Plumber = God?

[Cdamen]

Originally Posted by Grizzly Adams

I can say that some of the stupidest people I've met are plumbers and my brother is one. Part of the problem is that a lot of these handiman jobs, the average homeowner could do himself, but people have lost that ability and unfortunately for a tradesperson, in a large city , to come out and do a minor job can eat up a good part of his day. I do renovations and my business card says "One call does it all" because it's more cost efficient to have someone like me, do multiple jobs.
You know what they say ? All plumbers know is that S---t runs down hill and pay day is every second friday.
Now, realtors are another story. One of the locals was telling me how she was going around with a realtor, looking for some land to buy. They came to this one particular property to find the owner had just hung himself off the ginpole on his truck. Well what do think? Now might be a good time to make a offer, was his comment.
Grizz

WOW are you ever misinformed and ignorant.
"i met a Stupid lawyer the other day, that must mean they are all stupid!!! HAHAHAHAHAH"

Your ignorance blinds the fact that Plumbers have to know more then "**** flows down hill and pay day is friday."

without plumbers there would be no running water, natural gas, clean sanitary living spaces. youd be cold, thirsty and covered in ****.

please think about what you say before you say it, you just sound like an idiot.

Well I have organised a licsensed plumber who will be by on Tues
His cost will be some place around $150-$200 as I have another little fix up I just found.

PERFECT!!

Do your home work guys. I plan on sending a copy of this bill to the Crooks who showed up the other day.


Jamie

[Justanotherbuck2]

Well first of all service experts is a heating/AC company owned by Lennox International( not a Plumbing company at all!) Your dispatch fee is paid regardless of further work required to pay for such service as the person that answered the phone, administration, vehicle costs, fuel, Licencing, Courses,Taxes,the tradesmens salary who maybe just spent an hour in traffic trying to get to your home! Hopefully a well maintained and stocked vehicle to make your repairs quicker ( not always) as every situation can-not be prepared for! Beware the PSI group of companies if you wish I will NOT name them, Thats PLUMBING SOLLUTIONS INTERNATIONAL there are several companies that fall under this heading as it is a course you take for making your small plumbing shop a long term success that has some great points including upfront pricing. Unfortunatley alot of shops have decided that thats ok to hide ridiculously high hourly rates, hmmm but if I'm hourly perhaps I'll send you the dumbest, slowest SOB with the worst stocked truck I ever seen at sixty five dollars an hour to make you feel good and perhaps force you to take the whole day off work instead of just a couple of hours...(please don't get me wrong but PSI has a great plan just poor compny owners folling it and they set their own rate. Typically promote 5X cost to start. So as for example if the task costs me $75.00 it will cost you $375.00 see , no real hourly rate! They also generally start and finish a job within hours not days,. If you find the biggest ad in the Yellow pages generally one to two pages I can guarentee you they are PSI, If they will be there within a few hours they are likely PSI, If the guy puts a mat down at your door and slips on little booties the are PSI, If they over to replace your furnace and you barely say sounds good and they start tearing it out they are PSI. By the way I have been in the Mechanical buiusness for 28 years and have worked for both service experts(three years)and A PSI( two months) service experts too busy had to leave$110.00 pe rhour, to have a life! The PSI shop quit becuase I have morals $250.00 per hour and a bull Good better best program that was the same product with extended warrenties with so many holes they would never pay anyways.! I have had my own shop for ten years our rate is $85.00, I charge $75.00 to come to your home and furnace replacement starts at $2400.00 for builders grade and climbs from there, Chevy makes GEOS and Cadilacs so does every furnace company. Its ilegal within the city of Calgary to install your own furnace if you are not a licened gasfitter, Plumber with gasfitter secondary or sheet metal mechanic working only with the finishing piping.. there is no homeowner permit available and a permit and inspection by the City of Calgary Gas protection Branch is required for every furnace installed within city limits! Its not all about changing the furnace, every retrofit has to be made safe and that may require chimney liners, air supplies , clearance and piping changes, electrical requirement changes ETC... Pro's versus joe's! i get a little tired of the low ball and do ityourselfers we fix their half assed jobs every other day! Don't confuse Plumbing with HVAC to seperate trades...Would you ask your carpenter to change the motor in your car? Alberta was the last Province to remove plumbers from gasfitting and that was back in 1991 but a grandfather clause was put in place for the fellows that had a licence before that and a limited restricted ticket was made available to new plumbers allowing them the ability to work on under 400,000 btus that pretty much covers residential. Plumbers ticket, 4 years apprentiship, Gasfitters Ist class A ticket 3 years and two more years to complete any kind of additional HVAC courses Total Five years. I completed the full course in each (Nine years) when you need a plumber I'll send you a plumber, when you need a gasfitter we will send you a gasfitter but a will not send a Plumber to flush your furnace or a gasfitter to reno. your bathroom! Sorry for the rant guys!

