Which one?

[bengasman]

whenever i hear a story about this fantastic plumber who did a wonderful job, was there at the snap of your fingers and worked for a tenner an hour, i always wonder: why did you stop using him?
maybe it was in the days that a tenner bought you to tanks full of petrol

 

[welshbikersdotorg]

whenever i hear a story about this fantastic plumber who did a wonderful job, was there at the snap of your fingers and worked for a tenner an hour, i always wonder: why did you stop using him?
maybe it was in the days that a tenner bought you to tanks full of petrol

I already said the only reason i stopped using him was because i got out of the property developing game. And had no call for a plumber on a regular basis. Then my mobile was stolen and i lost his number, and as he doesn't advertise anywhere i got no way of finding him. If i really wanted i could go to a couple of suppliers and ask them i suppose.

No he wasn't an immigrant.

An update, i just had a plumber out and he treated me as if i was a complete idiot. This guy was corgi so i would assume there is a minimum standard to hold this qualification, but he told me the biggest domestic boiler was a 30 which is exactly what i needed and exactly what he happened to have . Anything bigger would be a commercial boiler and no good for me.

He then managed to stretch out taking the cover off my boiler and telling me my heat exchanger was cracked for an hour. Then offer me this great price of a 30 boiler for only £1400 plus VAT LOL

I feel sorry for all the decent plumbers out there, because i have never come across another trade with so many cowboys and sharks. No wonder plumbers are the butt of so many jokes, it is a pity as it is one of the more respected technical trades.

 

[Nixt]

I feel sorry for all the decent plumbers out there, because i have never come across another trade with so many cowboys and sharks. No wonder plumbers are the butt of so many jokes, it is a pity as it is one of the more respected technical trades.

You're entitled to your opinion which is no doubt valid in some cases. However in most trades the service is a reflection of the punter and we generally get the service we deserve eg. my pet hate locally is poor service in pubs & bars. Unfortunately in Essex my fellow punters actually think the oversized, shaven headed, chain (you could garrote a gorilla with) wearing bouncer is a diamond for allowing them into the pub to pay over the odds for a pint of p*** and sparing them from a kick in.

If we had a heating industry such as is in Germany and Scandinavia most punters would sh** themselves at the cost and could forget DIY advice.

 

[dolph]

Bad luck you have no recall due to mobile theft. As a professional property developer you will have received invoices from your plumber with all his details thereon. Accepted you no doubt handed these over to your accountant but as they will keep these for 6 years ask them nicley and they will oblige.

 

[wishiwascorgi]

But likewise it is also frustrating for the consumers when looking for a plumber when there are so many cowboys and idiots in the trade.

Yes good job you lost his number!

Do you know the size of everything that you need?
Will it be suffice to say that you would expect someone to come round and take a look first or would you be confident you would get everything correct.

If you purchased it then someone installed it for you, whose fault would it be when both showers did not work simultaneously and radiators would never heat up fully.

Would you pay him?

Would you pay him to turn up when he sees you have the wrong boiler and asks you to change it?

Somehow I think not.

But as you did ask for advice you would need to know the amount of litre's per minute that each appliance would use if all appliances are being used at the same time. So check the flow rates on the boiler. Or you could put a system boiler, expansion vessel and an unvented cylinder. Although I do not know what building regs are for placing these two in the loft. I have installed them in pub lofts before and never really had anything to do with the building regs. But they are around 4 times the size of house lofts.

 

[welshbikersdotorg]

I feel sorry for all the decent plumbers out there, because i have never come across another trade with so many cowboys and sharks. No wonder plumbers are the butt of so many jokes, it is a pity as it is one of the more respected technical trades.

You're entitled to your opinion which is no doubt valid in some cases. However in most trades the service is a reflection of the punter and we generally get the service we deserve.

So i guess i deserved to have a complete stranger take me for a fool and try to rip me off. I am not sure i follow your logic on this i am sorry. The bottom line is this plumber came into my house which is fairly large and have a big car on the drive, he assumed (wrongly) i would not miss the odd few hundred quid. My point is that his first thoughts were how he could rip me off with inflated prices. Not how he could offer a fair value for money service. £2800 + VAT just to replace my boiler with a combi, and a small one that i know for a fact would not be suitable for the job, is just wrong i am sorry. If you think it is ok to rip people off if you think you can get away with it then i guess we just have different outlooks on life and shall agree to disagree.

 

[wishiwascorgi]

£2800+vat I agree that is over the top for something that will not suffice and it would cost around the same as that with the system boiler i talked about earlier

 

[gas4you]

I don't care whether the customer lives in an ex local authority house, or a mansion and 6 cars out the front. They all get quoted the same rates and equpiment

Without seeing your property I cannot say whether £2800 is good or bad.

My customers do tend to pay a bit more for me, but then they know they have a genuine back up service and are getting the best products.

 

[Nixt]

So i guess i deserved to have a complete stranger take me for a fool and try to rip me off. I am not sure i follow your logic on this i am sorry. The bottom line is this plumber came into my house which is fairly large and have a big car on the drive, he assumed (wrongly) i would not miss the odd few hundred quid. My point is that his first thoughts were how he could rip me off with inflated prices. Not how he could offer a fair value for money service. £2800 + VAT just to replace my boiler with a combi, and a small one that i know for a fact would not be suitable for the job, is just wrong i am sorry. If you think it is ok to rip people off if you think you can get away with it then i guess we just have different outlooks on life and shall agree to disagree.

No, you made the generalisation on the state of the trade and have mis-interpreted my general reply as a specific justification for your bad service.

However going back to the thread, it could be said that it's main purpose is to save money, cut out middle men and demand top service for as little as possible. So far you are dissatisfied with the response which has led you to generalise on a trade (of over 50,000 souls) based on your experiences. Your notes show that you would be unwilling to pay if we adopted the professional service tradesmen other countries provide. And they would be just as unlikely to serve you on the fit only, bottom line terms you've described.

In other words the free market that exists for you to exploit the cost cutting oppotunities to shaft the trade are also open to those who want to shaft you. I'm not saying I approve but you can't have it both ways.