Plumbers in specific, does anyone give a crap any more in general.....?

[2manyrocks]

Sometimes people quote prices based on perceived ability to pay and hope they get lucky.

 

[crashz]

I knew I could be way off on the materials, but figured they would replace as much as they could, hence the WAG. Did they really only quote one guy to set the toilets? I realize that one person can do it, but its a heavy lift and I figured a plumbing company would assume this to be a two man job for the lifting involved.

So yeah - that is way expensive.

 

[ultrarunner]

I see both sides and I believe it comes down to many don't need the work.

If anything the last two years has proven work/employment is optional.

Lately faced with exorbitant bids to the point of no longer bothering...

Contracts don't mean much either in the era of Force Mejor.

The paradigm has shifted and maybe for an entire generation?

Of course this all spells opportunity for those motivated and ready to seize the moment...

On a side note seasoned workers have long been blamed for not retiring to make room for younger workers.

We now see the fallacy of this argument... with retirement age workers I know being offered full sign on bonus or retention pay for committing to 6 months to a year more on the job... medical, construction and trucking is my frame of reference.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

My son did all new floors in his house about a month ago. I went up to help him take out the old to save money. I asked specifically if toilet pull/replace was in the deal and he said yes (that made me happy). So.... after the floors were done, he found re-setting the crappers were not in the deal, this was I am sure his error. The new floors reduced the height, and made the flanges too high. He called a plumber, and was quoted $2,400 to fix the flanges and re-seat 3 toilets. He told me this, (I assume) because he knew I would have a stroke, and come do it.

Which I did, replaced one flange, shimmed the other two with cutting board plastic 3/8 inch thick. Replaced one toilet with a leaking tank from the removal, all the shutoffs. It took a long day for an old guy, and cost just slightly north of $300 in parts.

My wife's father lives about 5 hours away. When her sister has to leave town, my wife goes and takes care of her father. Today she was in his basement (nice house but older) and found an area rug in a hallway wet. Called a plumber, $150 bucks to show up and do nothing. Estimate for $2,600 to: 1. replace toilet in common bath room. 2. new garbage disposal, and split drain assembly in kitchen. No drywall work.

Oddly, I had a stroke, and will be going down and doing it next week.

I know I am old, I know stuff is more expensive now. Based on what I did for a living, and what I was paid, I do not now, nor will I ever believe a plumber, even with burden rate, is worth $350k a year. I think people that prey on people that don't know any better for a living should have a shitty life.

I posted this because I am occasionally wrong, and try to learn when I am. Am I wrong?

Best,

ed

The trouble with getting old is one has the knowledge to do things and the tools to do things, but like an old dog whose mind is still willing, the body isn't really up to the task. Even so, people and employers are willing to accommodate old guys "slowness" because we show up on time, don't need much oversight, and generally will not destroy equipment, our coworkers, or our company's reputation while also instilling goodwill.

 

[ultrarunner]

Showing up on time and getting the job done right the first time...

I confess the corporate way often seems counter productive... instead of get it done it's policy and procedure.

 

[Richard]

Nah, She was just a fabulous Catholic babe with a Biology degree that liked to paint and write poetry and was teaching at a high school in her hometown of Cincinnati. My father was 8 years older, working on "some government project" while still in the Army reserves after WWII and living in Cincinnati at the YMCA. They both attended a lot of the same Catholic gatherings and mutual friends introduced them, saying they'd like each other. Apparently they did.... 6 weeks later they got married.

