plumbing question

[..Kev]

Plumbers should be paid well, their job sucks!  I think the point is that it gets to a point of being a bit ridiculous.

We had to hire an attorney for a minor civil matter this week and, coincidentally, his fee was $250.00 an hour. 

[Llama]

Yeah, Eric is a tool and Janello is a moron.  

Come at me! HAHAHA

[Janello]

Just now, Llama said:

Yeah, Eric is a tool and Janello is a moron.  

Come at me! HAHAHA

Finally someone has put this thread back on track!

[Llama]

2 minutes ago, Janello said:

Finally someone has put this thread back on track!

Glad to do it, dips hit. 

[Eric.]

Yeah well you're an XL stoned wannabe hipster doofus who watches paint dry for a living and I bet you don't even make $250 an hour for it!!! Yeah!!!

[Chet]

Oh yea... well I never.

[Llama]

I know that doesn't apply to me, because I'm an XXL. Suck on that! 

[Janello]

You got me with the teacher thing..you couldn't pay me enough to babysit 25 brats whom half of them have parents that raised them like jungle lions. 

[Woodenskye]

My plumbing runs great, $250 dollars worth of bacon effectively lubed and cleaned the pipes perfectly, and only took 2 hours.

[Tpt life]

2 minutes ago, Janello said:

You got me with the teacher thing..you couldn't pay me enough to babysit 25 brats whom half of them have parents that raised them like jungle lions. 

25? My last 50 minutes a day is 80 kids in one room, all 13-14 years of age. As much as I'd like to complain, I make more per year than my parents ever made per year put together. It's all perspective. 

[Janello]

1 minute ago, C Shaffer said:

25? My last 50 minutes a day is 80 kids in one room, all 13-14 years of age. As much as I'd like to complain, I make more per year than my parents ever made per year put together. It's all perspective. 

You should quit that crazy job and buy a plumbing truck. You knew what erics problem was and could have charged him $900 so he felt like he was getting a break.

[rodger.]

The last time I tried to hire a plumber, I couldn't get one.  I needed a small job done (few relocated supply lines).  No plumber was interested in a job that small.

With no other option, I took a plumbing course (college level).  It ran in Saturdays for 8sessions.  I learned a lot, and was able to move my pipes!  Woot!

Those skills i learned still serve me well, but I certainly know my limits.

[Coop]

27 minutes ago, Eric. said:

He wasn't making $250/hour until his later years when he was uber-famous, I can guarantee you that.

 

That's how normal people feel about plumber's bills.

 

Here's one...teachers.  They go to school for 4-8 years, have one of the hardest jobs on the planet, get paid squat and are given no respect by the parents or society as a whole.  And their job is far more important than soldering some pipes together in someone's basement.

Justify that one, buttcrack boy! LOL

But if the toilet is upstairs and it leaks onto your bedroom downstairs on your anniversary, now their job is important?

[Janello]

I hired a sears service guy to come out and check my broken dryer years ago. He walked over to my fuse box (old glass fuses) and said...you've got a blown fuse..I don't have one. Then hit me with a 90 dollar service call. Now THAT is unethical. 

Ever since then i charge $200 for a faucet. 

[Llama]

4 minutes ago, Janello said:

I hired a sears service guy to come out and check my broken dryer years ago. He walked over to my fuse box (old glass fuses) and said...you've got a blown fuse..I don't have one. Then hit me with a 90 dollar service call. Now THAT is unethical. 

 

Reminds me of this...

A giant ship engine failed. The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.

Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!

A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.

“What?!” the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything!”

So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill.”

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer………………….. $ 2.00

Knowing where to tap…………………….. $ 9,998.00

*Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference!*

[Eric.]

1 hour ago, Janello said:

I hired a sears service guy to come out and check my broken dryer years ago. He walked over to my fuse box (old glass fuses) and said...you've got a blown fuse..I don't have one. Then hit me with a 90 dollar service call. Now THAT is unethical. 

Ever since then i charge $200 for a faucet. 

I hired a plumber to come out and check my broken garbage disposal.  I turned it on and it was "frozen."  When he came over I went into another room to do something, and he called me back in about a minute and a half later.

"There was a dime stuck in it.  Want it?"  And he tossed it to me.

Then hit me with a 90 dollar service call.

Unethical?  Or is that just standard operating plumber procedure?

[Tpt life]

7 minutes ago, Eric. said:

I hired a plumber to come out and check my broken garbage disposal.  I turned it on and it was "frozen."  When he came over I went into another room to do something, and he called me back in about a minute and a half later.

"There was a dime stuck in it.  Want it?"  And he tossed it to me.

Then hit me with a 90 dollar service call.

Unethical?  Or is that just standard operating plumber procedure?

You have to figure some "profit loss" into the equation. He could have pulled off of a money making job to service your call. The pull off and drive time cuts into the profit. Remodel work always costs more because the work is a schedule interruption. That said, I am glad I live in a state that allows me to work on my own plumbing. I will not call out a plumber without exhausting my own capabilities first. 

[Janello]

9 minutes ago, Eric. said:

I hired a plumber to come out and check my broken garbage disposal.  I turned it on and it was "frozen."  When he came over I went into another room to do something, and he called me back in about a minute and a half later.

