plumbing company Complaint!!

[cneedham]

Hello My name is Cathy, and I feel seriously aggrieved at placing a genuine complaint about a plumber I used in urmston, the plumber came to my premises over an issue with my heating, boiler to be precise. Work was agreed, and a price agreed. After the work was completed, the plumber tried to add additional costs to the price which were not agreed, and then became abusive towards me when I questioned this, including swearing, and angry towards me;. As you can expect, as woman living on my own, I was frightened and paid the plumber just to get him out of my house'. Also, although the plumber was trading as a limited company as it said on his van, he wanted the cheque paid to him personally, which I also did not feel was correct, so maybe he is also avoiding paying taxes, and would not give me an invoice.. I have also written a strongly worded letter to the Manchester Evening News warning others of this cowboy plumber. In conclusion I would definitely NOT recommend this plumber, and will be using a more professional plumber in future. I was shaking when he left my house. It is not on to let these cowboys tradesmen to get away with it. I will also be writing to watchdog about him.

My question is, as a woman on my own, how do I go about getting central heatings repairs and avoid these problems in the future, is there any kind of recommended body/website I could use?

 

[diamondgas]

Hi Cathy, not the best of services by this company you mention!

Regards recommended bodies hmmm I don't personally know of any. However advice towards finding a decent one. Ask friends and neighbours if they have anyone they could recommend? Word of mouth speaks volumes I believe.

 

[Davinder]

I would probably ask friends and family to recommend a plumber/GSR engineer thay have used before.

 

[Plumbstar Tom]

Ok, glad you got that off your chest?

We cant really take sides as we have only heard yours but recommendations are always best to go by

Where did you find this plumber?

What were the 'extras' he charged you for?

 

[WaterTight]

Good advice not always so easy in practise if you don't know anyone or this nobody you trust or are friendly with. Checkatrade isn't a bad place to look. Especially since customers are now invited to mention whether they were told they could leave feedback before work started. Just make sure the positive feedback is plentiful, recent and mentions relevant work.

 

[unguided1]

Not enough information to give a real comment, what was the original price, what was the work, what were the extras?

however wether you are a woman on your own or not there is no excuse for threatening or abusive behavoiur to any customer only to a loveslave, so it is distressing to hear that there are people in our industry who act in this way if the cause is not truly justified

 

[Plumbstar Tom]

Agreed, threatening and abusive language in the van with the door shut and window up is allowed though!

But no excuse for it to a customer, in fact its a form of assualt from what I have heard. Looks like I could have the missus taken down!

 

[SafeGasInstall]

give us the story ,we do not know the story ,can you not give us the info you have been asked to provide already

 

[tackleburger]

Doesn't matter what the story is. This lady felt threatened and agry with the guy. The fact he wanted the cheque paid to him speaks volumes. Even if there was unavoidable extras which can happen he should be able to handle that professionaly I would take Cathy's side in this. By the sounds of it she may have a complaint for demanding money with menaces although hard to prove given all verbal.

In summary anyone plumber or otherwise can't make a client feel at ease when working in their home then they ought not to deal with the client at all. Even if it is just a perception the client is right.

 

[Leadbetter]

Hi I'm based close to Manchester, if you message me your details I will gladly call you and give you some advice Or arrange to call round and give you a quote, don't worry I'm not a Cow boy and if you would like confirmation of that I carry out alot of work for several land lords / letting agents in your area and they will gladly confirm / recomend me to you,

 

[Kimou]

The guy swore, threatened her, didn't elaborate on extra works and no pre-notification of those works either and insisted she pay to a different name than what's advertised.

@Cathy-
If you paid by cheque, then at least this is in your favour as it will have proof of the allegation whereas the rest is hard to prove but without written declaration then it will be for him to prove as you reported a specific problem and others were [allegedly] identified. Swearing and threatening, is your word against his. Forget it, unless he laid a hand on you then it's just bad manners, I'm afraid.

As a consumer you are protected by your consumer rights. You can persue him in legal channels if you really wanted but that may take some time, pressure and money for not a lot of return.

Check-a-Trade does sound like a good system due to its vetting and monitoring process. The others I'd take with a pinch of salt. Word of mouth is by far the best. Talk to a neighbour, a friendly butcher, old lady down the Post Office or someone at the Raunchy Pensioners' Tea Party on the village green. Someone trustworthy in your locality will know someone. I'm sorry you had a bad time of it.

 

[MickBrown]

If it is recent and you are not happy, stop the cheque. When he calls ask for a detailed invoice and you will not pay until you have one. You can then ask on here if memebers thought the charges were fair and reasonable. If it is too late to stop the cheque report it to the inland revenue, you can do it online.

