Overcharged by plumber - what are our options?

maxxpayne

Hi There,

A bit of a long post, so please bear with me.

We had a blocked toilet on Thursday last week - the usual plunging etc. helped but didn't wholly solve the issue - water would go down after a flush but slowly and it didn't look like it was ready for prime time use haha. 

I checked online for Dyno-Rod (who we had good experiences with before) and unfortunately they didn't have any appointment for Friday in our area in London - so I left it to my wife to call up a few places on Friday while I went to work and get things sorted. Sadly things couldn't wait as we had a few guests coming over on Saturday and my wife insisted that the main toilet should be in perfect working order.

While I'm at work on Friday, my wife found a local plumber via Google search (probably mistake number one) and the had a reasonable call-out charge etc. and booked in to take a look at the toilet (note from now onward, the narrative is pretty much what I gathered from my wife as I wasn't present).

The plumber shows up - tries the usual thing of using a long manual snake (which we already did) and quickly finds out noting happens. At this point he informs my wife that he needs to drill into the pipe as he suspects something is lodged in there and quotes £350+VAT to carry out the job.

My wife, already stressed and managing two young kids, impending social event at home next day interprets this as having to drill into the main exist pipe attached to the toilet - and sends me a message - which I have little of time to go through and interpret the same, e.g. it's a big job of drilling into the pipe, possibly taking out the cabinet etc., so I give the go ahead.

It is this when things get interesting - the plumber goes to his van, gets a specialized kit that simply uses the snake attachment runs it and clears out the toilet. No drilling into pipes, taking out toilet, cabinet - nothing. My wife by this time was on verge of tears and stressed out and pays the full £420 without questioning. She doesn't even tell me anything, including the fact that she had used her debit card to pay instead of a credit card. In total, the plumber had spent less than 1.5 hours on the job - with the first 45 minutes manually trying to fix the issue (which we had already done so).

Question - clearly we've been taken for mugs and taken for a ride on this. No way would a job like this should cost us 400+. The plumber knew that he was dealing with a woman with two kids alone at home and took full advantage of the situation. By not paying by credit card we clearly lost out a lot - but what can we do now? We're comfortable people and we can take one off hits like this, but this is a matter of principle - plus I bet these people take situational advantage like this whenever possible and needs to know it's not fine charging people over the odds.

Thank you.

stinky_daddy

I take it you have already contacted him, to allow him to justify the costs (and what exactly he did) assuming it wasn't on the invoice he presented and have checked with other local plumbers to see what they would have charged for the same works carried out to see if it was comparable?
TIA

s_d

Sandtree

maxxpayne said:

By not paying by credit card we clearly lost out a lot - but what can we do now? 

What do you think you've lost other than 420 avios or clubcard points or whatever?

Tucosalamanca

Price sounds reasonable to me. Call out in London and problem resolved same day.
Half day's wage for engineer, minimum £200, business overheads (van, fuel, insurance, training, holiday/sickness pay, NI & Pension contributions etc) £100, £50 profit for the business.
That's your £350 plus VAT

user1977

Not sure about reasonableness of the cost, but does your wife understand that she didn't actually have to pay on the spot?

Nearlyold

Listing for a de luxe professional "Motorised Drain Auger" (Cheapo Chinese ones are available from about £100 if you don't mind the risk of a part breaking off in the pipe)

Rothenberger R600 Drain Cleaning Machine Full Kit - 22.5m (tradecounterdirect.com)

No idea what your plumber paid for his - but it's having the kit that makes the job quick.

If he'd faffed about for a couple of hours with the manual auger first would that have been better value?

mark_cycling00

Are you in Wandsworth? I know (from dozens of google reviews) that a company there seems to do similar. 
They appear to get aggressive and refuse to leave your property unless you pay on the spot.

maxxpayne

Sandtree said:

maxxpayne said:

By not paying by credit card we clearly lost out a lot - but what can we do now? 

What do you think you've lost other than 420 avios or clubcard points or whatever?

Section 75 perhaps?

maxxpayne

user1977 said:

Not sure about reasonableness of the cost, but does your wife understand that she didn't actually have to pay on the spot?

No - and to be honest neither did I.

maxxpayne

stinky_daddy said:

I take it you have already contacted him, to allow him to justify the costs (and what exactly he did) assuming it wasn't on the invoice he presented and have checked with other local plumbers to see what they would have charged for the same works carried out to see if it was comparable?
TIA

s_d

Not yet - the company that sent the plumber has 1.6 rating in Trustpilot with 500+ reviews - I think having a conversation would be wasted. I will check with local plumbers though.

user1977

maxxpayne said:

user1977 said:

Not sure about reasonableness of the cost, but does your wife understand that she didn't actually have to pay on the spot?

No - and to be honest neither did I.

Well, what would the plumber have done if she had said "umm, not sure about this amount, can I check with hubby before we pay it"? Reblock the toilet? At worst it's a debt he would have had to chase up afterwards.