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[DisneyFan32WI]

8

 

[luvmy3]

When she hired him did she make sure he had some guarantee? He came out and spent 3 hours there, he should certainly get paid for his time and effort, I can't say if the bill is fair since I don't know exactly what he did.

 

[TheIncredibles!]

He needs to at least be paid for his time. Not sure that the $500+ is what I would pay though. That seems steep. What hourly rate did he quote when your mom called?

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Did the invoice indicate that it had been repaired. I have a problem with his honesty or lack thereof if it did.

$600 seems quite high for a 3 hr repair that fixed nothing.

Was this done today at double rate?

 

[ols386]

If it were me, I wouldn't pay the full amount because he didn't fix the problem.

And why would he not have known the first time when he came out, that he did not have the proper tool to fix it.

I might pay him half the amount of the total bill, but certainly not all of it.

 

[LilyWDW]

Did she ask about what the rate was? Did she get a break down as to what the costs would be (parts, labor, ect)?

He came out and spent 3 hours there so he is owed something. What he is owed is based on what was agreed upon before he started to work. If your mom didn't think to ask about what the fee would be, then she may just be stuck.

 

[FlyingDumbo]

Not enough info given. Was the bill itemized? Did your mom authorize him to just go ahead and fix it and bill her?

When I have a repairman come to my house, I have them tell me what it is going to cost and what they are going to do BEFORE I give the ok for the work. Usually there is a fee for the diagnosis, then they tell me what the work will cost and at that point I decide if it is worth repairing. Sounds to me like your mom might be partly at fault here, but hard to know without all the info.

 

[kadaten]

Not enough info given. Was the bill itemized? Did your mom authorize him to just go ahead and fix it and bill her?

When I have a repairman come to my house, I have them tell me what it is going to cost and what they are going to do BEFORE I give the ok for the work. Usually there is a fee for the diagnosis, then they tell me what the work will cost and at that point I decide if it is worth repairing. Sounds to me like your mom might be partly at fault here, but hard to know without all the info.

Ditto! I know in our area, the fee for someone to come out and give you a diagnosis and estimate is $125. If you let them do the work, then the $125 goes towards your final bill. If they don't do the work, then they have been paid for their time.

That said, the bill seems rather high for the problem not to be fixed. The labor charge here is normally quoted as $85/hour plus parts....so for 3 hours work, it's really high for me!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

580 for 3hrs? So he makes 193 an hour and he did not even fix it? Wow, something is wrong here.

 

[ChristmasElf]

She could have bought a new washer for less than the $580 thid guy charged her!

 

[tink_n_pooh]

I agree with just about everything that has been previously stated. What was discussed when she called for the repair? Was an estimate to be given before any repairs were attempted? What is his hourly rate? Does he charge a travel fee? Were parts used? Even if the parts didn't completely fix the problem it's not like he can return them now so if there was no discussion previously about parts I would say she would be responsible for at least his cost on those as well.

 

[ols386]

Isn't it the responsibility of both the plumber and the customer to give/get an estimate before he even begins the repair work?

I'd just be ticked off that he charged that much, and then still didn't get the washer repaired, even coming out the second time.

As stated earlier, I would certainly not be willing to pay the entire amount of the bill.

 

[Hillbeans]

I would need to know what the repairman said to your mom, if he told her it was fixed or not. I assume he told her it was ok, not a temporary fix if she went to do laundry right after he left.

We had a plumber come out once to "fix" a broken hose in our kitchen sink but ultimately it still had a leak - we called him back and he fixed it without more cost.

 

[SOnotLayuh]

There's definitely a problem here. I'd be raising heck if I paid that much money and nothing had changed.

 

[allison443]

My mom called a plumber to fix the washing machine. Apparently it was leaking water down into the basement. The repairman came out and spent 3 hours "fixing it." he left the house and put the $580 bill on the table fo her. She came home from work, did the laundry, and the water was leaking down into the basement again. She called him back that night, and he came out to look at it again. He said he can't fix it. She was told to call someone that had a special piece of equipment called a jetter(sp?).
Since my mom is all alone now and money is extremely tight, I am carefully watching what is spent. I don't agree that she should pay a repairman for something that wasn't even fixed.
What do you think?

