lol ! looks like sub contracting is pretty crappy the world over hey. Specially with those kinds of percentages.
In australia we have people who work for real estate agents and smash repair guys real cheap, with little or no service call charge. Some as low as $25 to call out and rekey a door lock for a smash repairer. THey justify this by talking about the amount that customer spends with them per month. When these guys go on holidays, they need someone to look after their regular customers - who they do work for far cheaper than you would ever consider working for yourself. They then expect you to look after these people for them, and even charge the guy on holidays less again than what he would normally charge the customer, so that he can cover costs and make a little somthing as well. Even worse, their customers are often really far accross town too. Unbelievable situation. I have been stupid enough to get into this situation several times, with several different sole traders ,and feel it is a no win situation, and every time, your left with a bad taste in your mouth. Funny thing is , these people dont stay in business for more than a couple of years. Worse thing is, there is always someone new strating up, as its so easy to, and they teach these customers that the price they have been paying is the right price, as they steadily get new people all the time charging that rate. I think thats the real shame of our industry. The guys starting out really should look to the price the bigger guys are charging, as this is the sort of pricing that it takes to stay in the industry.
Anyone else find similar experience ?
When i go away next, im just putting a recorded message on my voice mail saying im away on holidays until .. such a date, and that s it.