Feel ripped off by plumber

Postik

Exodi said:

Honestly I'm lost for words at the pandering that has ensued through this thread.

I expect you'd find most plumbers would charge £100+ to replace a cheap £5 part. Virtually all plumbers will charge by the hour and have a call out charge.

Plumbers don't teleport to peoples houses, they don't teleport to the merchants, and they are probably not doing back to back jobs all day. A '5 minute job' does not only take up 5 minutes of the plumbers time.

I'm absolutely amazed that there has not been a bigger response to the OP suggesting that they think £20 labour + £5 parts was what they were expecting. I think those not calling the OP's expectations into question are in for a big shock when you need to call your own plumber out for replacement of the part.

^ Lol this.  It would probably have been £25 around 25 years ago.

£100 doesn't buy very much these days and a plumber will have his fuel, tools, insurance and everything else to pay for.  The fact that the job took 5 minutes doesn't mean he can do 100 of these jobs in one day because there is a lot more than 5 minutes overhead in every job (travelling, admin, etc).

In fact I am amazed the OP made a phone call one day and got a plumber out the next.  That alone is probably worth £100.

Phil4432

Exodi said:

Phil4432 said:

Exodi said:

Honestly I'm lost for words at the pandering that has ensued through this thread.

I expect you'd find most plumbers would charge £100+ to replace a cheap £5 part.

Plumbers don't teleport to peoples houses, they don't teleport to the shops, and they are probably not doing back to back jobs all day. A '5 minute job' does not only take up 5 minutes of the plumbers time.

I'm absolutely amazed that there has not been a bigger response to the OP suggesting that they think £20 labour + £5 parts was what they were expecting. I think those not calling the OP's expectations into question are in for a big shock when you need to call your own plumber out for replacement of the part.

KaratePigeon said:

Just wondering what an expected charge would be, am I just unrealistic? (I'd expect something like £20 to come out, £5 for the part, it literally took him a couple of minutes to fit. Maybe some PTFE tape to go around it though think that's about 10p!) 

In a completely different universe level unrealistic. Doozergirl seems to be one of the only people in this thread living on planet Earth:

Doozergirl said:

Our plumber charges £250 a day and we use him all the time, yet the minimum fee would be half a day because that's pretty much how long it takes to get something done by the time you've travelled etc, plus you don't know what you're going to be confronted with, so you can't assume to go to another person within a certain time frame.  

It certainly makes me careful what we call people out for, but the idea of £20 is a nonsense.

I'm probably going to rub people up the wrong way here, but I sympathize with the plumber. It must be so frustrating dealing with customers who are blindsided by "it only took a few minutes to replace and the part was a couple of quid". It's only tradespeople that get this also - you don't hear of people complaining about surgeons because the operation 'only took 10 minutes and he only used a scalpel and some scissors'.

That's because a surgeon is a highly trained professional, who studied a hell of a lot harder and longer than a plumber.  Around 16 years after A Levels in fact.

A basic DIY job isn't the same as sewing someone's limb back on.  Even if the plumber has the challenging task of going to Screwfix.

Customers need to question why plumbers are charging near the same as solicitors, and rightly so.

That's quite a strong view, I think there's no reward for guessing you've had a bad experience with a trades person in the past.

Both of these jobs are skilled professions and require training.

I think it's funny you belittle plumbers with comments like 'basic DIY job' and 'the challenging task of going to Screwfix'. If these jobs are all so easy and simple to do, then we can immediately solve this problem by just all boycotting using trades people and doing everything ourselves right?

The OP's only mistake was not asking for an estimate beforehand whereby they may have learned of their call out charge, hourly rate and minimums, to set their expectations in the right place before the job. But this still would not have magicked the £100+ job into £25 like the OP had hoped.

GDB2222 said:

I think nearly all the answers here have been along the lines that the bill was a bit expensive, but not at all unjustifiable. 

I would expect to pay very roughly £100 for a call out, to include up to an hour’s labour, plus any parts. That’s what the OP has been charged. 

I think I should have considered location in this. In the South East, your wrist would be aching from high-fiving people if you managed to get a plumber out for a small job for £100 inc vat and parts. I'd say the cost of the OP is typical for Kent at least.

Not really, higher qualifications mean a better paid job.

That's reality.

Plumbers aren't as qualified as solicitors.  You can take that as a belittling of plumbers if you want, but that's a fact.

Criticize the system, capitalism if you like but that's the way it goes.

You can't take a job with lower training and qualifications, and expect the same pay as someone with more training and higher qualifications.

Doozergirl

Phil4432 said:

Exodi said:

Phil4432 said:

Exodi said:

Honestly I'm lost for words at the pandering that has ensued through this thread.

I expect you'd find most plumbers would charge £100+ to replace a cheap £5 part.

