Plumber Invoice

diystarter7

2a1d said:

pinkshoes said:

OK so fair enough replacing the tap if they were unable to fix it (did they actually say they couldn't fix it??), but you should have been told how much it would be, as a quick google search would tell you the price and it would be much cheaper for you to drive to screwfix and pick one up yourself.  The £250 + VAT for the price of a tap which costs £180 is not very fair given they probably got a trade discount too! I'd be asking for the receipt for the tap.

As for the toilet, what did the emergency person actually do to sort it? Drain rod job? or was it more complicated? 

No, they didn't look at whether it could be fixed. We told them the tap was leaky and they turned up with the new tap ready to install (after my wife shared a picture of current tap, which she assumed was just an understanding of the current one we use not as an idea on which one to buy to replace).

Just a drain rod job, yes.



I'm getting the feeling it's just an expensive lesson to make sure the tradesman is completely clear in future, even if it feels like the plumber should have been the ones asking rather than making assumptions on our behalf.

I get Tucosalamanca's points and completely understand it from that point of view.

Although annoyed about the money side of it, it's more about not giving us the choice, with both the contacting of the emergency drainage company and the whether we'd want to try to fix the tap first, or even a choice of which tap we'd like.
The ability to choose was taken away, but in the end the job was done and he's charged for it. I'm not sure what more I can argue when they've been defensive of the way they've dealt with it so far.

Hi Op

The highlihghted bit I'm surprised no one else said that as I was going to as I read down the thread.

I never, never ever just say ok go ahead as I've heard too many horror stories re massive costs.

At times we do need an experience like this to get us back on our toes and at times get caught out with people we have used before.

At times some builders dont even send me a quote as I guess they know I'm on the ball but here in London as we've lost our plumber and roofer to retirments - the new people i dod not trust them one bit and what looks like a high price initially works our cheaper - I've used Heros a few times now - intially they looked expensive but reasonable costs and backed by a decent org.

I never do day rates and as much as I can I ask for quotes and then ask them if they do not have a part on them and have to go to scrwedfix etc how much if anything they charge. Some show disagust but do I care.....

diystarter7

DanDare999 said:

2a1d said:

We've just had an invoice through from our usual plumber and it was over what we had expected it to be.

The issues:
The toilet was blocked
The mixer tap in the kitchen was leaking. We asked for it to be looked at and fixed.

What happened:
Our plumber said someone would be round the next day to look into it. This was delayed a further 4 days as each day the person who was coming round had transportation issues. (Not a major issue, we had another toilet which worked fine). The plumber sent an emergency drainage team instead to look at it on the 5th day.
This was all sorted and we received a copy of the invoice from them for a fixed price of £120 (inclusive of VAT).

The plumber sent someone else round to look at the tap. They had come prepared to install a new tap rather than fix the existing one as we had expected.

The Invoice:
For drainage we were charged £190 + VAT by our plumber. This included the £120 and then costs to arrange for it to be fixed.
The tap was £250 + VAT with labour being £80 + VAT.

The query:
Our plumber had not made it clear at any point that he was charging for his time to organise this or that he wasn't a drainage specialist. We would have preferred he said he wasn't a specialist and gave a recommendation of someone who could help, this certainly would have saved us his "organising" fee. In addition, it feels wrong that we were charged more for "organising" and ending up with a potentially more expensive emergency team because his regular choice had let him down on multiple days.
Also, charging VAT on top of a price which included VAT doesn't sit right, but I've seen others call it more of a mark up.

The tap was purchased without our agreement, there was no choice or checking of a budget. Their opinion was that it was just easier to fit a new tap (which is a make and style he trusts) rather than try to fix the current one (Which is fine, but probably should be the choice of the customer?). We could even have purchased the tap ourselves to save on cost and the charge for them picking it up had we agreed on that tap. I've found the same tap for £180.

We're just unsure how much of this is our plumber being wrong or if he's just playing the system/this is how it works and we just have to lump it and learn from it.

You clearly expect them to work for free, arranging a drainage specialist and collecting parts is something you should expect to be billed for. However this should have been communicated to you.   

The highlighted bit, nowhere did the OP indicate that in their post.

pinkshoes

2a1d said:

No, they didn't look at whether it could be fixed. We told them the tap was leaky and they turned up with the new tap ready to install (after my wife shared a picture of current tap, which she assumed was just an understanding of the current one we use not as an idea on which one to buy to replace).

Just a drain rod job, yes.



I'm getting the feeling it's just an expensive lesson to make sure the tradesman is completely clear in future, even if it feels like the plumber should have been the ones asking rather than making assumptions on our behalf.

I get Tucosalamanca's points and completely understand it from that point of view.

Although annoyed about the money side of it, it's more about not giving us the choice, with both the contacting of the emergency drainage company and the whether we'd want to try to fix the tap first, or even a choice of which tap we'd like.
The ability to choose was taken away, but in the end the job was done and he's charged for it. I'm not sure what more I can argue when they've been defensive of the way they've dealt with it so far.

