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Overcharged by Plumber
Jessica1980
Posts: 12 Forumite
Hello
I have a concern about a company that go by the names of Best Technicians, or https://247bestemergencyservices.co.uk or Traders Digital Marketing Ltd.
My Dad lives with a live in carer and this weekend, while family were away, the bathroom sink became blocked. So, the carer panicked and called an emergency plumbing service (Sunday rates). She was quoted a £49 call out fee. A plumber arrived, unblocked the sink within 20 minutes and then charged us £400 which she paid.
I feel this price is totally unacceptable and am wondering what I can do to firstly try and get this money back and also try and stop other vulnerable people from getting caught like this.
Any help/advice would be gratefully accepted.
Many thanks
Jess
I have a concern about a company that go by the names of Best Technicians, or https://247bestemergencyservices.co.uk or Traders Digital Marketing Ltd.
My Dad lives with a live in carer and this weekend, while family were away, the bathroom sink became blocked. So, the carer panicked and called an emergency plumbing service (Sunday rates). She was quoted a £49 call out fee. A plumber arrived, unblocked the sink within 20 minutes and then charged us £400 which she paid.
I feel this price is totally unacceptable and am wondering what I can do to firstly try and get this money back and also try and stop other vulnerable people from getting caught like this.
Any help/advice would be gratefully accepted.
Many thanks
Jess
1
Comments
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£400 to unblock a sink which would no doubt need a £4 bottle of drain unblocker, a £2 plunger and perhaps one of those £8 devices to poke down the drain?!?!?!
Is this plumber a member of any trade body? I would certainly be complaining about that!
I would be rather cross with the carer too for phoning an emergency plumber for something so trivial. Are there no more sinks in the house???
Should've = Should HAVE (not 'of')
Would've = Would HAVE (not 'of')
No, I am not perfect, but yes I do judge people on their use of basic English language. If you didn't know the above, then learn it! (If English is your second language, then you are forgiven!)1 -
pinkshoes said:£400 to unblock a sink which would no doubt need a £4 bottle of drain unblocker, a £2 plunger and perhaps one of those £8 devices to poke down the drain?!?!?!
Is this plumber a member of any trade body? I would certainly be complaining about that!
I would be rather cross with the carer too for phoning an emergency plumber for something so trivial. Are there no more sinks in the house???Whilst I think the £400 charge is excessive, I don't think it fair to trivialise the cost in that way.Don't forget, they called out an emergency plumber, on a Sunday. The call out fee will never be cheap...2 -
paddyandstumpy said:pinkshoes said:£400 to unblock a sink which would no doubt need a £4 bottle of drain unblocker, a £2 plunger and perhaps one of those £8 devices to poke down the drain?!?!?!
Is this plumber a member of any trade body? I would certainly be complaining about that!
I would be rather cross with the carer too for phoning an emergency plumber for something so trivial. Are there no more sinks in the house???Whilst I think the £400 charge is excessive, I don't think it fair to trivialise the cost in that way.Don't forget, they called out an emergency plumber, on a Sunday. The call out fee will never be cheap...I was surprised how low the call out fee was.
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The website has a +44 phone number and the website has been going for 5 and a bit months.Pollycat said:paddyandstumpy said:pinkshoes said:£400 to unblock a sink which would no doubt need a £4 bottle of drain unblocker, a £2 plunger and perhaps one of those £8 devices to poke down the drain?!?!?!
Is this plumber a member of any trade body? I would certainly be complaining about that!
I would be rather cross with the carer too for phoning an emergency plumber for something so trivial. Are there no more sinks in the house???Whilst I think the £400 charge is excessive, I don't think it fair to trivialise the cost in that way.Don't forget, they called out an emergency plumber, on a Sunday. The call out fee will never be cheap...I was surprised how low the call out fee was.
I had a quick look on the site but couldn't find a price list.
