Time for KBB Designers to stand up for themselves

I am replying to a thread on the www.fkbd.eu Titled "Time for designers to stand up for themselves" in respect to charging for designs and the cost benefit this will have in relation to potential lost sales based on average sale conversion per design.

I can see where you are coming from but this charge I am introducing at this stage is for architects drawings only, this is because I seem to get more than my fair share of them and because this is a much longer process than say somebody coming in and wanting me to go out and measure with the intention of buying a kitchen from me or the other people they are getting out. With an architects blue prints and I am speaking from great experience here they are never ever correct with what actually happens with the final build so I end up changing and more changing and this is without the initial work involved of converting 1:50 and 1:100 to 1:20 scales and then its a relatively a blank canvas so you are thinking and designing more than you would with a straight forward dare I say it run of the mill kitchen where sales is more involved than the design aspect, coupled with this the transferring of the pencilled plans to CAD images will take much longer as the kitchens tend to be larger due to the extension and more technically difficult thus more time consuming, I then have to factor in that the design on paper and CAD are my ideas and the client will in most cases tweak things I then have to cost the whole project and that is where the stumbling block is, because I am and have found that people are getting these extensions so they can have a larger living/ kitchen space and want the kitchen to be the focal point with all the bells and whistles but they  do not realise the cost involved in the purchase of a kitchen,and the overall build cost of the extension, they ALWAYS underestimate the build cost with a contingency fund and they then say they need to cut the cost of the kitchen ( http://stuarthenrykitchens.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/no-money-left-for-kitchen.html ) (Here is a blog I did). This then means more work which I am not getting paid for.
I now seriously have to balance this with the conversion rate of these build projects and the realisation of the potential client. I am finding myself in a position where people are coming to our studio because they have been recommended to me for my advice, design skills and customer service but still want a cheap kitchen. I would like very much for people to come to me for the advice, design & service and tell me that they realise that good kitchens and service are not cheap, and that they want my service etc and also understand that this comes at a reasonable cost.
This does not mean that I will rip them off on a supply and demand basis, but an honest days pay for an honest days work.

Russell