I would certainly be expressing my annoyance to the plumber and NEVER using them again!

I would write to the plumber saying how disappointed you are with the service you received.

State that you employed him to mend a tap, and instead ended up paying to have a new one fitted, which if you'd known was going to happen you would have bought a new tap for £180 to be fitted, rather than having to pay his marked up price of £250 + VAT.

I'd then state you also asked him to unblock the toilet which you were expecting to do with his drain rod kit, but instead he cancelled on you 4 times and you ended up having to pay for the emergency drain company he sent, when it wasn't even an emergency. If he was unable to turn up, you would have booked a different plumber or bought your own set of drain rods.

Conclude by saying that a service that should have cost no more than £X has ended costing you £Y, and you don't think its fair that you have to pay the full amount, and perhaps he would lower the bill to £Y.

He will no doubt say no, or perhaps lessen the amount, but I would certainly be leaving a poor review or two online to reflect this poor performance.

DanDare999

pinkshoes said:

2a1d said:

No, they didn't look at whether it could be fixed. We told them the tap was leaky and they turned up with the new tap ready to install (after my wife shared a picture of current tap, which she assumed was just an understanding of the current one we use not as an idea on which one to buy to replace).

Just a drain rod job, yes.



I'm getting the feeling it's just an expensive lesson to make sure the tradesman is completely clear in future, even if it feels like the plumber should have been the ones asking rather than making assumptions on our behalf.

I get Tucosalamanca's points and completely understand it from that point of view.

Although annoyed about the money side of it, it's more about not giving us the choice, with both the contacting of the emergency drainage company and the whether we'd want to try to fix the tap first, or even a choice of which tap we'd like.
The ability to choose was taken away, but in the end the job was done and he's charged for it. I'm not sure what more I can argue when they've been defensive of the way they've dealt with it so far.

I would certainly be expressing my annoyance to the plumber and NEVER using them again!

I would write to the plumber saying how disappointed you are with the service you received.

State that you employed him to mend a tap, and instead ended up paying to have a new one fitted, which if you'd known was going to happen you would have bought a new tap for £180 to be fitted, rather than having to pay his marked up price of £250 + VAT.

I'd then state you also asked him to unblock the toilet which you were expecting to do with his drain rod kit, but instead he cancelled on you 4 times and you ended up having to pay for the emergency drain company he sent, when it wasn't even an emergency. If he was unable to turn up, you would have booked a different plumber or bought your own set of drain rods.

Conclude by saying that a service that should have cost no more than £X has ended costing you £Y, and you don't think its fair that you have to pay the full amount, and perhaps he would lower the bill to £Y.

He will no doubt say no, or perhaps lessen the amount, but I would certainly be leaving a poor review or two online to reflect this poor performance.

Do we know what the blockage was? You seem certain drain rods would sort it.

Maybe the lesson for both sides is communication.

pinkshoes

DanDare999 said:

pinkshoes said:

2a1d said:

No, they didn't look at whether it could be fixed. We told them the tap was leaky and they turned up with the new tap ready to install (after my wife shared a picture of current tap, which she assumed was just an understanding of the current one we use not as an idea on which one to buy to replace).

Just a drain rod job, yes.



I'm getting the feeling it's just an expensive lesson to make sure the tradesman is completely clear in future, even if it feels like the plumber should have been the ones asking rather than making assumptions on our behalf.

I get Tucosalamanca's points and completely understand it from that point of view.

Although annoyed about the money side of it, it's more about not giving us the choice, with both the contacting of the emergency drainage company and the whether we'd want to try to fix the tap first, or even a choice of which tap we'd like.
The ability to choose was taken away, but in the end the job was done and he's charged for it. I'm not sure what more I can argue when they've been defensive of the way they've dealt with it so far.

I would certainly be expressing my annoyance to the plumber and NEVER using them again!

I would write to the plumber saying how disappointed you are with the service you received.

State that you employed him to mend a tap, and instead ended up paying to have a new one fitted, which if you'd known was going to happen you would have bought a new tap for £180 to be fitted, rather than having to pay his marked up price of £250 + VAT.

I'd then state you also asked him to unblock the toilet which you were expecting to do with his drain rod kit, but instead he cancelled on you 4 times and you ended up having to pay for the emergency drain company he sent, when it wasn't even an emergency. If he was unable to turn up, you would have booked a different plumber or bought your own set of drain rods.

Conclude by saying that a service that should have cost no more than £X has ended costing you £Y, and you don't think its fair that you have to pay the full amount, and perhaps he would lower the bill to £Y.

He will no doubt say no, or perhaps lessen the amount, but I would certainly be leaving a poor review or two online to reflect this poor performance.

Do we know what the blockage was? You seem certain drain rods would sort it.

Maybe the lesson for both sides is communication.

As per the post you already quoted, the OP already stated that the emergency plumber just used drain rods to sort it. 

To be fair, most toilet blockages are just a drain rod or plunger job. It's just that most people don't have a set of drain rods! 

The key point is the OP should not have to pay an emergency price for what was not an emergency.