Plumbers don't teleport to peoples houses, they don't teleport to the shops, and they are probably not doing back to back jobs all day. A '5 minute job' does not only take up 5 minutes of the plumbers time.

I'm absolutely amazed that there has not been a bigger response to the OP suggesting that they think £20 labour + £5 parts was what they were expecting. I think those not calling the OP's expectations into question are in for a big shock when you need to call your own plumber out for replacement of the part.

KaratePigeon said:

Just wondering what an expected charge would be, am I just unrealistic? (I'd expect something like £20 to come out, £5 for the part, it literally took him a couple of minutes to fit. Maybe some PTFE tape to go around it though think that's about 10p!) 

In a completely different universe level unrealistic. Doozergirl seems to be one of the only people in this thread living on planet Earth:

Doozergirl said:

Our plumber charges £250 a day and we use him all the time, yet the minimum fee would be half a day because that's pretty much how long it takes to get something done by the time you've travelled etc, plus you don't know what you're going to be confronted with, so you can't assume to go to another person within a certain time frame.  

It certainly makes me careful what we call people out for, but the idea of £20 is a nonsense.

I'm probably going to rub people up the wrong way here, but I sympathize with the plumber. It must be so frustrating dealing with customers who are blindsided by "it only took a few minutes to replace and the part was a couple of quid". It's only tradespeople that get this also - you don't hear of people complaining about surgeons because the operation 'only took 10 minutes and he only used a scalpel and some scissors'.

That's because a surgeon is a highly trained professional, who studied a hell of a lot harder and longer than a plumber.  Around 16 years after A Levels in fact.

A basic DIY job isn't the same as sewing someone's limb back on.  Even if the plumber has the challenging task of going to Screwfix.

Customers need to question why plumbers are charging near the same as solicitors, and rightly so.

That's quite a strong view, I think there's no reward for guessing you've had a bad experience with a trades person in the past.

Both of these jobs are skilled professions and require training.

I think it's funny you belittle plumbers with comments like 'basic DIY job' and 'the challenging task of going to Screwfix'. If these jobs are all so easy and simple to do, then we can immediately solve this problem by just all boycotting using trades people and doing everything ourselves right?

The OP's only mistake was not asking for an estimate beforehand whereby they may have learned of their call out charge, hourly rate and minimums, to set their expectations in the right place before the job. But this still would not have magicked the £100+ job into £25 like the OP had hoped.

GDB2222 said:

I think nearly all the answers here have been along the lines that the bill was a bit expensive, but not at all unjustifiable. 

I would expect to pay very roughly £100 for a call out, to include up to an hour’s labour, plus any parts. That’s what the OP has been charged. 

I think I should have considered location in this. In the South East, your wrist would be aching from high-fiving people if you managed to get a plumber out for a small job for £100 inc vat and parts. I'd say the cost of the OP is typical for Kent at least.

Not really, higher qualifications mean a better paid job.

That's reality.

Plumbers aren't as qualified as solicitors.  You can take that as a belittling of plumbers if you want, but that's a fact.

Criticize the system, capitalism if you like but that's the way it goes.

You can't take a job with lower training and qualifications, and expect the same pay as someone with more training and higher qualifications.

£135 would buy 30 mins of my solicitor's time.   If I was expecting her to drive over and back, plus visit screw-fix as well I think we'd be talking 4x that.   

mi-key

I agree tradesmen should be paid a decent wage, but when you see some asking £100 an hour for labour that is getting ridiculous ( £150 - £200 K a year for someone who does stuff most reasonably competent DIYers can handle ). There really isn't a great deal of skill involved in plumbing and it doesn't take years to master the art. Let's be honest, most practical people could learn 90% of what a plumber does in 6 months  or less

Sadly since Brexit a lot of the Eastern European tradesmen ( who were normally cheaper and much harder workers ) have left, so the British ones who are left are in more demand and are charging much higher prices.

Belenus

Doozergirl said:

Phil4432 said:

Exodi said:

Phil4432 said:

Exodi said:

Honestly I'm lost for words at the pandering that has ensued through this thread.

I expect you'd find most plumbers would charge £100+ to replace a cheap £5 part.

Plumbers don't teleport to peoples houses, they don't teleport to the shops, and they are probably not doing back to back jobs all day. A '5 minute job' does not only take up 5 minutes of the plumbers time.

I'm absolutely amazed that there has not been a bigger response to the OP suggesting that they think £20 labour + £5 parts was what they were expecting. I think those not calling the OP's expectations into question are in for a big shock when you need to call your own plumber out for replacement of the part.

KaratePigeon said:

Just wondering what an expected charge would be, am I just unrealistic? (I'd expect something like £20 to come out, £5 for the part, it literally took him a couple of minutes to fit. Maybe some PTFE tape to go around it though think that's about 10p!) 

