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I know (at least I think) you weren't trying to say it wasn't worth it but I think it bears pointing out that you are paying for his experience, not the 20 minu

• Groxx 15y ago
  Experience and availability. You wouldn't be paying $170 for 20 minutes of their time (closer to an hour or more, really, given driving & whatnot) if you had to wait a month for them to fit you into their schedule, because they'd be outrageously rich if they were that busy. The prices go up because they need to eat during slow periods.
• mgkimsal 15y ago
  I wasn't quite saying that, but this notion of "skilled trades are working for peanuts" isn't 100% true. Granted, if that guy only has 2 callouts per week, he's in trouble, but I suspect he had a few more than that. Yes, I'm paying for his experience, etc. I know that. What's also a little odd to me is that this doesn't work for developers as well, but I think it's mostly because you typically call out a developer for development - before there's an emergency of some sort (broken toilet, in my case). People often want to haggle with me on my pricing but they wouldn't dream of trying to get the plumber to work at half-rate. That said, I needed a root canal recently. First place I went to (after my tooth cracked) quoted $2200. I went someplace else who did it for $1400. So, even amongst skilled professionals, there's variance.