A plumber came over this morning and gave me a quote for an outdoor valve job that I didn’t want to tackle. It was delicate and had a combo of brass and PVC parts, plus was something we just couldn’t screw up (pool fill valve). Not a big job, but I wanted it done right. I expected him to charge between $100-200, and his quote was $850! I was shocked and politely sent him away, after paying the mandatory $49 service fee.

Two hours later (and one of those hours was going to the hardware store), I have the damn thing fixed. Parts were $40. Their profit on my job, had I not been able to do it myself, would have been at least $750 – less than $40 for the parts and probably 30 minutes for a “professional” to do the work I took an hour to do.

750% profit on a 30-60 minute small job, all in. How do they stay in business with prices like that?