Plumbers, bunch of arse

[El Presidente]

Had a leak in the toilet cistern yesterday, wife calls out a plumber who quotes £95 plus VAT to fix it.

Seems outrageous, so I (who knows nothing about anything DIY related) have a quick look on the internetm pop down to Plumb Centre and spend...........16p for a washer to fix it that takes 30 seconds to replace.

Bunch of conmen the lot of them.

 

[Beach Hut]

Not really you do what you can, if you can't then you get in an expert.

 

[Minghawk]

that's a crap reason Beach Hut - if you don't mind me saying so.

If everyone used that reasoning, how much would petrol cost, or food or anything?

'If you don't like it, then go out, drill your own oil well, extract the oil, refine it.....' etc

Plumbers are a rip off - other than lawyers, who else gets £95 call out? I realise that this is because a lot of their callouts must be for minor jobs (like replacing 20p washers), but they still don't have to charge £95

 

[Beach Hut]

Why not ?

If people are prepared to pay then charge that.

El Pres used his brain and realised hge could fix it himself whereas others can't be arsed so to speak.

And before you ask, I'm not a plumber

 

[NMH]

If I were a plumber I would definitely charge at least that to have to get out of my armchair, bugger off to some other plonkers drum just to change a silly washer that almost anyone could normally fix themselves. However, I wouldn't send them the manual 'fixit yerself' and train everyone to do their own home plumbing, now would I?

What do you do for a living then el pres, when you're not do-it-yerself plumbing?

I bet it's a doddle, and yer overpaid.

 

[El Presidente]

Not quite a pplumber NMH, but it did give me brownie points with Mrs. Pres (which were paid back in full last night) and gives me a grief free day for pissing off to Sunderland today.

Luckily I sorted it, but I bet these cowboys take an identical approach to pensioners living on the breadline who can't afford to be ripped off.

The 'plumber' claimed a whole new cistern unit was required, utter weasel.

 

[Rangdo]

You have to pay to cover all the guy's costs. Yes it may only cost you a few pence but once he's travelled to you done the job etc he's probably looking at at least an hour of his time plus he has to run his van, mobile phone, pay insurance, company tax, pay for his own tools etc.
My point is that it's the initial cost thats expensive. I bet if you had 5 washers that needed doing it wouldn't have been much more expensive.
Plus that is standard in a lot of trades. If you've got an old cistern then he might be back in a few weeks again. A cistern unit only costs about £3 and leaves less chance of a call back.

 

[scarby]

dont tar us with the same bog brush!!!!

 

[Bluejuice]

Plumbers charge big money because they can. It's as simple as that. I'd love to be a plumber, or an electrician for that matter. Both are in short supply and can pretty much name their price, and work when they feel like it. However, they are reluctant to take people on to learn the trade due to ridiculous working practice rules and regulations imposed by the government which make it near impossible to safely train a youngster without liability.

What do we do when there are no plumbers left?

They are only going to keep getting more and more expensive as more and more of them retire without leaving successors

 

[Chicken Run]

Just had a 30k lof extenion completed, took them 20 weeks (10 weeks in the tender) and we now have a leak in the first floor, plumber who did the instalation not interested in coming back to look, if it were his house bet there wouldnt be a problem!

 

[dougdeep]

Get the work done by someone else and send him the bill, if your sure it was his fault. If there is any hassle sue him through the small claims court.

 

[Chicken Run]

Get the work done by someone else and send him the bill, if your sure it was his fault. If there is any hassle sue him through the small claims court.

Def his fault as the leak too first floor was a new shower tray that was inataled in the conversion, however I Paid the main contractor in cash increments so I not sure leagal is an option

 

[dougdeep]

A threat to sue often works. Just send a letter giving him ten days to fix it or you will take legal action.

 

[Rowdey]

Had a leak in the toilet cistern yesterday, wife calls out a plumber who quotes £95 plus VAT to fix it.

Seems outrageous, so I (who knows nothing about anything DIY related) have a quick look on the internetm pop down to Plumb Centre and spend...........16p for a washer to fix it that takes 30 seconds to replace.

