Plumber Rant

[ultramods]

I looked at the local community Facebook page for recommended plumbers and contacted the 3 most recommended ones to quote for doing all the plumbing for the house. All 3 said that they would quote, but didn't. I then chased all 3 of them and again they ensured me that they are preparing the quote, one of them kept insisting that he is waiting for suppliers to get back to him. Almost 11 weeks later I haven't received a single quote.

 

I just don't get it, if they don't want the work just say so. I would have thought that a large house with 4 wetrooms, UFH etc would have been a good bit of work to pick u, especially when i see some of the small jobs that they are doing for people on the local Facebook page.

 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

Rant Over.

Edited June 10, 2018 by ultramods

[newhome]

Didn’t you get a couple of quotes back for the plumbing a while back or did I dream that? 

 

Don’t talk to me about plumbers. On the whole the most useless trade I had here. I had 7 of them during the build and bar 1 they were all hopeless, expensive, and unreliable, and my heating ended up like a disaster zone. 

 

Back to your plumbers maybe they think they can make more money sweeping up lots of small jobs rather than 1 big one? Or your job is more complex than they want to take on? Or they don’t want to be tied up for as long as your job will take? 

 

I struggle to find anyone here who knows how UFH works. And with 4 wetrooms you are so going to want someone who knows what they are doing. There is just more work around at present than they know what to do with it seems. And after the quote comes pinning them down to a date. Another joy to come I’m sure! 

 

 

Edited June 11, 2018 by newhome

[ultramods]

When the architect put it out to tender he only got 2 quotes back. I would prefer one more quote which is why i asked the 3 local plumbers myself.

 

I was thinking the same thing, if they are constantly busy with small easy jobs then why take on something more complicated that involves more design, planning and organising.

 

Once the build has started I will be leaving 1 star reviews on their Facebook pages etc with a description of why.

[ToughButterCup]

Your experience is yet another  snapshot in the Too Much Work So Stuff You album.

On a good day, the kindest thing I manage to say about them is that many trades folk are just that, trades people. Some are even good at their job.

 

Communicators they are not. Emotionally intelligent they are not. 

[Nickfromwales]

I just say no these days, and I very rarely recommend anyone other than my one or two closest trade buddies. I check with them first to see if they are too busy before ever giving the customer their number. 

Admittedly when younger I would say I'll come and have a look, but that was largely driven by people just nagging me to death after answering the phone.

When I'm busy I just leave calls go to voicemail. Anyone who doesn't leave a message, or text, is usually just a tire kicker.  

My favourite is when people tell me they "can't afford that" to which I reply ( now that I'm wiser and de-sensitised ) "don't have a new xxx then if you can't afford it, bye!". 

Sooooooo many piss-takers out there it's not true. I passed a job onto my mate the other day, and told the customer it would likely be around £60 to do a 5 min job, because it was a call-out so the travel time there and back had to be factored in. The guy asked me to wait a moment, put the phone down, and went to check with his wife if the price was ok. . If I told him £120 he'd have probably just said yes. I don't get it. 

[ultramods]

The one plumber of the 3 that i don't quote understand came over to my house and spent 45 minutes going over the plans with me and seemed keen. He told me he would start working on a quote that week and kind of implied that he would have a quote back to me towards the end of the week. When no quote arrived I chased him the following week and he said he was waiting on a couple of suppliers getting back to him.He then asked me on the same phone call if I want plastic or copper pipes. 

 

A few more weeks passed, I called him again on Thursday and he said he would have quote back to me on the weekend - no quote has arrived. Again on the same call he asked me another question about the spec - why ask if you have no intention on quoting?????

