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In Reply to: Would You Spend $1k To Have 2 Dedicated Lines Installed? posted by "Red" on January 2, 2007 at 13:14:55:
....discount (and devalue) real labor? This installation is a lot more involved than wire, breakers, and outlets.
Follow Ups:
once things get in the $1K plus range, shopping around is a good idea...unless you have a good relationship with an electrician and trust him/her.
thing is, I've lived in my house for three years now and only needed an electrician once. not much of a relationship to be had if you ask me.
if similar situation, I say value the dollar and value the work. without this knowledge, telling someone not to shop around is, quite odd.
Have you ever shopped around to have a new roof put on your house? Could be a difference of several thousand dollars. Ever shopped around to have carpet installed? Could be a difference of several thousand dollars. Ever shopped around to have upgraded windows put in your house? Could be a difference of several thousand dollars. Ever shopped around to have a kitchen upgraded or addition put on? Could be a difference of several thousand dollars.
....your questions, and extensively on my part (I can tell you stories). But you missed the point about labor, value and expertise. A very high level of competence is worth the money spent, along with the quality of materials. You should know that well being a manufacturer for many years.
I don't think I missed the labor, value & expertise component but it seems like there's quite a difference in electrician’s fees & I try to find the best deal when it comes to paying for home improvements. I have no problem paying for good quality work/materials and also know some fees are calculated by zip codes.OTOH there are lowballers who play tradesman against each other & are only interested in the bottom line. These are the folks who start crying after sloppy work & wind up calling somebody else (my friend for example, a carpet installer w/30 yrs. experience) to fix the mess.
....and then there was the smart fellow who spoke about people "who know the cost of everything, but the value of nothing".
HowdyAfter watching mine get installed (many hours of labor: crawling, climbing, fishing, cutting, stuffing, rearranging, dressing, vacuuming, ...) and seeing the labor saving rigs he had to make things easier I had no problems with paying his bills. Let alone that his experience doing other audiophile systems and dealing with grounding issues undoubtedly saved me money and hassles in the long run.
How much should one pay for experience, and the wisdom gained from years of practice? Two other attributes that are undervalued as well.
Alan,IMO the wisdom of John Ruskin still plays well today. He said:
It is unwise to pay too much. But it is worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that is all. When you pay too little you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.
The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. It cannot be done. There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper - and people who consider price alone are that man’s lawful prey.
If you deal with the lowest bidder it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better in the first place.
you get independent quotes from multiple electricians. go with the combination of best price and highest competence and can supply references. it's a combination of all these things. blindly choosing the most expensive is an absurd concept to me.this isn't an auction where electricians are bidding against each other. I know, you didn't say that but it's worth reminding.
and certainly, in many cases, the lowest bidder can just as easy mean he is the most skilled.
guess how I found my mechanic of the last 10 years? he's the cheapest mechanic in a 10 mile radius of where I live. he doesn't need my business (repairs UPS/Fedex/DHL vehicles). he can do jobs in half the billing time that other mechanics do. how do you think he got all that business? by being the highest bidder?
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