Bunch of conmen the lot of them.

And when/if it goes again or is part of a bigger picture that you don't know about right now (but the plumber would have told you had he come out..) and dumps water all over your floor at 3am on a sunday night, will you be happy to pay us to come out then..?


*scratches chin, starts to mumble about double time, rising cost of parts, traffic, .....*

Generally, we're insured, knowledgable, and just want paying for our time- as mentioned before - if i do your job (say approx 1hr total travel time, parking, mobile calls, vat man, N.Ins, van ins, petrol etc etc etc) then thats a fair section of the day gone and prob only earn't £60 of Stella tokens..not a great return is it ?

Of course their oare some wide boys out there - In the Evening Standard last week, some journo hack got charged £270 an hour !!!

Plumbers on £100k a year..i'd like to think so..

 

[Chicken Run]

A threat to sue often works. Just send a letter giving him ten days to fix it or you will take legal action.

Good call

 

[larus]

Re: Re: Plumbers, bunch of arse

And when/if it goes again or is part of a bigger picture that you don't know about right now (but the plumber would have told you had he come out..) and dumps water all over your floor at 3am on a sunday night, will you be happy to pay us to come out then..?


*scratches chin, starts to mumble about double time, rising cost of parts, traffic, .....*

Generally, we're insured, knowledgable, and just want paying for our time- as mentioned before - if i do your job (say approx 1hr total travel time, parking, mobile calls, vat man, N.Ins, van ins, petrol etc etc etc) then thats a fair section of the day gone and prob only earn't £60 of Stella tokens..not a great return is it ?

Of course their oare some wide boys out there - In the Evening Standard last week, some journo hack got charged £270 an hour !!!

Plumbers on £100k a year..i'd like to think so..

I know people in the building trade and they ALL SAY that plumbers are charging stupid money for jobs because they know there is loads of work at the moment.

I accept that not everyone will be ripping off people, but plumbers seem to think that they should be earning what a solicitor is earning. I was told that there are a lot more people now training to be plumbers, so the good times won't last for them. It uesd to be the same with brickies in the late eighties.

 

[king Wombat]

I think its worth taking out some cover with British gas or the like - we pay £18 a month, includes the boiler getting serviced every year and if anything goes wrong with the internal plumbing, electricty, and drains.

although its quite a lot of money i think its worth paying it as we know that British gas will come immediately and will do a good job.

 

[dougdeep]

I think its worth taking out some cover with British gas or the like - we pay £18 a month, includes the boiler getting serviced every year and if anything goes wrong with the internal plumbing, electricty, and drains.

although its quite a lot of money i think its worth paying it as we know that British gas will come immediately and will do a good job.

I have a similar deal with a local company. A lot cheaper than B.G.Transco.

 

[Rangdo]

I have a similar deal with a local company. A lot cheaper than B.G.Transco.

Transco don't do plumbing do they?

 

[227 BHA]

Re: Re: Re: Plumbers, bunch of arse

I know people in the building trade and they ALL SAY that plumbers are charging stupid money for jobs because they know there is loads of work at the moment.

I accept that not everyone will be ripping off people, but plumbers seem to think that they should be earning what a solicitor is earning. I was told that there are a lot more people now training to be plumbers, so the good times won't last for them. It uesd to be the same with brickies in the late eighties.

There may be more people training to be plumbers but there is still going to be a massive shortfall of plumbers over the next few years as the majority of plumbers out ther are in their 50's or 60's and will be retiring shortly - it is estimated that nationally there will be a shortfall of 29000 skilled plumbers over the next few years (according to the institute of plumbing).

There have been cases of 500 applicants for every space on some plumbing courses but this certainly does not mean we are going to be flooded with new plumbers as there simply are not enough courses being run nationally - the next few years will see plumbers in even more short supply.

That is why I have jacked my job in and I am currently on a private fast-track training course in plumbing and heating which is City and Guilds and NVQ based and done in conjunction with a franchise opportunity with a company who are going nationwide with franchisees.

Had wanted a career change for a while now and have finally taken the plunge (no plumbing pun intended )