Was your mom home when the plumber was there? It sounds like she was at work...
Usually when I have had plumbers come to the house, there is charge but then they tell me how much the repair will be...in the case of a $580 repair, I would decline the repair because I would rather purchase a new washer....

What was the conversation before he started work?

 

[pampam]

I guess I don't understand. I thought a plumber did plumbing. If something was wrong with her washer, she would have called an appliance repairman. The washer can't be the problem.

 

[bicker]

I don't know of a single plumber in our area who charges a set rate, set up-front, for "fixing" a problem regardless of what it takes. Plumbers generally charge for the work they do, not the results that they achieve. A lot of the work involved is discovering what the problem is, and even trying different things to see if any of them will do the trick. Plumbers absolutely do get paid for their attempts, even if they are not successful. That's life.

Now whether the actual dollar-amount is correct or not depends on the plumber's rates, which I assume the OP asked about in advance.

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

OP here.
Thanks for the replies. I need to ask my mom what arrangement she made with the plumber ahead of time-if any. Knowing her, she just cold called someone to come over and "fix it."
I don't want people taking advantage of her. Now that my dad isn't here, it is difficult for her to make business decisions because he always took care of everything.
It wasn't the washing machine itself that was the problem. It was something else that apparently THIS plumber couldn't handle since he didn't have the right equipment.

 

[eliza61]

I don't know of a single plumber in our area who charges a set rate, set up-front, for "fixing" a problem regardless of what it takes. Plumbers generally charge for the work they do, not the results that they achieve. A lot of the work involved is discovering what the problem is, and even trying different things to see if any of them will do the trick. Plumbers absolutely do get paid for their attempts, even if they are not successful. That's life.

Now whether the actual dollar-amount is correct or not depends on the plumber's rates, which I assume the OP asked about in advance.

Hey Bicker,
Do the plumbers in your area give quotes though? I'm in Southern NJ and if you call a plumber generally, 1) they will give you a "fixed" rate for coming out and diagnosing the problem. Usually it's a $100 buck "service" fee. That has to be paid regardless to whether you have him do the work or not.

then after they try and diagnosis the problem and suggest a solution they will give you another estimate for the work.

Op, I would check it out. While I agree that plumbers absolutely get paid for their work, I'd be leary of a plumber who a) did not give some type of "estimate" for the work, and b) some sort of breakdown on what is included in that estimate. Also if he did not have the right equipment, what the heck did he do for 3 hours? How long could it possible have taken for him to realize he didn't have the right equipment?

We just had a plumber and an electrician out to the house and both gave us written estimates on exactly what they would charge and what the charges included (how much in labor, how much in parts). Now we have had repair work done on our old machine, by sears. Once again we paid them a service call fee and the repairman could not fix it because he needed to order the part. We paid for the part and he came back out to finish fixing the machine at no additional cost.

 

[bicker]

Hey Bicker,
Do the plumbers in your area give quotes though? I'm in Southern NJ and if you call a plumber generally, 1) they will give you a "fixed" rate for coming out and diagnosing the problem. Usually it's a $100 buck "service" fee. That has to be paid regardless to whether you have him do the work or not. then after they try and diagnosis the problem and suggest a solution they will give you another estimate for the work.

Yup that's pretty-much standard practice ime and utterly fair and reasonable. The diagnostic fee, though, is sometimes (maybe mostly?) expressed as an hourly rate, continually charged until they discover what's wrong or until the customer tells the plumber to stop trying.

I think that last bit is of interest: A lot of people forget that they have a responsibility to themselves to recognize that they are in charge while the meter is running. At any time, they can tell the worker to stop working, pay them for the hours-or-part-thereof that have already been put in, and send the worker on their way. While it may be comforting to think that you can pay a relatively small amount of money, and thereby effectively "dump your troubles" onto someone else, that's simply not the way the world is. With this sort of thing, you either pay through-the-nose for someone else to take on your unspecified, indeterminate troubles, or you pay someone a fair hourly rate for their conscientious and professional efforts.