Plumber Call Out Charge

cjm8888

Hello.

We have a shower leak and we contacted a local plumbing company via email to come out and take a look and see if its a case of a re-seal or a more in depth job such as removing the shower tray etc..

The plumber was at our house for 10 mins and took a look and said a re-seal should be sufficient but best to leave it a week or so to dry out. Fair enough come back in a week or so and re-seal the shower we agreed.

A few days later we then got an invoice from the company for £108 call out fee. I asked what was this for but they didnt respond. When I made the booking there was no mention of a call out fee, the plumber didnt say anything and on the their website it doesn't say anything about a call out fee.

I dont feel I should pay this as I wasn't informed about the fee, it was no way an emergency as we said they can visit anytime that week and the visit was for a max 10 minutes inspection.
Where do I stand on this and what should I do ?

Thank You,
 

NSG666

£90+vat?

To me it sounds a little excessive although it depends on what part of the country you are in but tradesmen don't sell labour by the minute and over the last couple of years demand and prices have escalated. Often they will have an hourly rate and sell in blocks of 15 or 30 mins but with a minimum charge - e.g. no one is going to charge £60/hr then only charge £10 for 10 mins.

A business has visited your home and provided a service. There is a bill to pay for that.

Risteard

NSG666 said:

£90+vat?

To me it sounds a little excessive although it depends on what part of the country you are in but tradesmen don't sell labour by the minute and over the last couple of years demand and prices have escalated. Often they will have an hourly rate and sell in blocks of 15 or 30 mins but with a minimum charge - e.g. no one is going to charge £60/hr then only charge £10 for 10 mins.

A business has visited your home and provided a service. There is a bill to pay for that.

I don't think I could agree that it's excessive. Sounds pretty standard to me. 

comeandgo

I’m agreeing that the call out fee is not excessive. Our local plumber is £140.  There is usually always a call out fee whether emergency or not.

cjm8888

Thank you for your replies Im not arguing about the size of the call out fee, it could be £10 and still dont think I should pay it as I wasn't told there would be a call out charge.


I have done some searching around and legally they have to let me know there would be a charge.

"It’s a legal requirement under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 and under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs) for the plumber to make it clear they are charging you for the visit and that this is separate from any work they may or may not do."

I going to check with Trading Standards on Monday. Thanks

Risteard

cjm8888 said:

Thank you for your replies Im not arguing about the size of the call out fee, it could be £10 and still dont think I should pay it as I wasn't told there would be a call out charge.


I have done some searching around and legally they have to let me know there would be a charge.

"It’s a legal requirement under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 and under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs) for the plumber to make it clear they are charging you for the visit and that this is separate from any work they may or may not do."

I going to check with Trading Standards on Monday. Thanks

You cannot possibly believe that it's reasonable to expect that there would have been no charge for the visit, regardless of whether you term it a "call-out charge" or otherwise.

NSG666

Risteard said:

NSG666 said:

£90+vat?

To me it sounds a little excessive although it depends on what part of the country you are in but tradesmen don't sell labour by the minute and over the last couple of years demand and prices have escalated. Often they will have an hourly rate and sell in blocks of 15 or 30 mins but with a minimum charge - e.g. no one is going to charge £60/hr then only charge £10 for 10 mins.

A business has visited your home and provided a service. There is a bill to pay for that.

I don't think I could agree that it's excessive. Sounds pretty standard to me. 

I'm not going to argue with you but I jacked in plumbing (Leeds area) mid 2020 and was charging nowhere near that but maybe it was me that was way too cheap or prices have rocketed since. I said it depends where you live because using Pimlico Plumbers as a reference they charge £120+vat/hr with a min or 1hr.

That said, given the follow-up from the OP I now think they have just come on here to wind us up.

Tranboy

I would never ask any tradesperson to do anything without asking first how much it will cost me. Unfortunately there does seem to be a growing trend on this website for troll postings designed to elicit reactions from people on here, recently someone was asking about lending £50k to a friend and constantly went against all good advice, another evolved into personal attacks until it was removed. 

Risteard

NSG666 said:

Risteard said:

NSG666 said:

£90+vat?

To me it sounds a little excessive although it depends on what part of the country you are in but tradesmen don't sell labour by the minute and over the last couple of years demand and prices have escalated. Often they will have an hourly rate and sell in blocks of 15 or 30 mins but with a minimum charge - e.g. no one is going to charge £60/hr then only charge £10 for 10 mins.

A business has visited your home and provided a service. There is a bill to pay for that.

I don't think I could agree that it's excessive. Sounds pretty standard to me. 

I'm not going to argue with you but I jacked in plumbing (Leeds area) mid 2020 and was charging nowhere near that but maybe it was me that was way too cheap or prices have rocketed since. I said it depends where you live because using Pimlico Plumbers as a reference they charge £120+vat/hr with a min or 1hr.

That said, given the follow-up from the OP I now think they have just come on here to wind us up.

Costs have gone up massively over the past couple of years. You may also have been very cheap at the time - obviously I don't know what you charged or anything about your business, so it's not really for me to speculate.

greenface2

Different trades but I don't charge a call out to quote for a job . Plumber never did anything except looked advised to leave it for a bit then they'll call back and seal . Although I would have dried it out and sealed it (even roughly ) myself and see if it worked first . If not mentioned I wouldnt pay 

cjm8888

This is no windup post. I have owned a house now for 12 years and never paid a call out charge for someone to look at a job and quote to fix it. We had a new bathroom a few years ago and we had three plumbers quote for the work. They didn't each charge a call out for that, I cant see how this is any different ?

I understand there is a emergency call out charge if your boiler is broken for example but not to quote for a job.
If I had known I was paying for an hours time I would have got them to look at a few other issues.

I have learnt from this and I will now ask every tradesperson if they will charge for coming out to quote for a job which seems strange and rude.

As I said I have have since spoken to Citizen advice and I am correct, they should have told me they were charging for the visit.
They are going to raise a case with Trading Standards.
In the meantime I offered a good will payment.