Am I being fleeced London Plumber rates

[MrsMarigold]

Ok if you can get someone to come it's a bloody miracle, then AIBU to think £80 call out rate is excessive. Then £60 on top of that for a few valves and a washer and labour. I feel this is taking the piss. He was here less than an hour. I've told him to invoice but DH will flip.

I had a really bad experience with someone from rated people with a guy who was very belligerent and tried to assault me. So I used a local recommendation this time but now I feel I've been overcharged, I do feel if you are female and sound posh they charge you more, what do you think?

Paging PigletJohn.

Sounds cheaper than Pimlico Plumbers (the service you only ever use once...)

Honestly I don't know if you're being fleeced but if it fixes things does it really, really matter?

Didn't you discuss call out costs before calling out?

sounds cheap to me!

Sweary, what issues have you had with Pimlico Plumbers? I always use them and have found them great. They are always very polite, efficient and are very quick to come out. I also find Charlie Mullins pretty amusing, but maybe that's just me..

Sounds cheap to me. I've called plumbers to come to us in central London and paid much more than that.

I had the plumber out last week. £60 for the first hour, £30 for each hour after that
plus parts

Lucky you MrsTom - I used them once, the guy was unspeakably rude and spent over 30 minutes filling my sink and then emptying it (he came to fit a tap) having turned up without the bits needed to do the job that were all specified when I booked - and then charged me the hourly rate to go back to the depot and pick them up. Then he told me our electric boiler needed replacing so I said I'd speak to DH about it. We had the boiler checked by someone else because I thought he was trying it on and we were told it was fine - and 8 years later it's still going strong with no problems. I particularly enjoyed the chap telling me he was "doing you (me) a favour" when he turned up 4 hours early for a booked job that I was paying £££ for and I suggested it would have been easier for him to come at the time booked!

Recently I bumped into a neighbour who was spitting with fury because something very similar had just happened to him.

I appreciate it's anecdotal but I was so unimpressed by the chap who came to us I vowed never to use them. And that opinion was then supported by my neighbour's experience.

Pimlico Plumbers are a rip off, but at least they don't assault you, but they do charge for a quote not even lawyers do that! I phoned the local plumbers merchant who told me this plumber is taking the piss and I should pull him up over it. In my desperation, water flooding through the ceiling I forgot to ask for initial price. Duh!

I'm sorry to hear that, Sweary. We've always had good service but this is more recently, maybe things have changed since your bad experience.

I have worried about using smaller firms, as one were very threatening with our housekeeper a while ago. We've used PP since as we felt we could trust them.

I think there are some excellent smaller firms, although they are often super busy all the time, however there are a lot of cowboys and sadly in an emergency one often gets lumped with the idiots.

I have a great local plumber, does a quick clean job and doesn't charge a fortune. But because of that he's very busy and can't always come soon enough. I've had to stop recommending him!

ZOMBIE THREAD

I think a call out fee plus an hour's labour is taking the piss. It's worth a call to the good but busy ones. DH will always try and talk a customer through things they can do themselves first, to at least get it out of emergency water pouring everywhere scenario. And really they should be upfront about costs without you having asked.

argh fell for a zombie for the first time

They've just bumped another old thread to post the same link.

I'm in London and used to use a great female plumber who charged £70 per hour.

They're doing it on the property and DIY board too.

google says Tarquin Purdie is MD of the company on the links. Naughty!

A word of warning about both PP and the likes of Checkatrade and TrustaTrader: PP's plumbers are rewarded on the basis of how much they bill - just check Glassdoor if you doubt that. Sites like Checkatrade are only used by tradesmen who cannot get business on the basis of their reputation - and they (you) are paying 20% extra for the privilege. Get a personal recommendation - read their Google reviews and insist on a quote in writing before parting with a penny (and then get a second opinion).

I want to add to this zombie thread as am so livid with Pimlico plumbers. Came out to fix one minor thing that should have probably taken an hour. Somehow spent 3,5 hours doing it including finding the piece in the local shop which is maybe 10 min away but took him an hour to get back. Then basically started looking at other water tanks and system in the house which was not needed and tried to convince me I need to get a big job done for £2k! I didn’t realise they have this theme of dragging out the hours. Read their reviews on google. Terrible!