Bill from a plumber

“A few jobs that needed doing”

A tap dripping, a drain leaking, “fix that while you’re here please” every plumber hates those words.
A self employed plumber is going to charge at least £25 per hour, more for higher skills, extra work also disrupts his schedule making him late for next job.

So he has 2 dissatisfied customers one because he is late, one because the bill is higher than expected.

Advice? Never choose a plumber from Facebook - or reviews (probably posted by his friends and relatives). Ask people you know well for recommendations.

Do question and complain about the bill, though. Did you ask about fees before the service? If so, any 'extra' costs in time or materials should be explained.

I use a heating engineer, registered with Worcester Bosch, who lives in this road. A boiler service (just done) is £85. He always drives here - so I tell him off - as I can see his house from mine!

Joanna12 you havent told ushow much it came to or what jobs he did so it is hard to say whether the bill might be excessive. Do remember that costs have increased, petrol, parts, cost of living.
Unless it is outrageous, I would probably just pay up, but that’s your call.
Hetty58, your plumber has his tools in his van, which may be quite heavy. He will be going on somewhere else afterwards, or calling on his way home perhaps, so dont judge him too harshly for driving.

Hi,the few extra jobs were my boiler and tank failing the service,so he did what he could and booked me in to finish following day so happy with that just the bill is so high,maybe that's price increases,maybe just best pay and move in.

The plumber is local and really well used by lots I know so maybe it's my fault.thank you

joanna12:

'the bill is so high'

How much is the bill? How many hours did he work? What parts did he buy?

Like many other self employed people, there must be so many hidden costs that we don’t think about. Insurance for himself, his van, tools, courses he has to attend to keep qualifications up to date, book keeper, accountant, bank charges…

His hourly rate won’t all be cash in his pocket.

we are paying for skills and petrol increases for travelling. I would not begrudge the cost at all. I pay £85 for a service by the recommended engineer for my boiler. My car service costs much more yet my boiler is more important

So work on two days.
Parts needed that he had to take time to go and get.

Well it’s going to be more than a simple boiler service isn’t it?

Your a bit sparing with the details on here. Did you tell the people you consulted that it was just a boiler service but involved rather more?

Hi,total bill just over 850 pounds,I ask for a breakdown service was 70 Then he replaced the sump from the boiler 200 and remedial work which was filing valve,balancing valve and seal flue add that and vat 850.one hour day one and less than an hour day two.

I explained everything to my dad's plumber,so he tells me it's over priced and now I have to decide what to do,need to pay by the weekend or I incure a fee,which is understandable.But thinking the priced up will me questioning it make any difference.

Oh, that sounds a lot to me, not surprised you are questioning the bill.

Why not give them a call to recheck the bill, it might be a genuine error.

Our oil boiler service was £95 last year even with a new pump and valve and other bits and bobs it would be far less than your price.

The only thing I would say is that if it failed it’s service was it because you really needed a new boiler? If so then he has probably spent the money to get it going again.

Our engineer always tells me the cost of the parts and his Labour before going ahead with the repairs, so that I can see if it’s worth it, we have an elderly boiler so one day it won’t be cost effective to keep it going.

You might have to pay this time, but at least you should have a guarantee with his work for a couple of years ( I hope)

How much woukd your dads plumber have charged?

Hi,I don't know how much my dad's plumber would have charged he didn't offer a price I did hunt,he said the plumber I had he had heard similar stories about,but it could just be here say.

So that is £680 plus the vat on top
service £70
Sump £200
That leaves £410 for all the other bits. Very overpriced for relatively small jobs
eg sealing flu takes minutes

Do you have this plumber every year to service your boiler?

Joanna
IMO it is excessive. By the way, did you see the old/ broken sump?
Chances are you won’t get anywhere with the complaint, but, you can voice you opinions of this plumber on FB. Or, if your on Next Door and he is in your area put a comment there.

Never used them before the biggest family firm in my area.he didn't leave any parts replaced,my boiler is one years old.i wouldn't leave any bad comments,but thinking about it if I had read something negative I may have thought Twice about them.

Boiler is one year old? The Sump needed replacing already? The replaced items were not kept with you, they usually are. My goodness, isn’t it under guarantee?

I woukd def query it. Is there a council trading standards dept you can contact fir advice.

Typo left you oh, not kept with you.

My boiler came with a 2 year warranty. Do you have the original paperwork? Worth digging it out.

Our boiler, bought 2 years ago, has a 10 years parts and labour warranty, providing it is serviced annually.

If yours is only a year old, would expect it to have some sort of guarantee?

Our 8 year old Baxi combi boiler was given it’s annual service yesterday by an independent heating engineer who charged £60 (been the same price for the past 3 years). I live in Durham so maybe location will affect the charge. He told us that he expected that we wouldn’t really need a replacement for another 5 years as parts are readily available and not too costly so we can at least make provision for that happening. Is the plumber you hired a one man band or does he work for a company, as this may impact the costs. How old is your boiler and is it a known brand as this might have caused the cost of the job to go up. I take it that you didn’t ask how much the extra work was going to cost and just agreed to it being done. A very expensive lesson unfortunately. I think you should get back in touch and simply explain that you think it’s on the high side and ask them to confirm you’re bill is correct. I might even suggest you ask to pay half now and half next month if they say it’s correct and wait for what is said. My experience is to go with local trades and recommendations. If they have a FB page you can always provide a review confirming that you’re happy with the workmanship but disappointed with the cost and will have to look elsewhere next year if you don’t manage to renegotiate the bill.

you boiler will be under guarantee joanna. Did you stay and watch as he was working on it? He should have shown you the sump. I am thinking that he twiddled a few things and ripped you off bigtime and did not replace the sump

my boiler has an 8 year guarantee. I would think the minimum is for 2 years

Is he part of the family firm? or does he work for them. Tbh, this needs following up. I feel that he has cheated you

Sorry miss type boiler is nine years old

Still relatively young but not as young as one year, My Boiler is 33 years old my mums was 55 and my advice still Holds, it’s a lot of money.