Grrrr: Plumber deceptive billing practice
 

My water heat stopped making hot water the other day and my sweetie called the people who installed it to come and check it out. They told her it was $35 for a visit.

The plumber comes out and replaces the thermocouple.

The bill was $35 for the visit and $195 for the thermocouple (an $11 part at the local hardware store) for a total of $230.

I don't have a problem with someone coming out on a Saturday and charging $230 for the visit. I just don't like them saying they charge $35 for a visit and then marking up a part price over 1000 % to cover the real cost of the visit.

In other words, it they said they charged $195 for the visit and $35 for the thermocouple I'd be all right with that.

Is this a commong practice with plumbers?

-Chris
P.S. I'm switching plumbers to a friend of mine.

Yes, it's common. Happened to me with RotoRooter years ago when my sink was clogged up beyond my abilities to repair it. The guy came out and said it was something like $50 for the visit. When he was all done, it was another $200 or so for the fix, which took about 15 min. and $3 worth of parts.

My current heater had a runoff drainage problem. I have a maint. contract with these guys, so I get a discount. $89 for the visit and they charged $100 for the fix, which I could have easily done myself once they had diagnosed the problem. It had really stumped me and even one of them. But the real smart other guy figured it out. Time before that the guy came out and charged me just for the visit and told me how to fix it myself for under $5, while he would have had to charge me over $100.

that happened to me a year or so ago, it was like $200 for a 99 cent part ( but I got a quote up front).
So is that what everyone means when they say P tax ??

How do you think they pay union wages? You can't pay your guys $60k a year+ with fair pricing.

Called a plumber on a Saturday for a main drain clog.
Person on the phone said it will be $150 to clear a standard clog.
Guy comes over 2 hours later to give an estimate. "OK, I'll need two guys (why I don't know) and they'll be here on Monday morning...it'll be $250". I reluctantly agree.
Monday morning they show and spend 15 minutes with the snake. They give me the bill and it's $650.00!

Sorry about charges, but now I appreciate all the plumbing crap I had to deal with.



here is something I read from Reader's Digest:

Attorney woke up at 10:00 p.m. with a leaky sink. He called a plumber. Plumber said he will come in the morning. Plumber showed up 2 hours late, fixed the problem in 30 minutes, and handed the customer a bill for $850.00.

Attorney: "What the F?ck!!! You were 2 hours late and you fixed problem in 30 minutes. And now you want $850.00? That is equal to $1,700.00 and hour...I am an attorney and I don't even make that much an hour!!!!

Plumber: "I know you don't. I used to be an attorney!" :)

When an attorney comes to my house on Saturday or Sunday and solves my problem, I might consider paying what I pay a plumber.

The next morning, the atty wakes up, goes to work, does a task in 30 minutes, bills the client 3 hours at $400 hours, and sends out an invoice for $1200.

When I get called out on a weekend my company charges $125 just to come to the door. I do commercial HVAC work only.That covers travel and diagnostic. I sometimes can travel 50 to 100 miles to a call. Labour is $125 per hour plus parts. We charge around $15 for a thermocouple. The above scenario with my company would have been around $200.

yeah but you'd have told them in advance,, the ******* him on the part is what Chris is objecting to.

Plumbers always say, "***** runs downhill"

It's a crappy job.

$200 to get plumbing repaired on a Sat? OMG!
You should discuss the bill with them, see how they react?

You guys crack me up. Hey, there is away to avoid most of what you are complaining about...whip out your little tool box and do it yourself!

Many if not most of the guys who log on to the various Pelican forums do a majority (or at least the minor stuff) of the work on their Porsches. And I didn't see anything listed that required a great deal of rocket-science-style expertise.

Maybe it's easier for me since my background was machine repair and maintenance in manufacturing plants but it's a tad humorous to read the whining in the posts here.

I agree, but my issue was diagnostic and it's not like I hang our on the plumbers' equivalent of Pelican Tech. Discussions. My issue had the boss on the phone totally stumped and one of his guys was stumped too. The second guy that looked at it figured it out though.

+1

It's a pipe. With water in it.

I just finished trying to get a plumber to honor his warranty ( leak after re-routing of existing under-slab piping up in the attic) and also replace the carpet padding his screw-up ruined. I ended up replacing the padding myself (for a cost of about $75) and put the carpet back down after it was dry, but his $230 carpet dryer blower is tucked away in my garage. A plumber should never try to rip you off after he forgot to take all his equipment with him. I'd be willing sell it back to him, or we could talk to the judge about it. Either way's OK with me.

Well Rick, what happened maybe is that the repair guys who actually often accomplish something learned a few of the tricks that lawyers, CPA's, financial advisors, etc etc have been doing for years...they told you how complex and difficult it was so that the bill was more palatable.

Heck, I would always do that when some jerk-off big wheel at a plant who didn't know ***** would insist that I give him a time/cost figure on a repair that my guys were going to do. I would triple everything. (it's called wiggle room) Make everything sound like it took a combination of genius and mechanical wizardary to get it done and then the bozo was happy as hell when it only took 1/2 as long at 1/2 the cost!:)

+2

No one ends up being a plumber because their gig as a brain surgeon didn't work out.

Sweating joints on cooper can be a bit of a black art, but you get the hang of it pretty quick. PVC and ABS plastic pipe? Well ya had tinker toys when you were a kid didn't ya?

A $20 book from Home Depot can work wonders.

I just plumbed in a sink in the laundry room I am building.

PEX tubing and pushlock connections are going to kill the plumbing industry. I did a new shower and a water softener no problemo.

There really is no need to sweat anything anymore.

Yeah, the old copper piping could be a little tricky and with the old steel and cast drain piping it's best to just rip it out and use the plastic stuff. It's so easy that most illegal immigrants can probably do it...well...actually they often do.:)

I had to call a plumber to take care of a running toilet in a rental property (I'm on the other side of the country). They show up (twice) and tell the tenant they'll have to order the part...a flush valve. This isn't a luxury home with one-off Italian toilets. Toilet is a basic Home Depot $99 special. ORDER the part?!? I called them and said don't bother. I can only imagine what the bill would have been after three trips to diagnose/fix a running WC.