You quoted it on the phone on Tuesday night, dinner going cold. "Sounds like the trap's gone. Call it £140, I'll be there Thursday." Thursday comes, you get your head under the sink, and that leak has been going for months. The chipboard base has swollen up, the waste is a length of flexi taped on by somebody's brother-in-law, and the isolating valve shears the second you touch it. Your £140 job is now most of a day and a new base unit.
Every trade has its version. The garage that priced a pad change and finds the caliper seized. The sparky who came to swap a socket and finds no earth. The phone quote wasn't dishonest — you priced what they described, and what they described isn't what's in front of you. The problem is never the first number. It's the next ten minutes.
Stop before you spend
The second you can see the job is properly different, put the tools down. Don't cut, don't drain, don't lift a floor, don't order a part. Once you've started taking things apart the customer has lost their choice — no second price, no putting it off until payday, no saying no. That's when a fair extra charge starts to feel like being held over a barrel, and how you end up arguing about a bill instead of getting paid.
Then get your evidence. One photo wide so they can see where it is, one close so they can see what's wrong, and something in shot for scale — a screwdriver, a pound coin. You're not building a court case, just giving a tired person something they can understand in three seconds.
What you actually said on the phone matters
| What you said | What it generally means | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| "Around £140, but I'd need to see it" | An estimate — a best guess from what you were told | You can reprice once you've seen it, as long as you say so first |
| "£140 to do that job" | A fixed price they've accepted | Harder to move. You're asking them to agree a change, not announcing one |
| Nothing about price at all | No agreement yet | Price it properly now, in writing, before a single fitting comes off |
None of these means working at a loss. It changes the tone, that's all: on an estimate you're updating them, on a fixed price you're asking. Get your terms and conditions looked at once by a solicitor or your trade body, so your quotes say what you think they say.
The words to say when they're standing right there
"Before I go any further — come and have a look. What you described on the phone was a leaking trap, and that's what I priced. What's actually here is the unit's gone soft and the pipework's been bodged. Put a trap on that and it'll be leaking again by Christmas. So I want to give you a proper price before I touch anything else."
Say the price, then shut up and let them think. If they come back with "but you said £140":
"I did, and that's still the price for the job you described — I'm not moving on that. This is a different job. I'd rather tell you now, stood here, than put it on a bill at the end and give you a nasty shock."
If they ask you to do it cheap as a favour:
"I can't do the full fix for that, I'd be paying to work. What I can do today for £X is make it safe and stop the leak so you can use the kitchen. The proper repair is £Y and I can book that in for next week."
What to send when nobody's in
Often it's an empty house, a key safe, or a tenant who can't authorise anything. Send this with two photos, and don't carry on until you get a reply:
"Hi Sarah, Dave here. I'm at the property now. The job's bigger than what we discussed — photos attached. The unit under the sink is water damaged and the pipework needs redoing, not just a new trap. My original £140 doesn't cover it. To do it properly is £X including parts, about half a day. I've stopped work until you say yes or no, and if you'd rather not go ahead there's nothing to pay beyond today's call-out of £Z."
Pricing the bigger job without guessing twice
Don't knock money off because you feel awkward. Price the new job the way you would if you'd never spoken to them — hours, parts, VAT if you're registered, waste and hire. Then flag what you still can't see: "That price assumes the floor under it is sound. If it isn't, I'll stop and ring you." Nobody minds a caveat. They mind a surprise.
Give a real choice: make safe today and book the full job, or the lot now while you're set up. And if it crosses into notifiable work — a Part P consumer unit change, anything gas needing a Gas Safe registered engineer, MCS work on a renewables install — that is not a "while I'm here" job. Price it, notify it, book it separately.
When this won't work
Some will say no, and that's fine — the call-out wasn't wasted, you found the fault and kept your day. Some will go quiet and get someone cheaper who'll bodge it. Let them. What you must not accept is being talked into carrying on for the old money on a job twice the size. That one comes back, on your time, at your cost.
None of it saves you if the customer is genuinely skint on a leak or a dead boiler in January. That needs a make-safe price and a bit of humanity.
Get proper advice when the money is real or the story is contested — you did substantial work before repricing and they won't pay, a landlord and agent are arguing over who authorised what, or they say you caused the damage. That's your insurer, your trade body's helpline or a solicitor, and it's cheaper had early. On VAT and deposits, ask your accountant rather than guessing.
