Text 35795, 57 rader
Skriven 2006-08-03 20:09:38 av Carol Shenkenberger (6:757/1)
  Kommentar till text 35700 av Philip Lozier (1:267/169)
Ärende: Re: IQ Test
===================
*** Quoting Philip Lozier from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***

 CS> Just curious, but how much would you charge to clean a fish tank
 CS> and get it cycling right if you knew how to do that?  Time spent
 CS> about 1 hour.  Required an old hose that is split already and


PL> I wouldn't even give a price.  I ussualy pass the small stuff off to s
PL> else.  I wouldn't even -know- what to charge for that, and don;t know
PL> how to do it anyway :)  CAn't really base it on "time spent" either...

Grin, it's one Don and i have done.  Sensible for us as we also have a 70G fish
tank in storage along with 3-4 smaller 40G and below units.  It's a specialty
field and Don got called over as a referral once for a house with a virtually
built in 150G unit.  The main contractor was to paint out the room and it
wasnt movable so they didnt have a clue how to handle that.

The owners moved the fish to spare tanks and we tore down the unit (undergravel
filter was totally out of commission as they'd not maintained it in over 5
years) then cleaned and put it all back after covering during the painting. 
The fumes meant the water had to be replaced or his delicate fish would not
have survived.

Now, anyone can tear down a fish tank and refill it aftercleaning, but if you
dont know exactly what you are doing, you will destroy the 'fish cycling' and
have to start over which can take 2 months or more of ugly cloudy water and
dead fish.  The owner didnt know how and the contractor knew we did, so we got
the job.  150$.  Took both of us though so I gues we only made 75$ an hour
each <g>.   We tore up one of our own old garden hoses and used 2 kitchen
wastecans and 2 largish buckets (for when emptying the wastecans), saving 2
wastecans of the origional water in the garage along with rinsed (but not too
rinsed or you destroy the cycle) gravel.  Reminded owner to NOT change the
filter material at all for 2 weeks and call us if the water started to cloud
(which it didnt, we got it right).

They first had checked to see if the company they used to install the unit
woulddo it but the price was apparently *significantly* higher than ours.  DL
(owner of the contractor we worked with) got a cut above our 150$ but not sure
how much and his guys were doing the roof while another set were doing the
painting so it all sorts melted into one bill I guess.

PL> market rate is market rate for different things, and sometimes an hour
PL> spent can be more than somebodies regular weekly
PL> paycheck. Although I give competative pricing on projects, and even th
PL> I'm not the most expensive, I very rarely ever am the cheapest either.
PL>  Despite popular belief, cheapest doesn;t always get the job. Too chea
PL> is often an indication that something is "wrong" and I have found from
PL> much experience that people who want things done properly are more con
PL> with references and a feeling of trust in the person they are hiring r
PL> than who is the cheapest.  Smart shoppers will over 80% of the time go
PL> with somebody with a mid range quote.

Thats pretty much what I do.  Mid-range quote after asking a few questions.
                                       xxcarol

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