"There was a dime stuck in it.  Want it?"  And he tossed it to me.

Then hit me with a 90 dollar service call.

Unethical?  Or is that just standard operating plumber procedure?

No. That is not standard. Atleast with me or any plumbers I know. That's 25 bucks to cover my gas and time.

[Eric.]

I didn't complain on that particular occasion.  I told him it wasn't an emergency but he came out the next day anyway.  I was also expecting a two or three hundred dollar bill to swap out the disposals...so in my mind he actually "saved me money."

That's fine.  And I'm really not cheap....you guys know I can blow some cash.  I just don't like feeling taken advantage of, and when I have a blue collar guy charging me a thousand dollars for four hours of work, it raises my eyebrows, that's all.  I'm not indicting an entire occupation, I just don't like being taken for a ride.  It's not in my nature to roll over like that.

[Janello]

14 minutes ago, Eric. said:

I didn't complain on that particular occasion.  I told him it wasn't an emergency but he came out the next day anyway.  I was also expecting a two or three hundred dollar bill to swap out the disposals...so in my mind he actually "saved me money."

That's fine.  And I'm really not cheap....you guys know I can blow some cash.  I just don't like feeling taken advantage of, and when I have a blue collar guy charging me a thousand dollars for four hours of work, it raises my eyebrows, that's all.  I'm not indicting an entire occupation, I just don't like being taken for a ride.  It's not in my nature to roll over like that.

Here's where I feel the point was lost 25 posts ago. Plumbers are not cheap..yeah I get that. But a home owner and the plumber rendering services should agree on a price and no one is holding a gun to the homeowners head. Don't like the price...get a new quote. I'm sure somewhere out there is a plumber that is cheap and crappy..perhaps that dude who installed those pipes that wern't to code would be the cheaper guy. In your case the plumber gave you a price and didn't stand by his word so you have a legit gripe. Always good to get a written proposal when dealing with a new tradesman. In my case...i charge what I say up front. They don't have to like it or hire me. They can screw it up themselves or take a chance on someone else. I charge a lot because when I walk away toilets don't overflow in the next room. I have years of experience and training along with a license to back that. 

Think of it as pricing a table you built. Within reason, you charge what ever someone is willing to pay. In your case you weren't expecting or willing to pay that because he misled you. I am willing to bet if you negotiate, he drops his price. If he doesn't, he's a lousy business man.

[Eric.]

No he's sticking to his price, he just quoted me a way higher number than he should, according to his own calculations of "$80/hr."  The only reason we're having a beef and this thread was started in the first place was because he acted like the only solution for my toilet issues was to buy new toilets...which was no solution at all.

I totally agree that we agreed on a price and at that point I basically have no ground to stand on to complain.  The general contractor let me hire "their" guy outside of their contract, which saved me a few bucks, and led me to believe that this guy was cheaper than most guys out there.  I was a little shocked by his quote but I rolled with it because everyone generally knows that "plumbers are expensive."

My gripe is only that he's making $250 per hour out of my pocket, regardless of our agreement.  I find it outrageous and I can't seem to justify it any which way.  I'm gonna pay him his thousand dollars because I said I would...but when he wants another $400 to work on the old plumbing for an hour and a half, I'm gonna have a hard time not taking my coarsest rasp to his most sensitive body part regions.

We'll find out next week...if he comes back.  Kind of hoping he doesn't.  Would save me a boatload of cash.

[Janello]

I'm confused. He's charging you 80/ hr. Did he work less hours and charge you more than he worked. Did he milk the job to get more hrs or did he charge you the 80/hrs and work fast and only charge for the hours he worked? 

If it's the first two you got a gripe. If it's the last one...boo hooo.

[Eric.]

He told me he charged $80 per hour and based on that rate, it would cost me $1,000 to complete the work I needed done.  That would come out to 12.5 hours.  Not knowing any better, I said okay, do whatcha gotta do.

By the time he's done, he won't have spent even 4 hours at my house.

If he could get the work done in four hours, charge me four hours labor.  Hell, tack on an extra hour and take your wife to dinner, fine.

But to charge me three times actual labor?  Psh.  That's when I got a problem.

[JosephThomas]

Did he spend any extra time not at your house, planning it buying the fixtures or materials? Just curious if that counts at all.

More importantly, did he actually say he still planned on charging over a thousand? Or are you just preparing for the worst? Perhaps when he's 100% done the total will change... If it took longer than the estimate, I'd expect him to charge a little more, since he gave you an hourly rate.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Eric.]

He provided no materials except for the new shut-offs for the sinks and toilets...I believe they're like five or six bucks a piece.  I paid for all the fixtures and toilets and everything and had them here at the house.  All he had to do was crack open the boxes.

Just to clarify...he quoted me a grand for all the work after he told me it's $80/hour.  I assumed that meant it was gonna take one plumber a day and a half to do all the work (which I thought was kind of long but what do I know?).  Turns out it took one and a half guys less than four hours.  So far he's made no mention of reducing his bill because it took way less time than he expected.  In fact, his office manager has already sent me a bill for the full amount before the work has even been completed.  I LOL'd.