£100 for a 2 minute job?

DiddyDavies

fred246 said:

It's dead easy to teach yourself plumbing. Hardly any tools needed. Just connecting up a few pipes. Hairdressing is much more complicated. Everyone is different. All the different styles and colours. It's on a different level of complexity.

Easy to teach yourself but something that can turn out to be horrendously expensive if you get it wrong.
My neighbour recently tried to replace a radiator and when removing the old one, didn't hold the valve when undoing the coupling but. This resulted in a totally flooded house.
At least if you screw up a haircut it can often be salvaged with a bit more work but if not, the hair will generally regrow.

matticus7

TELLIT01 said:

fred246 said:

It always amazes me that you can get a carer, a cleaner or a hairdresser come to your house with all their equipment and charge you £25 for a couple of hours while a plumber charges you £100 just to get there. A hairdresser is more skilled than a plumber I would say.

That being the case get a cleaner or hairdresser to fix your next water leak.  The OP had tried many times to fix the problem and failed.  The plumber did fix the problem albeit at the second attempt.

I didn't try "many times". I located the area of the leak, replaced the part and called someone when I felt I had done as much as I could without needing to get someone qualified in.

Also it wasn't fixed with the sealant and it still leaks from the overflow (although the waste pipe drain isn't) and I really can't be arsed to deal with them coming out a 3rd time as they seemed to be pinning their hopes on the sealant working.

Phil4432

They definitely should have told you how much it would cost, and what their rates were.  Always best to ask when booking.  And don;t let them in without PPE, especially if you have kids in the house.

Doozergirl

Phil4432 said:

They definitely should have told you how much it would cost, and what their rates were.  Always best to ask when booking.  And don;t let them in without PPE, especially if you have kids in the house.

Especially if you have kids?   The mind boggles.  

TELLIT01

matticus7 said:

TELLIT01 said:

fred246 said:

It always amazes me that you can get a carer, a cleaner or a hairdresser come to your house with all their equipment and charge you £25 for a couple of hours while a plumber charges you £100 just to get there. A hairdresser is more skilled than a plumber I would say.

That being the case get a cleaner or hairdresser to fix your next water leak.  The OP had tried many times to fix the problem and failed.  The plumber did fix the problem albeit at the second attempt.

I didn't try "many times". I located the area of the leak, replaced the part and called someone when I felt I had done as much as I could without needing to get someone qualified in.

Also it wasn't fixed with the sealant and it still leaks from the overflow (although the waste pipe drain isn't) and I really can't be arsed to deal with them coming out a 3rd time as they seemed to be pinning their hopes on the sealant working.

OK.  Replace 'many times' with 'tried for many hours without success'.  In your OP you say "After many hours of working on it myself I gave up and contacted a plumber".  It amounts to the same thing - unable to fix a problem but complaining about paying somebody else to do it.

MovingForwards

First thing I purchased when I got the keys to my own home was a DIY manual, with step by step instructions. 

OP, you now know to get written quotes for any work you have done, ideally from more than one person. That will help you in the future and it's time to out this one behind you and ask the members how to fix it yourself or get someone else in.

AskAsk

fred246 said:

It's dead easy to teach yourself plumbing. Hardly any tools needed. Just connecting up a few pipes. Hairdressing is much more complicated. Everyone is different. All the different styles and colours. It's on a different level of complexity.

plumbing is actually very simple as it is simply connecting two pipes together and you could learn to do plumbing by watching youtube videos, which are available for a lot of jobs.  the difficulty is in practice as it is very easy to have leaks once you have connected the pipes as even experienced plumbers can find this is the problem.

some old connections are just a pig to stop the leak and can take a lot of time to make it leak proof.  this is where an experienced plumber will have advantage over a less experienced or DIY person as they will be able to do the fittings without leaks.

abc987

@matticus7 How much would you have liked to pay them for the work they did?

matticus7

abc987 said:

@matticus7 How much would you have liked to pay them for the work they did?

For not fixing the problem on either their first or second visit? I'd have liked to have not paid them at all based on that. It's still leaking and not fixed despite all the replies that seem to be ignoring that point.

matticus7

MovingForwards said:

First thing I purchased when I got the keys to my own home was a DIY manual, with step by step instructions. 

OP, you now know to get written quotes for any work you have done, ideally from more than one person. That will help you in the future and it's time to out this one behind you and ask the members how to fix it yourself or get someone else in.

Thanks, it's definitely a lesson I'd rather learn for £100 than a few grand.

I know where the remaining leak is coming from (the overflow) so I'll have another crack at it or failing that just slop a tube of sealant around it and hope for the best since that's what the experts do lol