Nice story! (says he who was born in Cincy and grew up in Hamilton)

 

[jaxs]

Having dealt with all the building trades I will say plumbers are the worst when it come's customer service,price gouging and quility control. An interesting thing happened years ago when hvac contractors started having to be licensed. Prices doubled and quility of work went sour. Many one man companies chose for one reason or another not to be licensed and stopped doing the work. To fill the void in work force,larger companies hired warm bodys,put them in trucks and let consumers pay for their mistakes. Multi-family and child care facilities are sitting ducks for contractors because the majority of on site management are women with little to no hands on experience. More than a few hvac contractors have ordered replacement equipment, I checked their diagnosis while waiting for equipment, found a bad relay or other minor problem. When you are talking about several thousands of dollars instead of a few hundred,it's inexcusable that an inept serviceman's diagnosis isn't double checked and confirmed by contractor. It wasn't unusual to find technicians on the phone with someone walking them through a job.
A man with some duplexs I overseen maintenance for called me to complain about cost of a replacement compressor I had authorized a contractor to do. Seems he had called a contractor referred to him by a friend and the contractor replaced a compressor for about 40% what my contractor charged. The property owner instructed me to use this new hvac guy to which I had no objection but did feel something was not right with the contractor. After a rash of compressor replacements (all a bargain if I say so myself) I pulled some paid invoices,went to have a look. None had new compressors. Knowing the owner was going to come unspooled on anyone having a hand in making him out as a fool,instead of telling him what I found,I told him the local repersentive for Copeland was doing field surveys of warrantied compressors and would like to include a couple of his. Suffice it to say that client remembered why he hire me in the first place and became an advocate from then on.

 

[MossRoad]

Nice story! (says he who was born in Cincy and grew up in Hamilton)

Nice. She was always in the Carthage area, near where Paddock Rd. crosses 75. As I recall, the land for the house she was born in is now in the 2nd southbound lane of 75 just south of Paddock. They had several houses in the area. My grandfather had a paint store on Vine that closed in the late 60s. I spent a lot of time down there, in Sharonville, St. Bernard, and Sayler Park visiting with her family. A lot of GE company people in my generation.

 

[jaxs]

Showing up on time and getting the job done right the first time...

I confess the corporate way often seems counter productive... instead of get it done it's policy and procedure.

You got that right,there are people that deserve paying more simply so they can remain stupid while following policy and procedure. Case in point. The childcare company I mentioned above used thousands of yards of chipped wood annually for playgrounds. If you put conventional wood chips down kids get splinters,green chips build and retain heat quite a while until dried plus a host of other problems. A NY company called Fibar specializes in playground surfaces,wood chip being the most popular. The chip is shredded differently,dried and processed so the end product has no rough edges or splinters. My boss was down from Colorada to look at a new building in the finishing stages when a truck an crew pulling it to install wood chip on playground. Boss who had never seen chip being installed struck up a conversation with driver while he unloaded and crew spread chips. When he returned to join me in the building he handed me his hand written notes and asked that I contact this company about buying direct from them rather than through Fibar Company. The family owned company in East Texas was one of only a handful in USA with equipment for the special chips and agreed to sell direct on 30 day net. I contacted Holt Equipment about oversized buckets for skid steer and fowarded everything to boss in Colorada who signed a multi-state contract with chip processor and sent letters to facility managers about arranging for local contractors to buy oversize buckets. The net cost was 25% of Fibar for the same product. Everything went smooth and operations people where slapping my boss on the back for savings he earned them. Until an invoice wasn't paid on time,then one run around led to another until chip supplier called my boss saying he wanted paid asp,including a late fee. Enter accounts payable who says this company doesn't pay late fees and if he don't like it,,,,,,,. Well he didn't like it and we were back paying Fibar x3 as much for same product from same source. Moral of the story is even if you own the air plane you best ask the captain before setting up procedures on how to fly it.

 

[ultrarunner]

I’ve lost some excellent across the board vendors to Corp policy.

A few I have written my own personal check to cover and I then put in for reimbursement…

Did that Monday to the tune of $1917.00 letting the Admin know of course.

Hazardous tree dropped a large limb blocking receiving and high up I saw a split.

It takes months for the small guys to get paid and then it is by email notification they have to acknowledge so a electronic transfer is credited to vendor bank account…

Multiple levels of invoice approvals as it winds through corp in a 60,000 employee organization.