Plumber rip off?

Dolph · 10 Nov 2009 at 18:28

That sounds about right to me. As has already been said, callout fees are common, as is a minimum charge, and as an emergency service (in many cases) they know you need them

Duke · 10 Nov 2009 at 18:34

jms198 said:
He should be charging 30-35/hour +VAT

Why should he be charging that? The price is determined by demand really.

cheets64 · 10 Nov 2009 at 18:45

wtf, what next being lived that car makers charged £10k for a car but it only costs £6k to make.

lambda · 10 Nov 2009 at 20:07

Well I paid my plumber £250 for 1st fix bathroom plumbing inc materials, for about 4 hours work.
So yes, £75 is a joke. Always ask for a price before work starts.. duh

"andy" · 10 Nov 2009 at 21:00

Showboat said:
I can get a taxi from one end of the city to the other for £10, so i don't mind paying a bit for him to actually come out, £50 is extreme. And he is charging in 15min what most people earn in a day.

most people have guarenteed work though. he doesnt

and by going to your house for a 'simple job' it make him unavailable for other work too

im sure his call out charge would have been mentioned before he actually came if your wife had asked him about it.

if people dont like it then they can use a different plumber or learn to do it themselves. if it was just a 15min job then why didnt you or you wife do it ?

lambda · 10 Nov 2009 at 22:12

why are so many people justifying the plumber overcharging the OP?

Getting shafted by tradesman is should not be tolerated. I don't care if they have to travel, who doesn't?

If tradesman want security they should have paid attention at school and got some qualifications.

mangobreeder · 10 Nov 2009 at 22:16

whilew e talking about house hold stuff, i know it gas, but how much can i expect to pay to ahve a gas pipe which connects to the cooker, moved to another wall.

Basically at the moment its on the wrong wall, i want it on a different wall, which will be around 6ft from where the gas meter thing is. rather than the current 15ft

lambda · 10 Nov 2009 at 22:21

mangobreeder said:
whilew e talking about house hold stuff, i know it gas, but how much can i expect to pay to ahve a gas pipe which connects to the cooker, moved to another wall.

Basically at the moment its on the wrong wall, i want it on a different wall, which will be around 6ft from where the gas meter thing is. rather than the current 15ft

I am helping refurbishing a house, and I was faced with a similar problem in the Kitchen. The combi boiler was a really awkward place. So it was moved to the garage (attached to the kitchen).
The plumber charged £350. But it depends on lots of factors, I would say around the £300-500 mark seems about right.

Edit/ completely misread your post. Thats really straight forward. The cost of the new copper pipe + labour.. should be around £100-150

MikeHunt79 · 10 Nov 2009 at 22:22

lambda said:
If tradesman want security they should have paid attention at school and got some qualifications.

I hate to be pedantic, but you need qualifications to be a plumber!

dekez · 10 Nov 2009 at 22:27

lambda said:
why are so many people justifying the plumber overcharging the OP?

Getting shafted by tradesman is should not be tolerated. I don't care if they have to travel, who doesn't?

If tradesman want security they should have paid attention at school and got some qualifications.

Because he is not getting ripped off.

£250 for 4 hours work is a good price, but in those same 4 hours how many 15min jobs including travelling could the plumber do? Best case situation and he has those jobs lined up, at most I would say 1 per hour including travelling, assessing the situation, doing the work, sorting out the bill etc, 4x £75 = £300. It's economy of volumes, the more reliable, sustained work in one place, the price goes down.

Caseh · 10 Nov 2009 at 22:31

lambda said:
If tradesman want security they should have paid attention at school and got some qualifications.

But if they had "paid attention and got some qualifications" who would do the work? You seem to massively under estimate the need for all Tradesman.

What a silly comment.

kmufc77 · 10 Nov 2009 at 22:38

im a tradesman and £75 for 15 mins work for a plumber is about right im afraid.

Kol · 10 Nov 2009 at 22:38

lambda said:
If tradesman want security they should have paid attention at school and got some qualifications.

Bit of a generalisation. Nowadays you can quite easily find those with qualifications and those who have held well respected jobs have retrained as plumbers etc.

kmufc77 · 10 Nov 2009 at 22:43

lambda said:
why are so many people justifying the plumber overcharging the OP?

Getting shafted by tradesman is should not be tolerated. I don't care if they have to travel, who doesn't?

If tradesman want security they should have paid attention at school and got some qualifications.

i trained for 5 years solid to be a fully qualified tradesman so what you have said is complete crap.

Destination · 10 Nov 2009 at 23:01

Showboat said:
I can get a taxi from one end of the city to the other for £10, so i don't mind paying a bit for him to actually come out, £50 is extreme. And he is charging in 15min what most people earn in a day.

******* taxis in Belfast now have started taking the **** this last year also. Going from Forestside to the City Airport will cost you £10-15 now, even thought its just round the outer ring. Nothing cheap about here anymore, and getting a cheap plumber is impossible, worst is 50% of them are crap.

Plumbers need a recommendation if doing anything extensive. Last thing I got done was a replacement hot tank and an electric shower install, and the price was higher than I expected. It was done well, ver quick, very clean, and no problems afterwards.

Admiral Huddy · 11 Nov 2009 at 08:48

arknor said:
sometimes its cheaper to break a window if your insured for it say some kids must have broke the window ^^

Couldn't take that chance with sealed double glazing. If they refused to pay up then it would have cost me a lot more and i would have had a gapping hole.

Janesy B · 11 Nov 2009 at 08:50

kmufc77 said:
im a tradesman and £75 for 15 mins work for a plumber is about right im afraid.

Exactly.

OP in not really understanding how things work and what things cost shocker.

Adz · 11 Nov 2009 at 08:54

"andy" said:
most people have guarenteed work though. he doesnt

and by going to your house for a 'simple job' it make him unavailable for other work too

im sure his call out charge would have been mentioned before he actually came if your wife had asked him about it.

if people dont like it then they can use a different plumber or learn to do it themselves. if it was just a 15min job then why didnt you or you wife do it ?

Best reply so far I think

You've got to remember that the plumber is running a business. The callout fee + hourly rate has to cover marketing, accountancy fees, equipment, vehicles, insurances, perhaps ongoing training. When he comes out, he doesn't know how long the job is going to take so he has to allow a certain "window" to avoid overlapping with another job which is now dead time that he can't use if he finishes your job early.

Question... when they're able to charge such "extortionate" fees, would any of you like to become a plumber? Thought not, me neither

.

Skii · 11 Nov 2009 at 09:00

When i read the thread title I was expecting a lot more than £75..

Wossi · 11 Nov 2009 at 09:02

Friend of ours called a plumber out as her tap was leaking, £22 later and said it can't be fixed and walked away. Business must be good then. My dad went round last night, stripped the tap down and pointed out the bits that needed replacing, should only cost a couple of quid.

It's nice having a dad that used to be a plumber and who dabbled in electrics when he was younger, means no silly charges to get things fixed.