Fed up with plumbers

oscarward

I had a gas registered person out to service boiler, used him for about 3 years. Told him of a few issues while he was there.


He diagnosed the problem and pointed out the likely cost of a 'proper' fix. He also suggested a cheaper fix and then suggested I get it fitted by a none gas registered plumber as their hourly rate would be cheaper.



So we followed his advice and the boiler lived for another 2 years before starting to fail with other issues which he couldn't figure. Probably needed a new controller board + sensors so cheaper to replace.



I asked same gas registered person if he fitted new boilers but he didn't so eventually got another company to fit one.

TripleH

Fully agree with Pennywise. Why focus on degrees as the only path to earning good money.
Skilled workforce = good, yes but skilled does not mean degree.
Why spend 3 years + thousands of debt going to Uni to then have to retrain to do a job you could become an apprentice at 16-18 at. 3 years of earning money and not creating debt that's money saving!

By the way, this applies not just to 'trades skills' but you can train to be an accountant without a degree and get a good living out of it...

But when are sensible, common sense, money saving ideas part of any Political Party manifesto?

tgon

It’s really difficult to find and trust a reliable and competent plumber so I sympathise with you entirety. The trading websites that supposedly help make a choice are untrustworthy and a blindfold finger point in the Yellow Pages is fraught with risk. The industry itself seems ambivalent towards everyday consumers. I don’t know what the answer is but your rant is most likely echoed by many readers, me included.

walwyn1978

Pennywise wrote: »

The "trades" have you by the short & curlies and they know it, hence why they don't have to provide good customer service - they're all already busy so don't need the work unless it's easy and profitable.

The good ones don't need to advertise as they have a steady stream of repeat business and referrals. These are usually the ones with proper qualifications and experience. Unfortunately, they're also usually expensive, because they do a proper job and that takes time, plus they usually use quality materials which cost more.

The ones who advertise all the time need to do so for a reason - people never want them back, so they need a stream of new "mugs" as they don't get repeat business nor referrals. These are the ones who usually don't have proper qualifications/experience and have gone into the "trades" because they couldn't do anything else.

If the education system was more geared up to the trades, we'd have more of the first group and the second group would be pushed out.

100% this. Our plumber isn’t ‘available immediately’ (unless it’s an emergency, in which case as we’ve discovered when our boiler failed on a cold winter day with a baby and a toddler in the house, they drop everything and come to you), they cost a lot and you can be waiting for a long time for your job to happen (they were supposed to start our bathroom refit 3 weeks ago and we’re still waiting).

But: the work is of extremely high quality, the materials they use are excellent and their people skills and the way you have ownership of the project is first class. It’s not get it done quickly and move on, it’s about doing it slowly and right first time. I wouldn’t have anyone else doing my plumbing work. They know that, so they don’t try and take me for a ride on price otherwise they lose me as a customer. It’s a win win.

People like me keep these guys busy. They don’t need new customers, who might quibble, make unreasonable demands, or complain when their job gets bumped for an emergency.