In a completely different universe level unrealistic. Doozergirl seems to be one of the only people in this thread living on planet Earth:

Doozergirl said:

Our plumber charges £250 a day and we use him all the time, yet the minimum fee would be half a day because that's pretty much how long it takes to get something done by the time you've travelled etc, plus you don't know what you're going to be confronted with, so you can't assume to go to another person within a certain time frame.  

It certainly makes me careful what we call people out for, but the idea of £20 is a nonsense.

I'm probably going to rub people up the wrong way here, but I sympathize with the plumber. It must be so frustrating dealing with customers who are blindsided by "it only took a few minutes to replace and the part was a couple of quid". It's only tradespeople that get this also - you don't hear of people complaining about surgeons because the operation 'only took 10 minutes and he only used a scalpel and some scissors'.

That's because a surgeon is a highly trained professional, who studied a hell of a lot harder and longer than a plumber.  Around 16 years after A Levels in fact.

A basic DIY job isn't the same as sewing someone's limb back on.  Even if the plumber has the challenging task of going to Screwfix.

Customers need to question why plumbers are charging near the same as solicitors, and rightly so.

That's quite a strong view, I think there's no reward for guessing you've had a bad experience with a trades person in the past.

Both of these jobs are skilled professions and require training.

I think it's funny you belittle plumbers with comments like 'basic DIY job' and 'the challenging task of going to Screwfix'. If these jobs are all so easy and simple to do, then we can immediately solve this problem by just all boycotting using trades people and doing everything ourselves right?

The OP's only mistake was not asking for an estimate beforehand whereby they may have learned of their call out charge, hourly rate and minimums, to set their expectations in the right place before the job. But this still would not have magicked the £100+ job into £25 like the OP had hoped.

GDB2222 said:

I think nearly all the answers here have been along the lines that the bill was a bit expensive, but not at all unjustifiable. 

I would expect to pay very roughly £100 for a call out, to include up to an hour’s labour, plus any parts. That’s what the OP has been charged. 

I think I should have considered location in this. In the South East, your wrist would be aching from high-fiving people if you managed to get a plumber out for a small job for £100 inc vat and parts. I'd say the cost of the OP is typical for Kent at least.

Not really, higher qualifications mean a better paid job.

That's reality.

Plumbers aren't as qualified as solicitors.  You can take that as a belittling of plumbers if you want, but that's a fact.

Criticize the system, capitalism if you like but that's the way it goes.

You can't take a job with lower training and qualifications, and expect the same pay as someone with more training and higher qualifications.

£135 would buy 30 mins of my solicitor's time.   If I was expecting her to drive over and back, plus visit screw-fix as well I think we'd be talking 4x that.   

That reminds me of the time I went to see a solicitor. My appointment was after hours so he was on his own in his office.

On arrival he offered to make me a cup of tea.

I declined as that would have been a very expensive cup of tea. I was paying him about £200 an hour so the five minutes making me tea would have been charged at about £16.  

powerful_Rogue

mi-key said:

I agree tradesmen should be paid a decent wage, but when you see some asking £100 an hour for labour that is getting ridiculous ( £150 - £200 K a year for someone who does stuff most reasonably competent DIYers can handle ). There really isn't a great deal of skill involved in plumbing and it doesn't take years to master the art. Let's be honest, most practical people could learn 90% of what a plumber does in 6 months  or less

Sadly since Brexit a lot of the Eastern European tradesmen ( who were normally cheaper and much harder workers ) have left, so the British ones who are left are in more demand and are charging much higher prices.

Nonsense! The avergage salary in the UK for a plumber is £32,000.

Next time I have a leak, should I leave it for 6 months whilst I learn the trade, or just pick up the phone and pay the expert?

ComicGeek

mi-key said:

I agree tradesmen should be paid a decent wage, but when you see some asking £100 an hour for labour that is getting ridiculous ( £150 - £200 K a year for someone who does stuff most reasonably competent DIYers can handle ). There really isn't a great deal of skill involved in plumbing and it doesn't take years to master the art. Let's be honest, most practical people could learn 90% of what a plumber does in 6 months  or less

Sadly since Brexit a lot of the Eastern European tradesmen ( who were normally cheaper and much harder workers ) have left, so the British ones who are left are in more demand and are charging much higher prices.

But they aren't doing 7 jobs a day, every day. Then there are vehicles, petrol, tools, training costs, insurances, phone, advertising etc, and lots of other business costs. You can't just take a single job charge and multiply that across the year and state that's take home pay!

If you don't want to pay the prices, then do it yourself that's fine. Don't get someone out to do a job without confirming prices, and then complain about it! 

ThisIsWeird

You meet your plumber mate down t'pub for a pint.

"How was your day - busy?"

"Enough - one job in the morning, and one in the afa'. Mind you, the morning one was a beaut - the plastic overflow pipe on the bath had cracked, so needed a new one."

"These can be awkward!"

