Stunning plumber's bill

zigglewigler

My mother had a water leak on a Sunday evening, called a plumber that is based 20 miles away, via tenant's builder and maintenance firm, the job took 1 hour.

The bill later posted was £200.

It took a few attempts to get them to itemize it.

The justification for this charge, is £60 per hour(Sunday evening), a total of 3 hours, to get to the job and return home, £20 materials for 12" of copper pipe, a little solder, a little gas. Plus VAT.

So they want to charge £120 for travel time! The company is based 15 miles down the road.

It seems like they made up a price. When I asked for a breakdown, they just said that's what it cost. Now that they've supplied an itemized bill, it looks like they're getting 'creative'.

They did say that they haven't even charged the full price!

Other plumbers have given me a quote for the same job, and they do not charge travel time, just the on site job.

What's the best way to tackle these thieves?

phill99

It was Sunday. That seems cheap.

It also based on panic buying. You were panicking and bought without asking for a quote or estimate of costs before you agreed to them doing the work.

You're not paying for Tim you are paying for expertise. Expertise which unfortunately you or your mother don't have.

somethingcorporate

phill99 wrote: »

It was Sunday. That seems cheap.

It also based on panic buying. You were panicking and bought without asking for a quote or estimate of costs before you agreed to them doing the work.

You're not paying for Tim you are paying for expertise. Expertise which unfortunately you or your mother don't have.

Hey, what has Tim ever done to you?

Aside from picking on Tim the rest is spot on. OP, you're paying for the convenience of getting it fixed quickly at a time plumbers probably consider anti-social. With such emergencies it is always worth agreeing prices upfront, failure to do so often ends up with you getting fleeced like this (been there done that).

Aside from appealing to their better nature there is not much you can do here.

Poppy9

All you can do is chalk it down to experience. Yes you were ripped off, so pass the "non recommendation" around and the "agree price" advice to friends, family and work colleagues.

HappyMJ

zigglewigler wrote: »

What's the best way to tackle these thieves?

Getting a rugby playing friend to go round and tackle the guy...Seriously though what was the emergency. The water could have turned off and a call out made the next day to get some quotes for much less. Too late now. You can choose not to pay and let the plumber take you to court. That may cost you a lot more in court fees.

zigglewigler

My mother called her usual number for maintenance for her National Trust property. The plumbers have done all previous work instigated by the Trust, so she thought she wouldn't get ripped off.

Yes, I would have left it till next day. But that's not the issue.

I have a quote of £80 to do the job on a Sunday eve, with no travel time added, from another reputable plumbers firm.

And how do they justify £120 travel time from 15 miles down the road?

Please, if you think £200 for a 1 hour job, even on a Sunday represents value, keep it to yourself.

I will as last resort go to court, the law states charges should be reasonable, and reasonable would be along industry standards, ie every quote I get since, is under £100.

Does anyone have real life experience of challenging excessive charges, ie using ADR? Ombudsman?

HappyMJ

zigglewigler wrote: »

My mother called her usual number for maintenance for her National Trust property. The plumbers have done all previous work instigated by the Trust, so she thought she wouldn't get ripped off.

Yes, I would have left it till next day. But that's not the issue.

I have a quote of £80 to do the job on a Sunday eve, with no travel time added, from another reputable plumbers firm.

And how do they justify £120 travel time from 15 miles down the road?

Please, if you think £200 for a 1 hour job, even on a Sunday represents value, keep it to yourself.

I will as last resort go to court, the law states charges should be reasonable, and reasonable would be along industry standards, ie every quote I get since, is under £100.

Does anyone have real life experience of challenging excessive charges, ie using ADR? Ombudsman?

What law is that then? It's not that excessive.

My hourly rate is £30 an hour double time on a Sunday evening....15 miles away is a total of 30 miles so add £15 in mileage costs and another hour labour at an average speed of 30 mile an hour so £120 labour is easily justifiable and reasonable...plus £20 in parts plus VAT of 20% and that's a a total of £186...not far off your £200 bill.

If you go to court it will cost you a lot more than £100 in court fees alone.

You need to come to an agreement with the plumber without court being involved if you can.

If you don't pay the plumber will eventually take you to court. In the court response you can offer what you think is fair and reasonable i.e £100. Then it will be up to the plumber to prove that £200 is reasonable....which I don't think will be too hard.

somethingcorporate

What law states charges have to be reasonable? If someone is stupid enough to pay it you can bet your bottom dollar someone will be stupid enough to charge it.

You're on to a hiding to nothing here so chalk it up to experience and save your energy, you won't win here.

martinsurrey

zigglewigler wrote: »

So they want to charge £120 for travel time! The company is based 15 miles down the road.

BASED 15 miles down the road, so I assume you think the plumber was sitting in the company office at what ever time on a Sunday!?

you're being charged for the time the plumber took to get from wherever he lives to the job and back again... where the company is based is of zero relevance.

I agree with everyone else, you WILL lose if you take it further, and it WILL cost you more.

next time get quotes and look for a plumber that LIVES close by.

baldelectrician

This is the reason I record my incoming telephone calls.

Then there is no ambiguity as to who said what.

On a similar note- I was called out 3 Sundays ago and changed a consumer unit and only charged £30 more than my normal during the day price.

Not all people charge outrageous sums.

You get rogue tradespeople and customers as well.

A message says the calls may be recorded before the calls are diverted to my mobile.

spacey2012

It must have been a very serious leak to call someone Sunday Evening and to be honest that is not a bad price for an Emergecey plumber to protect the property from imminent damage.
It must have been very serious for it to have to be done out of hours on a Sunday night .