overcharge" is going to be more like $25-30 perhaps? Clearly not worth complaining about.

And it doesn't seem like the handyman was overcharging and putting the $60 difference in his pocket (or the management company's pocket). He did the job the hard way, which was a mistake but not a very profitable one. Maybe if this was one of dozens of examples then you could say that there is a systematic scam going on.
posted by mullacc at 8:33 AM on July 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Yeah, he should have given her an estimate (and she should have asked for it).

That said, 125 seems to be a VERY fair rate for materials + someone coming into your home in a timely manner and fixing it. If she could have fixed it herself or had it done for free, she would have done it ten years ago.
posted by mochapickle at 8:33 AM on July 24, 2015 [21 favorites]

$125 including parts is completely reasonable IMO.
posted by griphus at 8:36 AM on July 24, 2015 [5 favorites]

Best answer: We paid a contractor recently $45 an hour for his time. You can find a handy man for less but to have work done well is usually worth it.
posted by betsybetsy at 8:39 AM on July 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I didn't think there was anything too out of the ordinary going on here, and it's nice to see that everything sounds kosher.

Now, maybe I can get that across to my mother so she can calm down some...

Thanks, everyone!
posted by ThePantsAvenger at 8:43 AM on July 24, 2015

Yeah, if it will help convince your mom, installing doors is a huge pain in the ass because usually the door frame isn't 100% true and you have to futz with things. Seems legit to me.
posted by mskyle at 8:50 AM on July 24, 2015 [7 favorites]

My parents live in a complex where you can use certain tradespeople recommended by the management, or you can hire someone on your own. The house-recommended people always charge more, but they do the job right and they do it quickly. Mom and Dad hate to spend money, but they've found that it's better to pay extra for the peace of mind.

Older people tend to get sticker shock about things they haven't priced in many years. Your mother might feel better if you commiserate with her about how all prices have gone up drastically -- take the focus off this one instance, maybe provide a little perspective.

Try to turn her attention to what she can do in the future when something needs repair or replacement. What should she do next time? She can ask for an estimate, go on line and find prices, ask if there's a way to cut costs. Maybe you'd be willing to walk her through it a couple of times. This handyman has a good relationship with whoever manages the building; he'd probably be willing to answer questions on the phone even if he's not sure he'll get the job.
posted by wryly at 9:38 AM on July 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

The $60 for labor sounds reasonable. It's not like your mom was about to order the door from HD, unpackage it, insert the screen (if not assembled), lubricate the wheels, remove the old door, install the new door, troubleshoot for fit and the remove the old door and new door packaging for disposal. That work sounds well worth $60.
posted by saradarlin at 10:09 AM on July 24, 2015 [5 favorites]

I do construction estimating (albeit on a larger scale) and there is much more to these sorts of things than simply the cost of labour and materials. Our overheads are huge so we can pay for things like worker's comp premiums, insurance, bonding, administration, accounting, and the list goes on and on. Not to mention travel times for our employees to pick up materials (and the cost of the vehicle they are in to boot). I could go on. And on tiny jobs like this, we are going to charge more for overhead because (to be completely blunt) it's not worth it for us otherwise.

I agree he would have done well to give her an estimate in advance, but the price seems like a bargain to me. Sure, she might have saved $20 getting someone else, but I would personally stick with the guy who has already proven himself to be reliable.
posted by futureisunwritten at 10:17 AM on July 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

It's not entirely meant to be applied to singular items but a "rule of thumb" for non-mechanical/electrical construction projects is that materials costs are about 45% of the total. By this measure, $125 looks good.
posted by meinvt at 10:31 AM on July 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

He sounds like a great guy to have around, and the price seems more than fair. Unless there is something else we don't know about, I don't think she was taken advantage of at all. I do think it odd that he wouldn't have given her an estimate, but perhaps something that was said or understood between the two of them led him to believe he had the go-ahead to just....go ahead.
posted by the webmistress at 10:38 AM on July 24, 2015 [1 favorite]