Plumber charging to fix his mistakes!

Marvin55

My mother recently had a plumber to come fix a leaky toilet which he duly did and she paid and he left. That evening she noticed a pool of water near the water stopcock in the kitchen which is leaking after his visit, so she calls him and he says he'll pop back the next day to take a look - which he does, but then he CHARGES her £40 call out charge. Unfortunately, she's already paid the bill - as she's of that generation that doesn't like to owe anyone anything, but I'm furious.  I get that mistakes happen, but the repair apparently consisted of him removing the stopcock, applying some grease of some kind, and re-screwing it, i.e. he was there for 5 mins and clearly since my mother never touches it and it never leaked before, he caused the leak himself and has now charged her for fixing it.  Is there anything I can do about this? Feel free to disagree with me by the way if you think it was reasonable of him to charge!

kazwookie

Ring him up and discuss the matter

adonis

It sounds as if the gland was leaking on the stopcock which can happen especially if it is not used for a while.

Not the plumbers fault and an easy fix if you know what to do.

I had a stopcock replaced an then the toilet overflow started running, not the plumbers fault just wear and tear or a bit of scale on the washer.

mattyprice4004

Stopcock not touched in years (potentially), then leaks when disturbed for the first time - how exactly is this the plumber's fault? 

He didn't cause the leak, it was going to leak whenever it was turned next (regardless of who did it). 
I'd say it's reasonable to charge, but if he wasn't that far away then £40 seems a little steep when he's been paid for the other job too. 

zoob

Adonis and Mattyprice4004 are 100% correct in there responses and think your being unfair particularly if the leak wasn’t obvious when stopcock was switched back on 

DoaM

LilitOpel said:

Some plumbers go overboard. It happens that they break the plumbing themselves in order to be called again later.

And your evidence for this is ....... ? 🙄

Sure, it's possible that this may happen, but it's hardly common practice.

AskAsk

stop !!!!!! can leak if they haven't been used for a while.  when he came to do the work, he turned it off.  it leaked after he turned it back on and left.  it is not his fault so he is entitled to the £40 in this case.

Jumblebumble

Perhaps you would have preferred the plumber not to come back and let you fix the leak your self
It is nonsense to claim the plumber caused the leak.
The sun was shining yesterday
It is irrelevant that he only took 5 minutes unless he lives next door to your mother as he would take time to travel to the house
I am sorry to say you don't seem to have a handle on how business works

Marvin55

Wow just came here for a bit of friendly advice, wasn’t expecting quite such a heated debate. So anyway the consensus is the charge was reasonable. Ok case closed. Thanks!

bradders1983

I dont see any heated debate. I just see people clearly not replying in the way you were hoping but nonetheless replying with factual information.