 

[stevetheplumber]

im afraid there are bad apples in every barrel as said try to get a recomendation from someone if you see an independant plumbers merchants close to where you live its worth asking them to recomend someone

 

[fuzzy]

id report to police if it is as you say

 

[Guest123]

What with cowboy builders, Rogue Traders and all the other programs on TV, the last thing this industry needs is a idiot like this one. Hope he gets reported to Trading Standards and gets whats coming to him. If he's asking for personal cheques, his limited company might have been struck off, in administration and he's trading illegally.
Abuse whether verbal or physical is not on.

 

[mickie]

its not right what he did at all, if you 2 agreed a price and things cost more than he thought, he should have asked before starting, or buying more things because this sort of stuff happenes, sounds like he's either lying or just assumed you'd pay.. either way it sounds like you're both in the wrong.. ooh well

 

[moony]

Prob won't come back now - vented her angerOne) we don't know the full storyTwo) never should a person feel threatened in own roomThree) after all this confrontation why was he stupid enough to ask for a private cheque to be made outFour) this would not make a blind but if difference all he would have to do is make sure it's in his books before end of tax year

 

[Gray0689]

If you feel this strongly cancel the plumbers cheque that will teach him

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

theres two sides to a coin, interesting story this

 

[LegionellaSlave]

Is it just me......?

 

[Gray0689]

theres two sides to a coin, interesting story this

Always is mate
his hers then the truth but not nice to swear at a customer and to make feel threatened

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

if he swore at her then deserves a slap totally unprofessional,but we dont know if thats true do we embellishing the truth a wonderful thing,we will never know what really happened we all know what some plumbers are like and we certinatly know how difficult custards can be

 

[villa_tom]

I don't really think a fair conclusion can be drawn from this. Fair enough he added to his original price but we only have the OP's word that he never mentioned it. I worked in a property once where the tenant rang the firm I was working for to say I had been rude.

She must have had a short memory as she forgot to tell them that she started it and was swearing at me saying that I was rubbish at my job if I didn't condem the boiler as she wanted a new one. She called me all the names under the sun when I gave her the cp12 and said everything was ok.

Fair enough I was rude (I never swore though or was offensive) but she was being horrible and offensive to me. So with little to go on in the OP I would give the plumber the slightest benefit of the doubt as he is not here to defened his self. Fair enough he should not have swore as he is a professional but sometimes as we all know you can get so wound up with this job that maybe he just lost the plot for a second.

As far as the cheque thing goes, there maybe an explanation. When I first started out on my own I went to the bank on the monday to sort a business account for cheques etc to be paid into. I had a boiler service later that day and the custard payed by cheque, as my account was not set up he made the cheque payable to me. I explained the situation and he was sweet with it. I agree it may look a little odd but sometimes these things happen its called LIFE

 

[AWheating]

did you check his details on the gas safe register?

 

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

As said there could be a very different other side to this story. If it is true the extra costs might be reasonable but at least he should have given details of them in writing on final invoice. Even if cheque is paid to him personally it could be stilll going through the business accounts and tax could be declared so can't jump to conclusions.

Addressing the question of how do you find reliable / professional tradesmen. Personal recommendation is not always possible and doesn't always get you the best man for the job, it may work but don't count on it.

I think there are a few things:

• Get a few quotes and DONT just go with the cheapest but judge how the person presents themselves, do they come across as professional?
• How long has someone been working in an area? If they are new be wary if they have 10+ years of working as a trademan in your local area then they must be OK because the bad ones run out of customers and have to move on.
• Check that they are registered with what ever relevant body AND ask to see their Public Liability Insurance certificate.
• Ask for references - have they got other customers who would be happy to vouch for them over the phone or for you to visit their homes and see examples of their work?
• Anyone can advertise in local paper but being in yellow pages suggests a long term business, so does a website, however, it is cheap and easy to put up a website.
• A land line is more reassurng than just a mobile phone.

 

[WHPES]

As the old saying goes, there's 3 sides to every story, but in any case -

If he found that there were going to be additional costs he should have let her know as soon as he knew and should have itemised them on the invoice.

When preparing quotations, I always make sure the customer is aware as to the possibility of unforseen extras and clearly state it on the quote in terms of what is included and what isn't. Most disputes arise through unclear terms.

As for being rude, even if you may think it, it is unprofessional to be rude and you just have to bite your tongue.


Some of the rated tradespeople websites can be unreliable as tradesmen can just get friends to give them a good rating. Word of mouth is best.

 

[Unregistered]

You can always search for a female plumber if it would allow you to feel safer

 

[Ray Stafford]

 

[newcastle phill]

Yes give ermintrude a call. His gender recalibration should be complete now

 

[oz-plumber]

Yes give ermintrude a call. His gender recalibration should be complete now

I thought that was him on the right of the photo?

 

[Raff]

Agree with 2 sides to every coin, for all we know she may have just woken up after watching a dodgy 70's pron film.

 

[Plumbstar Tom]

Got a feeling all is sorted now

Thread closed