Marked up price for parts

Yes matey unfortunately everyone has to mark up there purchases to make a profit… your contractor has spent my hours learning the trade, getting tools and getting relevant qualifications which all cost money

It all depends upon the 2 hours labour as a service and electrode change should only take 1 hour max. What did he use the other hour for? Did he use it to go and collect the part? How much per hour? If I used that extra hour to go for the part, I probably wouldn't have marked up the price but unfortunately theirs no rules on marking up price of parts aslong as it's not ridiculous (normally 30% but I think he marked up 50% ) but it all depends on where he got the part and how much they charged him. Getting parts online is always cheaper but you have to wait for delivery.

This is quite common question. Most trades people will put 25% on materials to cover getting them, ordering them, queuing at wholesaler etc. on a smaller item there sometimes is a fixed amount people add. There is an enormous amount of time wasted getting materials which has to be paid for also. Most important is that you got good service and the correct repair. For that you have to pay money. There is always cheaper and always more expensive.

Pricing is a very grey area I’m afraid, the tradesmen do have to mark up on pricing parts within reason, factoring in various cost. In your case the item cost £35 at the merchant let’s factor in the cost of getting to the merchant to pick that item up for instance cost of fuel, tradesman’s time for doing that etc. even if you drove to the merchant yourself that item would cost you more than £35.00p in reality taking into account your fuel and whatever you had to give up in order to make that trip to the merchant. Even high street shops mark up prices for instance a tap sold at Victorian Plumbing might cost a lot more or less else where for the same type of tap all this depends on costs of how each outlet sourced that same product this is where pricing markup plays a pivotal role in our trade. Some people go overboard with it but many of us tradesmen are very fair and honest when doing this. This is where you should shop around.