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NEW BALL VALVE Cost me £80 Supplied and Fitted??

Discuss NEW BALL VALVE Cost me £80 Supplied and Fitted?? in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

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slickbone

Hi all,

I have a house on let and the tenants have said the toilet keeps filling and letting water run through. Through my estate agents that deal with my property, they sent out Crafton Maintenance who charged me £60 for the call out charge and supplied and fitted the Ball valve unit for £20.

Does anyone know if the the supply and fitment of the Ball Valve costs £20 because I think its steep! Looking online the part should cost around £10.

Also how long does it take to replace. I would have thought about 20 minutes.

Any comments welcome.

Cheers!
 
Do you know the exact ball valve they fitted or are you guessing ?
They all vary in price. I rushed into a plumbcenter one day last week ( not one where they know me ) and got ripped off at 18.90 + vat , I wasnt happy.
 
Sounds A good price to me. Take cost of running a business out, parts, minus tax and wages and then it has to be guaranteed for 12 months. No doubt the letting agent have their fingers in the pie somewhere too. Not having a pop but out of curiosity slickbone how much do you think you should have paid?
 
£80 supplied and fitted! That's cheap :)

Doesnt matter wether it took 5 minutes or an hour. There would have been a minimum labour charge.

£20 for the part is cheap. By the time you take off the 30% mark up and 20% vat its about there for a decent valve.

Just re read your post. The agent will have stuck some on.
 
slickbone said:
Hi all,

I have a house on let and the tenants have said the toilet keeps filling and letting water run through. Through my estate agents that deal with my property, they sent out Crafton Maintenance who charged me £60 for the call out charge and supplied and fitted the Ball valve unit for £20.

Does anyone know if the the supply and fitment of the Ball Valve costs £20 because I think its steep! Looking online the part should cost around £10.

Also how long does it take to replace. I would have thought about 20 minutes.

Any comments welcome.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

If you wanted you could have bought a new ball valve & float yourself & deliver it to the property for the plumber to install... But you didn't... I'm guessing you wouldn't know what valve to buy, so for a plumber who has the necessary part on the van & keep the van fully equipped I would call 20 pounds a bargain, he also has to order another one to replace that part!

I'm guessing if the plumber went away & had to charge for 2 visits or for the collection of the part you would not be happy either & you would expect him to keep a part on the van...

I don't see how anyone can complain at 80 pounds after they visit your home, fit parts & guarantee the work for 12 months

yes, it probably did take him 20 minutes... It would probably take you an hour.
 
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gassafe said:
If you wanted you could have bought a new ball valve & float yourself & deliver it to the property for the plumber to install... But you didn't... I'm guessing you wouldn't know what valve to buy, so for a plumber who has the necessary part on the van & keep the van fully equipped I would call 20 pounds a bargain, he also has to order another one to replace that part!

I'm guessing if the plumber went away & had to charge for 2 visits or for the collection of the part you would not be happy either & you would expect him to keep a part on the van...

I don't see how anyone can complain at 80 pounds after they visit your home, fit parts & guarantee the work for 12 months

yes, it probably did take him 20 minutes... It would probably take you an hour.
Click to expand...

I am pretty sure he was just asking a genuine question, no need to get so defensive.
 
pimlico charge £120 per hour and charge up to 45 mins if the have to go and get parts at 90 a trip i would go and collect parts for every job
 
I am a bit lost with this one! The complaint seems to be NOT the £60 call out, but that the supply and fitment of the ballvalve was £20 and that the online price for valve is about £10. Also that it is assumed to be a 20 minute job to fit.
Firstly I would say, ballvalves for toilets can be anything between about £6 to £20 cost price, depending on type. So a supply and fit charge of £20 is very fair.
Secondly, to say a 20 minute job is unfair as it can be much longer if any problems, plus a experienced engineer can work miracles due to experience and do the job much faster than an amateur. I wish I could do most cistern ballvalve replacements in 20 min.
I would be more worried about the call out fees, although in this case it is also very fair
 
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One of those classic ideals. Either you do it or pay someone else to. I think the guys price is very fair. How much were you looking for the job I guess is probably more the question
 
All,

Thanks for all the comments. I am a new landlord and I only came here to check if I wasn't being ripped off. The call out charge is not what I was complaining about, it was just the fitment and cost of the part. How can you expect me to know the cost when I'm new to all this...

Cheers
 
slickbone said:
All,

Thanks for all the comments. I am a new landlord and I only came here to check if I wasn't being ripped off. The call out charge is not what I was complaining about, it was just the fitment and cost of the part. How can you expect me to know the cost when I'm new to all this...

Cheers
Click to expand...
Understand where you're coming from mate however as I'm sure you can appreciate we see a lot of it from the other side of the coin where people are saying they've been fleeced, ripped off, taken for a ride etc when they've clearly not. Problem is you can buy most things cheaper online, that doesn't mean your plumber has to buy it from there. He's had to go and get it from the plumbers merchant who he has thrashed out a business relationship with and buy the product, mark it up as appropriate which is allowed. Not every tradesman is a cowboy, we are allowed to make a profit too
 
I would probably be happy with £40 plus price of any parts, but that's if job fairly local to me.
And reality is, it would likely have taken up a couple hours of my time doing the job and traveling to and from the job, so not nearly enough.
You have to consider the estate agent is probably taking a cut of it
 
I suppose also it depends where you are based. In London that may be a noteworthy bargain, while in Powys you may find you struggle to find customers happy to pay that sort of call-out. Or maybe people always grumble :) .

With regard to parts cost, I personally don't generally make any more than a token mark-up on parts I buy for a planned job, and I know I'm not the only one, on the grounds that people can always look up a price on the internet so you may as well put the money down on the labour, which is, after all, what the customer is paying for. On stock parts, however, you have to make a mark up, because your stock is money spent in advance in the hope that someone needs it. A bit like the very specific kind of fill valve I ordered from Wickes (it was Christmas and merchants were closed) and paid £20 for with delivery and then... didn't need after all.

£20 for a fill valve may be the more expensive end of the range you could personally have gone out and bought the valve for, but it's hardly a rip-off.

To answer your second question: 20 minutes would be okay if everything went smoothly, you didn't have to talk to the tenants at all, the isolator worked, the floor was clean, and you didn't need to clear up after yourself, leave the floor dry, or check for leaks. Providing a professional service takes a little longer lol.
 
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everything is available cheaper on the internet boiler spare especially but not many customers want to wait at least three day to get something fixed
 
Done one for an old customer on weds last week but for a cold water storage tank in the loft. Replaced a part 1 ballcock for a part 2 ballcock. £60 all in. In and out in an hour after chatting and tea.
 
Did one last week - £60 for a good customer
£80 sounds ok - Everybody whos commented so far has probably forgotten the VAT too?
So in fact he might have been charged £50 which when you bare in mind he has to bill the estate agent and wait for his money, is a bargain
 
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