Plumber asking me to pay what I want for a job he did. What do I do??

[Milomonster]

A lovely plumber did a job for me this week. He’s done work for me previously. I asked him to tell me how much I owed him. He said pay whatever you are happy with. I said I don’t know and want to pay him fairly. He left and said I had his bank details. Sent him a message asking again and he said the same thing. I’m getting quite frustrated and don’t know what to do. I don’t want to pay too little or too much. Any advice?

How long did it take to do?

Is it a fairly common job?
Less sneaky: go on a trade website and get a few quotes from other plumbers for the same job.
More sneaky: get a friend to ring up and enquire how much a similar job would cost.

I'd bung him £20 and give him a bottle of something next time he did a job for me
That's quite an odd response though but perhaps it was so straightforward he feels guilty asking for money

What was the job and how long did it take him

If it helps I've just paid a plumber £110 to unblock a pipe that was backing in to the shower.

He was here for ten minutes.

@ArtfulScreamer

What was the job and how long did it take him

This???

My plumber charges €70 for call out which includes first hour then €35 for every hour he's there after that. Plus materials. Maybe you can use that as a guide? It's a bit of a weird thing for him to do to just not tell you the price.

I’d just send £100. You’d be lucky to get a plumber for less really.

Was it a quick job? Or are you hard up? For the first he probably doesn't need much as he knows there will be repeat business from you and was in the area....so don't pay too much. If you are hard up he is just doing you a good turn so pay what you can afford.

Oh I can’t stand this! It’s from a point of view of being nice from the plumber but it puts you in a tricky situation. I have been in a similar situation with some joinery work recently. I’d rather just know the cost.

£100 up to 1 hour seems to be the rate here. Midlands

I’ve read about this before, mostly in relation to restaurants. People err on the side of caution and pay a bit more and never feel ripped off as the business hasn’t actually asked for any money, let alone too much.

Just ask. Say ' please could you give me a ballpark figure. A clue. Because I don't know and I would hate to insult you by only offering you £x when it's worth £xx.'

I'd just message and say "I'd like to give you X for your time, but also would like to at least cover any parts on top so please at least let me know how much you spent on equipment for my repair"

As for what X should be - depends. Just the normal rate for what he has charged in the past? An hour/2 hours work £20-30. A full day £60 or whatever seems appropriate

Get a quote from someone else and pay him that? It's a peculiar thing to do, though. Serve him right if you bunged him a tenner!
Maybe do that, actually, it'll stop him doing this again...

London. 45 minutes to stop sink leaking from the waste trap. He unblocked it too (had loads of hair in there - urrgghh). Thanks all for the responses.

£100 at least for London.
Unless he is trying to flirt by being so evasive, could it be that?

We had one out to change the bath taps, we bought taps etc, was around 45 mins and 100 pounds or so.

Blimey, I'd love a plumber like that.

What was the job and how long? I'd pay him nicely and fairly, it pays to know a fair and good plumber.

This isnt a bad site to go by:

householdquotes.co.uk/plumbers-price-list/

@TheQueef

£100 at least for London. Unless he is trying to flirt by being so evasive, could it be that?

(Love your name) No deffo not trying to flirt. I messaged and insisted he give me a price. He said 60 and I said fine. He’s known for being honest and reasonably priced.

If anyone in C London wants his details, let me know. I have a really fab decorator too.

£60 feels very cheap.

Sounds a bargain OP.

Well, he was happy with it.