So I had a problem with my kitchen faucet leaking a few nights ago. I called our apartments security guard, and he arranged for the local apartment handyman (水電工) to come and help out. He came straight away, stopped the water, and offered to replace the faucet for me.
My bathroom cupboard door is also broken, as one hinge snapped off. I have been unable to find a replacement so I asked the guy if he could also fix that.
Today he came round with a new faucet and new hinge and completed the repairs. Kitchen took about 30 minutes, and bathroom about 15. For this work I was charged $4000NT and $1000NT respectively.
Was a little surprised at the cost, as I’m so used to things being cheap and that seems like a “back at home” price. Does this seem fair, or was I charged an extra “foreigner tax” ? I’m not sure how much faucets costs, maybe the majority of the price was for that? 1000 for hinge replacement was annoying as I’m sure I could have done it myself…
Anyway what’s your experience on plumber and handyman prices? It would be good to compare so we can all avoid being ripped off!
It can vary a lot, and certainly a new tap could have cost a couple of thousand (depending on the quality). Aside from materials, $500/hour is about the norm, in my experience, and he’ll probably add a bit on for travel expenses.
He purchased the items on his own dime, went to your place on his own dime. Fixed the problem and charged about 1/4 of the amount charged in any Western culture. You complain? Come on.
Get maintenance chaps from other sources than landlords, security, or anyone else with a vested interest.
Get the price up front.
Do not hire out for work that one could quite easily do oneself.
I learned these lessons myself, the hard way.[/quote]
First 2 seems sound, but the 3rd you have to be careful… some things look easy to do but are in reality harder than it looks. And in some cases not advisable such as plumbing or electrical. If you’re confident about it then by all means do it yourself, but say if something goes wrong, for example pipe keeps leaking and floods the floor below, you will be sued. If someone else did it at least you can blame it on someone else. I would say do NOT hire someone who’ll do it cheap because the headache and possibly liability will be more costly than what you saved. Sometimes if you do electrical work yourself and your house burns down, the insurance company could deny coverage because it was done by uncertified person.
The guy replaced the faucet, which costs some money (not sure how much, must vary based on quality). It’s not necessarily something you can do it yourself. It requires some fairly special tools that if you bought yourself it could really add up. Makes no sense to buy a bunch of tools, on top of the cost of a new part just to replace one faucet. And if you do it improperly, it will leak too, or at least be loose from the top (you know, the dreaded faucet that turns with the knob because it wasn’t tightened with the proper tools).
If the faucet works, does not leak, and does not come loose over time, then you got a good deal. You really do not want cheap chabuduo shuidian people!! They are maybe 30% cheaper but does like 10% of the work (that breaks consistently so you’ll have to call him back over and over again).
The door hinge was probably over the top but he probably didn’t like being asked to do mundane unrelated thing so gave you a “punitive price”. You should have asked the price up front…
800NTD is a lot of money to pay for a 6" adjustable wrench by the way, maybe if it’s made in the USA… I could get it for around 200 NT.