"Nah. The customer - a single lady - had already removed the bath panel for me! Didn't have the part in the van, tho', so had to pop down to Screwfix for a whole new waste - a £iver! Didn't bother to fit it all, mind, even tho' I told her I would - lol! Just swapped the hose - 30 seconds. I even left her the old broken one..."

"Ha-ha, nice job. How much did you charge for this?"

"Um...er...£135..."

"Blimey! Nice work if you can get it! Didn't she mind?!"

"Yeah, she was a bit upset, so I told her I paid £55 for the waste..."

"Hmm...how much?"

"Yeah. Lol! Another pint?"

"No..."

ComicGeek

Phil4432 said:

Exodi said:

Phil4432 said:

Exodi said:

Honestly I'm lost for words at the pandering that has ensued through this thread.

I expect you'd find most plumbers would charge £100+ to replace a cheap £5 part.

Plumbers don't teleport to peoples houses, they don't teleport to the shops, and they are probably not doing back to back jobs all day. A '5 minute job' does not only take up 5 minutes of the plumbers time.

I'm absolutely amazed that there has not been a bigger response to the OP suggesting that they think £20 labour + £5 parts was what they were expecting. I think those not calling the OP's expectations into question are in for a big shock when you need to call your own plumber out for replacement of the part.

KaratePigeon said:

Just wondering what an expected charge would be, am I just unrealistic? (I'd expect something like £20 to come out, £5 for the part, it literally took him a couple of minutes to fit. Maybe some PTFE tape to go around it though think that's about 10p!) 

In a completely different universe level unrealistic. Doozergirl seems to be one of the only people in this thread living on planet Earth:

Doozergirl said:

Our plumber charges £250 a day and we use him all the time, yet the minimum fee would be half a day because that's pretty much how long it takes to get something done by the time you've travelled etc, plus you don't know what you're going to be confronted with, so you can't assume to go to another person within a certain time frame.  

It certainly makes me careful what we call people out for, but the idea of £20 is a nonsense.

I'm probably going to rub people up the wrong way here, but I sympathize with the plumber. It must be so frustrating dealing with customers who are blindsided by "it only took a few minutes to replace and the part was a couple of quid". It's only tradespeople that get this also - you don't hear of people complaining about surgeons because the operation 'only took 10 minutes and he only used a scalpel and some scissors'.

That's because a surgeon is a highly trained professional, who studied a hell of a lot harder and longer than a plumber.  Around 16 years after A Levels in fact.

A basic DIY job isn't the same as sewing someone's limb back on.  Even if the plumber has the challenging task of going to Screwfix.

Customers need to question why plumbers are charging near the same as solicitors, and rightly so.

That's quite a strong view, I think there's no reward for guessing you've had a bad experience with a trades person in the past.

Both of these jobs are skilled professions and require training.

I think it's funny you belittle plumbers with comments like 'basic DIY job' and 'the challenging task of going to Screwfix'. If these jobs are all so easy and simple to do, then we can immediately solve this problem by just all boycotting using trades people and doing everything ourselves right?

The OP's only mistake was not asking for an estimate beforehand whereby they may have learned of their call out charge, hourly rate and minimums, to set their expectations in the right place before the job. But this still would not have magicked the £100+ job into £25 like the OP had hoped.

GDB2222 said:

I think nearly all the answers here have been along the lines that the bill was a bit expensive, but not at all unjustifiable. 

I would expect to pay very roughly £100 for a call out, to include up to an hour’s labour, plus any parts. That’s what the OP has been charged. 

I think I should have considered location in this. In the South East, your wrist would be aching from high-fiving people if you managed to get a plumber out for a small job for £100 inc vat and parts. I'd say the cost of the OP is typical for Kent at least.

Not really, higher qualifications mean a better paid job.

That's reality.

Plumbers aren't as qualified as solicitors.  You can take that as a belittling of plumbers if you want, but that's a fact.

Criticize the system, capitalism if you like but that's the way it goes.

You can't take a job with lower training and qualifications, and expect the same pay as someone with more training and higher qualifications.

I can't believe this has turned into a comparison between a plumber and a solicitor - hasn't anyone got any work to do this morning, or are you trying to waste a bit more time so you can charge your customer another hour? 

ThisIsWeird

mi-key said:

I agree tradesmen should be paid a decent wage, but when you see some asking £100 an hour for labour that is getting ridiculous ( £150 - £200 K a year for someone who does stuff most reasonably competent DIYers can handle ). There really isn't a great deal of skill involved in plumbing and it doesn't take years to master the art. Let's be honest, most practical people could learn 90% of what a plumber does in 6 months  or less

Sadly since Brexit a lot of the Eastern European tradesmen ( who were normally cheaper and much harder workers ) have left, so the British ones who are left are in more demand and are charging much higher prices.

There is an awful lot of truth in that.