[ctd]

The only thing I will disagree about that last post is The Service Experts did have a plumbing division. I was part of it. Maybe in the past 4 years it went down hill. I do know they did have a division.

BC has incorperated Gas Fitting into the Plumbing Trade as of the last few years.

[Cdamen]

Originally Posted by ctd

BC has incorperated Gas Fitting into the Plumbing Trade as of the last few years.

Alberta is the same

[Jamie]

To wrap this thread up, the plumber has just left.
He didnt like the previous plumbing, so he took out all the old pipes and replaced them back to the wall.

Total time 2 Hours on the nose
Then he says he wants $80 total..
I said thats not even close to what that job was worth.
At first he was hesitant to accept what I wanted to pay, but after a bit of convincing he took aggreed to take it.
I really appreciated what he did for us tonight. No more washing dishs in the bath tub!!! That and he missed time with his young family. But I did get him out in time to head home and watch the game

Good guy
Jamie

Originally Posted by Jamie

To wrap this thread up, the plumber has just left.
He didnt like the previous plumbing, so he took out all the old pipes and replaced them back to the wall.

Total time 2 Hours on the nose
Then he says he wants $80 total..
I said thats not even close to what that job was worth.
At first he was hesitant to accept what I wanted to pay, but after a bit of convincing he took aggreed to take it.
I really appreciated what he did for us tonight. No more washing dishs in the bath tub!!! That and he missed time with his young family. But I did get him out in time to head home and watch the game

Good guy
Jamie

Jamie, make sure you send a copy of the invoice to the original thieves

[gunned]

Total time 2 Hours on the nose
Then he says he wants $80 total..

It sounds like a cash job. Either that or his company will go broke pretty quick at $40/hr!! Especially if he is giving his materials away. Good on you for paying what the job was worth Jamie.

My thoughts...
There are a good number of companies ripping folks off for sure.
On the other hand, before I had my own business it was easy for me to think everyone was overcharging, but it sure takes a lot more than I thought it would to run a small business, and not everyone understands the costs associated with operating a legitimate operation. At the end of the day that $40/hr charge out will not pay a tradesman enough to support his young family in most of Alberta, unless he is working 16 hour days all year round!

[Jamie]

Gunned. I agree, its not all about the time. This guy owns his own Biz.
I thought what I paid him was fair. Like I said, this guy did me a favour.
I know little jobs cost WAY more than big jobs.
When we did that Reno I had one plumber who wanted $100 a hour + materials. It was large job requiring at least 2 days work. We told him where to go as well. However small jobs deserve that.

Jamie

[Justanotherbuck2]

No way this guy will be working for himself long at $40.00 and paying taxes and $1.15 per litre fuel, van, tools, phone, proper printed invoice books with GST number printed,quote books, Buisness licence, Insurance,shop supplies ,solder and rings arn't free..lol, and those are just a few of the small overhead charges. I'm glad you got a great price Jamie and I hope this was a side job over a box of beer becuase that poor plumber won't stand a chance, Heck a good journeyman gets paid $32.00 plus benifits or more, plus I supply the Van and all administration and supplies! send that fellow around, sounds like I should be able to pick him up for about $12.00 an hour. By the way plumbers also have to know NOT to lick your fingers during lunch. But really guys the industry in both gasfitting and plumbing is in trouble we need to recruit good young people ,guys and gals! I was on a management seminar a couple years back, and the larger firms attending are already starting to restrict the client list due to not enough staff. So if you are not on a list already GOOD LUCK you could be stuck with a Huge bill if you need something fast. A method that is popular in all buisness is to increase your price to slow or reduce workload. Higher the workload the higher the cost and the higher the turnovers with guys just getting burn't out. All us old plumbers don't have the talents to start a hunting magazine If someone offers to install your kitchen faucet with a lifetime warranty for $1200.00 run him off he's PSI trained, if another guy says $40.00 for the same task you might want to run him off to and look for s legitimate honest buisness with great community history, referals are your best tool, and my best advertizing!