$695 for 2 hours of labor???

[snook634]

Please help me out. I hired a highly rated plumber to install 3 identical facets and fix two toilets that were running slowly in a 10 year old home. The plumber offered a groupon type deal where the service charge and one hour of labor was purchased for $39.

After less than two hours of labor, I am charged $715 ($20 for parts). The itemized bill was $139 for each facet and $149 for each toilet. He deducted $105 for the value of the "deal". The owner told me he has flat rate pricing. He also told me I should have asked for a quote. He said no one prices work by the hour.

Does anyone besides me think this is wrong? The BBB was not helpful at all. Thanks.

 

[johnjh2o]

Flat rate pricing is becoming the way most service plumbers are pricing in my area. It is a good way to keep your pricing consistent. But it is setup for one service at a time. Allowing for travel time to your home. When more then one repair is done at the same location you can't use flat rates for each service. What we do is charge a flat rate for one service and the rest of the work is done by the hour. But we quote a price before we start the work. It avoids the problem your having. If the customer feels the price is to high we just move on to the next job with no charge to the customer. It looks like he charges flat rates for each repair.

John

 

[havasu]

This is exactly why this forum benefits home owners. We could have walked you through the entire process and you could have pocketed the money.

 

[LiQuId]

that is a horriblle rip off...

John has a good system, As for myself we charge hourly plus parts and make pricing known to the customer before we start work and give them an estimated time ( obviously sometimes in service things occasionally end up taking longer. ) this hourly charge starts whenever I am doing something job related And it sometimes includes a commute.

I gather from your description that you supplyed fixtures.

If I had to drive an hour to do this job It would have cost you under $300 likely and For sure under $500<- worst case scenario

sorry to hear the bad news, but ALWAYS get pricing before work starts. I would also consider this a bad practice of the Plumber to not Better inform their customer.

 

[snook634]

Thank you for the feedback, and the plumber did give me the same advice, get a quote next time. The sad part is based upon the offer I purchased for a service charge and hour of labor, I thought I could buy a second hour of labor. Otherwise I would have changed the flappers myself, but when I asked the plumber if he had the parts and had the time, he said sure. Took him twenty minutes and cost me $298 for a job I had done in the past. I did supply the fixtures for the facets. I have a disabled child that cannot use a two handle facet so I had to replace them with a single handle.

I had spoken to the owner twice, but he fully believes he has done nothing wrong, that 5 flat rate charges for one visit is to be expected. I hope he has a change of heart on this one.

 

[johnjh2o]

I can almost bet that this guy spends a lot on advertising. Because if he treats all his customers like he treated you his business is based on new customers, because he doesn't get any repeat business.

John

 

[snook634]

Perhaps, I do not know. I do know he is Angie's List highest award winner for Plumbing, and has been given more positive reports than any other plumber in Indianapolis. That is why I was shocked to be burned as I was.

 

[johnjh2o]

That has to tell you something about Angie's List. Your far better off getting recommendations from people you know. Even then get estimates before the work is done. The sad fact is in today's world there are many company's that aren't satisfied with a honest profit, for them it's what ever the traffic will bare.

John