[oranjeboom]

Sounds all too familiar. If a trades(wo)man is taking the effort to communicate with you about the job, about arranging a time, taking the time to drive over, looking at the job on site, taking notes, then sometimes following up with more questions, why on earth don't they at least submit a quote where they surely know is massively over-priced? You've wasted everyone's time so at least try it on. I hate it when I have spent over and hour to wait on site for them to arrive, go over the job and then never to hear from them again - at least send me a quote that I can laugh over! With one of the ones that never got back to me, I publicly advised on someone on facebook not to bother with them after they'd been asking for opinions about this particular builder. I soon got a call from the builder who gave me some poor excuse as to why he never got back to me.

[Jeremy Harris]

I'm having the same problem with getting a quote to resurface the drive at our old house.  I've managed to get two people out to look at it, helped them out by giving them a CAD drawing showing the area, gradients etc, yet neither has come back with a quote, despite promising to.  I've lost count of the number of people I've phoned or emailed and left messages, who've not got back to us.  All told it's bloody frustrating, and I could do without the extra hassle right now.

[MikeSharp01]

These people must be doing some work so they must be submitting quotes somewhere or are they all ticking along with emergency work or other work that does not require the quote overhead I wonder. 

[newhome]

1 hour ago, ultramods said:

The one plumber of the 3 that i don't quote understand came over to my house and spent 45 minutes going over the plans with me and seemed keen.

 

The plumber I had out more than 2 weeks ago was here for about half an hour having driven about 30 miles, said he would come back to me with a quote and I’m still waiting. I’ve no idea why they come if they don’t want the job. He knew what the job was before he came as @Nickfromwales spoke to him about it.  

 

[newhome]

17 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

These people must be doing some work so they must be submitting quotes somewhere or are they all ticking along with emergency work or other work that does not require the quote overhead I wonder. 

 

It’s much easier to quote for a new boiler or a new standard heating system that plumbers do all the time I imagine, than a new build with UFH and several bathrooms from scratch, first fix being done in a different timeline to the second fix, some materials being provided by the customer and others to be provided by the plumber. Add all that complexity in and in a way you can see why they might be attracted to the more straightforward jobs. There is additional risk when quoting a fixed price for large and complex work and some trades may not feel comfortable with that so the smaller jobs may well be the ones they seek. There is also the ability to keep cash flow ticking along much more easily with smaller jobs. 

Edited June 11, 2018 by newhome

[ToughButterCup]

1 hour ago, newhome said:

It’s much easier to quote for a new boiler or a new standard heating system that plumbers do all the time[...]

 

Got it in one.

See a job which needs a bit more thought when there are 5 easy jobs, which would you (we) do?

 

Come the Revolution Citizens we will overcome : Long Live the Republic. Death to the Aristos. Death to the Middle Classes.

(Citizen Academic)

[newhome]

29 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

 

Got it in one.

See a job which needs a bit more thought when there are 5 easy jobs, which would you (we) do?

 

 

Salaried? Would probably go for the more complex to prevent brain death and boredom (although as I get older and more jaded the easier option becomes more attractive by the day). 

 

Self employed? Easy jobs for sure. 

 

 

[MikeSharp01]

4 hours ago, recoveringacademic said:

Death to the Middle Classes.

(Citizen Academic)

The irony oh the irony. 

[AliG]

I have had some of this issue also.

 

Luckily plumbers, electricians etc have been sourced by the builder or architect and have mostly done a good job (apart from plasterwork previously mentioned).

 

However for some jobs I have really struggled. I don't know how many people I have spoken to or emailed about fitted wardrobes for our bedroom. My wife got fed up and got a quote from Sharp's (which was around £1200 per wardrobe/set of drawers and so too expensive).

 

What I don't understand is why people don't just say they are too busy or not interested. Honesty would go down a lot better with customers than wasting everyone's time, promising quotes that never arrive or getting all the information then producing an absurdly high quote on the off chance that you are desperate (quoted over £6000 for three electric roller blinds).

[daiking]

13 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

The irony oh the irony. 

 

Already dead. Just that most of you are too old to realise and young people think working in an office and wearing a shirt/tie makes you middle class.