Was I ripped off by the guy on the digger?

M

muchmore

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Hi all,
I had a guy in with a digger (down the country)
He did over 7days work and charged €3,200. The work was done perfectly- he put in 100m of a road with stones, levelled 1.5 acres of rocky hilly land, filled in an old quary, and removed a lot of large and small stones, dug 100m of drains.
He had a digger and another guy on a dumper truck for 3 of the 6 days.
He was along for another 4.

His quote was for 480 per day cash for him on the digger and a guy on the dumper truck.
Seemed costly but ok to me.
The neighbours say that I was "shafted" "done" etc...

What say ye?
 
I didn't get another quote as the guy I hired is the only one in the area...

Getting another guy into this remote area would involve a lot of travel costs etc for anyone else...

Cheers :)
 
Seems fair to me. I presume "cash" is no invoice so you are encouraging tax evasion but so do a lot of people, was the work done to your satisfaction?, could you have done it for less?,prices seems about right to me.
 
Yeah, I did the work a while ago... just the locals hags are now coming out of the wood work saying I got ripped off etc etc. Usual local envy based comments.
The work was very good - I mean I didn't have to get him to repeat anything etc etc...

Thanks, Kerak...
 
Sounds ok to me too .... cost of diesel for the machines is a big factor now before you talk about paying for a man/two men.

You were happy at the time with the price & the job was done to your satisfaction.

You paid the bill ... be happy with the deal.
 
I think that the cost was reasonable. We had something similar done for €3000 including VAT. We received a printed invoice & receipt.

Other quotes received were way in excess. I tend to avoid discussing costs of building work or cars with family and friends as one or two of them will always say its a rip off no matter what the cost!!!

I think it's a bit of jealousy
 
Kerak said:
Seems fair to me. I presume "cash" is no invoice so you are encouraging tax evasion but so do a lot of people, was the work done to your satisfaction?, could you have done it for less?,prices seems about right to me.
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Why would you assume he is encouraging tax evasion. It is up to the contractor to pay his taxes, not the customer
 
What type of Machine was it. I presume it was a track machine. Like the other posters I think the price was ok and as it was done to your satisfaction that is all the better. There are always a few smart a...s in every locality.
 
muchmore said:
Yeah, I did the work a while ago... just the locals hags are now coming out of the wood work saying I got ripped off etc etc. Usual local envy based comments.
The work was very good - I mean I didn't have to get him to repeat anything etc etc...

Thanks, Kerak...
Click to expand...

Are you from the area originally/ new to the countryside? I'd treat comments like "done" & "shafted" etc. with a pinch of salt to be honest. If they can't come out with actual comparative figures then they don't know what they're talking about and are more than likely trying to wind you up.
You say above the work was good and some quotes given here are in the same ball park so I think you're safe. There are a number of variables here that can't be accertained from your post like type of soil, ground conditions, working conditions etc. These can all add to the costs.
The description of the wokr you gave seems heavy work and those machines working under load do consume a lot of diesel ( even green diesel has gone up in price)
A tidy operator on a machine is very evident to a chancer and worth every penny extra.
 
rustbucket said:
Why would you assume he is encouraging tax evasion. It is up to the contractor to pay his taxes, not the customer
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If the customer is interested in having a reputable person/company carry out the work and have the full protection of the law in case things go wrong, then it should be of concern.
 
rustbucket said:
Why would you assume he is encouraging tax evasion. It is up to the contractor to pay his taxes, not the customer
Click to expand...

why the negative feeling comment?,

If customers asked for an an invoice and its not forthcoming then they are encouraging, condoning , or assisting in possible tax evasion.

It usually implies VAT is not been charged, and the cash payment is undeclared.

I agree its upto the contractor to pay his own taxes but the client has a part to pay as well.
 
and the second lesson you learned here is you never give away what you paid for anything in that end of the country!
There is a reason why "enough / too much / more than I wanted" is the country answer to the straight question how much did you pay... because there will always be the gem who will let you know they think you were fool-hardy / johnny come lately / to be led up the garden path to pay that lad that sort of money for such a "small handy job like" ...
 
thanks, guys, i do ask for receipts in a lot of cases and then the add vat on -so i assume the guys who don't give a receipt are often coy to Revenue about how much they make- but i am not sure about that...

it was a large track machine- a lot of the rocks were 8 tonne to lift...

thanks- its good advice not to tell how much you paid- or at least say you only paid the guy a fiver - or he did it for free!!

ciao
 
if the guy did the job and your delighted with it and you agreed the price before he started.. then whats the problem ..job is done, money is paid, your happy, why should you care that tom, dick, and harry, down the road are saying you were ripped off,who else could you have got to do it...move on, put it behind you, and just be happy, he did not do a half ass job,and charge you 3 grand, and you then had to pay 3 more to get it fixed, quality comes at a price.
 
Kerak said:
why the negative feeling comment?,

If customers asked for an an invoice and its not forthcoming then they are encouraging, condoning , or assisting in possible tax evasion.

It usually implies VAT is not been charged, and the cash payment is undeclared.

I agree its upto the contractor to pay his own taxes but the client has a part to pay as well.
Click to expand...

If there was VAT the invoice what guarantee is there that there has been a corresponding Revenue remittance?
 
Its not a negative feeling comment at all. Your comment is making the assumption that the OP is encouraging tax evasion.

The OP did not state that he asked for an invoice, nor did he say one was not forthcoming. He merely said he receive a quote of x amount cash per day and was wondering if it was expensive
 
Why is there even any discussion allowed or going on regarding the tax affairs of a contractor that the OP hired. The thread is about whether or not the OP was overcharged for work done. The contractors tax affairs are not relevant to the thread, to the question asked, or to anyone else but the contractor and the revenue.
 
truthseeker said:
Why is there even any discussion allowed or going on regarding the tax affairs of a contractor that the OP hired. The thread is about whether or not the OP was overcharged for work done. The contractors tax affairs are not relevant to the thread, to the question asked, or to anyone else but the contractor and the revenue.
Click to expand...

+1 for what its worth.
 
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