[Zeke]

We need to divide this discussion up to wages paid to employees and fees charged for services. A plumber on a company truck makes $16/hr here. The company charges more in many different schemes, some up to over 199/hr. A good bit of it is to sell up at the job and the employee gets a commission.

I have bee self employed for most of my life and I did not send out employees in lieu of me in separate vehicles. Yes, this is the way to make money, but I wanted to do personal service. It's a flaw in business to take such an interest in each job that I had to do the majority of the work.

However, I never had any reservation about presenting an invoice for work done.

I have a real problem with those that present an invoice for work done that never saw the work. Most of today's "contractors" ride around in a huge pick up and "check in" with the work being done by those they harvested out of the Home Depot parking lot.

I cannot find any trade work performed within the last 10 years that is anywhere near what I and my contemporaries did 20 years ago. It has become a lost and unappreciated art. I will say the 2 out of 3 PCA members that hired me did appreciate the workmanship. The third was looking at a cheap Lowe's display and thought anything seen at Lowes was a slam dunk. Obviously, they had never shopped at Lowes. You see a red entry door and want one? You become a fool, but I'm the fool because it didn't exist when I went to order it.