It sounds as if you have some experience with the unlicensed handyman market
I don't think this thread is about cheap contractors. I think it's about customers with unrealistic expectations.
First are the folks who haven't a clue what it takes to run a business - especially a service oriented business. All they see is your $130 fee for an hours' work, and compare that to their $35/ hr salary .... thinking "I went to engineer school to get paid 1/4 what this blue collar chimp gets?" They don't even realize that their $35 actually costs the employer $50, or $70, since they don't see the other employment expenses.
Then are the folks who ...as I suspect the OP encountered ...for whom 'free' is too much! I won't forget the time I offered a killer of a deal to a guy ($400 to buy and install a $320 motor) who immediately responded that replacement cost only $250 the last time. What made his statement suspect is that I had alread spoken to the guy who had installed the equipment three years before ... and this was the first replacement. He was lying, playing games, and that's all there was to it.
As one mini-mart operator told me: "Never be afraid to fire a customer." Or, "just say no." Let them find their hacks and wanna-bes. Then charge them double when you have to sort out the mess later.
A case in point: One of my customers hired me because he had some HID lights out. Now, he could have hired some handyman to change bulbs and ballasts ... let's do the math there:
14 bulbs @ $35 ea: $490
14 Ballasts @ $230 ea: $3220
Parts alone: $3710
Enter the real contractor. Using his $300 bulb tester, he finds only six of the bulbs are bad. All the ballasts are though.
There's a problem, though ... the EC recognizes this building is only a few years old; 14 out of 40 fixtures seems to be a high failure rate. After making sure the power, and controls, were operating correctly, he's able to get the ballast maker to replace the ballasts under warranty. The EC cost the customer about $700 ... far less than what a handyman whould have cost.
Some customers just haven't yet learned how expensive incompetence can be.
