We need to be very careful about the people we hire to fix some things in our home, especially the plumber because he can lie to us a lot to make some extra money. In addition, one of the most important things that you have to take into consideration when it comes to your plumber is developing a trusting relationship. Moreover, you should try to make sure that you read online reviews before hiring one. It is crucial to find a plumber that offers good services and reasonable prices as well.
So, here are some lies that your plumber will tell you to drain your wallet! Read on for more info and stay safe.
Do not believe plumbers who tell you that they have a free inspection for you
If someone knocks on the door and tells you that they offer you a free inspection of the pipes, and their visit is not officially announced by the administrator then you should not let them in because you might become a victim of the burglary. So, try to stay away from unannounced visits of plumbers if you want to stay safe.
But if you want to solve this potential problem, you should ask for identification and do a little research before letting anyone in.
You should check if they are licensed
When you want to fix something in your house or if you have a complex process to do you should always call a specialized and licensed plumber to help you. Of course, there are a lot of unlicensed plumbers or handymen who offer you a great deal at a lot price, but you should avoid their offer if you do not want other long term problems that could cost you more. The first thing that you have to take into consideration when hiring a plumber is identifying their license.
“Sometimes they are not insured, the coverage might not be sufficient or included in the final quote price,” says Stephany Smith of Fantastic Plumbing, which operates in the U.S., Australia, and mainland Europe. If there’s a problem, “there is nowhere to go if the plumbing job is done by an unlicensed tradesman.”
Do not believe those plumbers who overestimate themselves
If you are looking for a plumber you should see some recommendations and reviews from your family, work mates, social media or other different sites, but try to avoid those plumbers who overestimate themselves because the truth is that they are useless. Do not believe those handymen who say “Hey! Choose me because I’m the best!” and you should pay attention to their verbal and non-verbal communication.
“Such companies describe themselves as the best, amazing, awesome, stunning, or other superlatives without a meaningful connection with real services and benefits they deliver,” Smith explains. “Don’t count merely on their superior words. Instead, look for collected feedbacks, reviews, opinions of friends and neighbors, web search and many others.”
Do not choose a plumber who put pressure on you
Unfortunately, there are many plumbers who want to put pressure on you when they make you an offer because they do not want you to find out other good alternatives.
“Such behavior may aim to prevent asking questions,” Smith says. “Organizations that do it right provide hassle-free support paving a way to an intelligent, smart, and conscious decision.”
According to Daniel Dicus of Ross Plumbing in Leesburg, Florida, “they will take the faucet apart, come up with a price to make the repair, and at the point the homeowner has a choice: Accept the given rate or reject it. If they reject it, the plumber will just hand you the faucet back with all the separate parts and say, have a good day.”
Or those plumbers who say that they can offer you a better deal
There are some plumbers who say that they can do a job for much cheaper, and unfortunately, there are a lot of people who accept the deal without comparing the prices between other contractors. When you hear these magic words you tend to accept the offer, but in reality there are other plumbers who can make you a better deal, so, you have to check the market before making a decision.
“The cheapest offers are the riskiest,” Smith says. “A common plumbing trick is to give you a less expensive offer that doesn’t include all services necessary to complete the project. [Afterwards], you have to pay additional unexpected labor or product costs.”
They will use specialized terms that nobody understands
If you find a plumber who simply wants to drain your wallet, he will tell you the situation in specialized terms to make you feel lost or overwhelmed. Sadly, they will try to abuse the fact that you do not know all the terms in that field and increase the prices. This is why it is very important to ask them to explain everything that you think you do not understand and tell them to justify every money.
“An experienced plumber will give you a reasonable solution to any specific problem trying to make things easy for both sides,” Smith says.
Moreover, if you find a plumber who asks you to pay in advance, you should know that they should be paid when they finish the work.
“Most work we do, we tell the homeowners right up front, it’s a time and material cost,” Dicus says. “They don’t know the material cost per se, but we try to give a close estimate to the approximate hours it’ll take to do the job, so they don’t get blindsided thinking we were going to be there one hour and stay three.”
They will tell you that this is a two – or more – plumber jobs
Your plumber will tell you that this is a two or more plumber job for two reasons, namely to make you pay more for the job that he will do or call other colleagues for help but in order to drain your wallet. In this case, you should know from the beginning if your problem requires multiple laborers. In addition, if you want to avoid this situation, you have to make sure that your plumber is the only one who will work there.
Moreover, it is very important to ask about warranties on fixtures that plumbers install. “If a toilet’s leaking around the base, they’ll come in and ask the homeowner, did you use a plunger on this? Most homeowners will say yeah, and they’ll use that as an excuse to not warranty the work, saying the homeowner blew out the wax ring on the bottom of the toilet — so they get paid again to do the job.”