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Probably to entice people to use them so they can charge 400 quid for a simple job.Pollycat said:paddyandstumpy said:pinkshoes said:£400 to unblock a sink which would no doubt need a £4 bottle of drain unblocker, a £2 plunger and perhaps one of those £8 devices to poke down the drain?!?!?!
Is this plumber a member of any trade body? I would certainly be complaining about that!
I would be rather cross with the carer too for phoning an emergency plumber for something so trivial. Are there no more sinks in the house???Whilst I think the £400 charge is excessive, I don't think it fair to trivialise the cost in that way.Don't forget, they called out an emergency plumber, on a Sunday. The call out fee will never be cheap...I was surprised how low the call out fee was.
OP the Consumer Rights Act states a reasonable price should be paid for a service:
www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/51/enactedReasonable price to be paid for a service
(1)This section applies to a contract to supply a service if—
(a)the consumer has not paid a price or other consideration for the service,
(b)the contract does not expressly fix a price or other consideration, and does not say how it is to be fixed, and
(c)anything that is to be treated under section 50 as included in the contract does not fix a price or other consideration either.
(2)In that case the contract is to be treated as including a term that the consumer must pay a reasonable price for the service, and no more.
(3)What is a reasonable price is a question of fact.
You are a bit stuck as the career paid already, would be worth looking at the agreement with the whoever supplies the career to see if they have the right to take such a decision to hire someone to perform such a repair.
In the game of chess you can never let your adversary see your pieces2 -
Boohoo said:
The website has a +44 phone number and the website has been going for 5 and a bit months.Pollycat said:paddyandstumpy said:pinkshoes said:£400 to unblock a sink which would no doubt need a £4 bottle of drain unblocker, a £2 plunger and perhaps one of those £8 devices to poke down the drain?!?!?!
Is this plumber a member of any trade body? I would certainly be complaining about that!
I would be rather cross with the carer too for phoning an emergency plumber for something so trivial. Are there no more sinks in the house???Whilst I think the £400 charge is excessive, I don't think it fair to trivialise the cost in that way.Don't forget, they called out an emergency plumber, on a Sunday. The call out fee will never be cheap...I was surprised how low the call out fee was.
I had a quick look on the site but couldn't find a price list.I looked at the website too.Do you think £49.00 emergency call out on a Sunday is low?I appreciate the OP isn't querying the call out fee.I wonder if the OP has spoken to the carer who spoke to the plumbing company.I wonder if the OP has spoken to the plumbing company directly.Or if she is getting all of this 2nd (or even 3rd) hand.Maybe something has been lost in translation.0 -
The call out fee was £49. No one is disputing this.paddyandstumpy said:pinkshoes said:£400 to unblock a sink which would no doubt need a £4 bottle of drain unblocker, a £2 plunger and perhaps one of those £8 devices to poke down the drain?!?!?!
Is this plumber a member of any trade body? I would certainly be complaining about that!
I would be rather cross with the carer too for phoning an emergency plumber for something so trivial. Are there no more sinks in the house???Whilst I think the £400 charge is excessive, I don't think it fair to trivialise the cost in that way.Don't forget, they called out an emergency plumber, on a Sunday. The call out fee will never be cheap...
It is the £351 charged for a 20 minute poke down the drain, no parts needed that the OP is quite rightfully annoyed about.
£1050/hour is not what I call reasonable!!Should've = Should HAVE (not 'of')
Would've = Would HAVE (not 'of')
No, I am not perfect, but yes I do judge people on their use of basic English language. If you didn't know the above, then learn it! (If English is your second language, then you are forgiven!)0 -
Lots of information missing here.What was your dads take on all this? Did you agree to a plumber being called out?Did the plumber quite the price before starting the work?0
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Why does the carer have control of your father's money such that she could pay £400 for a plumber?The comments I post are my personal opinion. While I try to check everything is correct before posting, I can and do make mistakes, so always try to check official information sources before relying on my posts.1
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Why did the carer pay the bill?
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