Search the forum,

How much to change a ballcock!

Discuss How much to change a ballcock! in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

Status
Not open for further replies.
M

MickBrown

Messages
256
Went to a client of mine in my village today to sort out a small leak. While there the lady told me a few weeks ago she came back from holiday and the cold water tank overflow was running. She couldn't find my number (she looked under 'P' for plumber but she had filed me under 'B' for Brown) so she called somebody from the yellow pages. A polish guy arrived, being an old house with dormer bedrooms the loft space is very restricted and he had to take out the F&E tank to get to the cold water tank. Once he had done that he went off for an hour to get a ballcock. Came back and fitted it and refitted the F&E tank. He was there less than 4 hours, bill £400. I said I would have to work for 3 days to charge her that sort of money.
 
Look on it as an incentive for her to make a better effort to find your number next time.
 
In a similar vein, had a guy phone me yesterday, needed a new ballvalve on an f and e tank. Told ME that it was only a ten minute job, worth the princley sum of £8. Asked where he got that price from. He said well I would expect to pay no more than £48 an hour, divided by six, equals £8.

I wont repeat what I told him to go and do!!!
 
grahamgas said:
In a similar vein, had a guy phone me yesterday, needed a new ballvalve on an f and e tank. Told ME that it was only a ten minute job, worth the princley sum of £8. Asked where he got that price from. He said well I would expect to pay no more than £48 an hour, divided by six, equals £8.

I wont repeat what I told him to go and do!!!
Click to expand...
Well that might cover your diesel in the van!
 
grahamgas said:
In a similar vein, had a guy phone me yesterday, needed a new ballvalve on an f and e tank. Told ME that it was only a ten minute job, worth the princley sum of £8. Asked where he got that price from. He said well I would expect to pay no more than £48 an hour, divided by six, equals £8.

I wont repeat what I told him to go and do!!!
Click to expand...

thats the wrong approach, tell him, "ok no prob but im busy and cant make it till 8pm tonight" then when he phones you at 8.05 to ask where you are, tell him you are held up on a big payer as someone offered you a tenner, and you will be there the next day at 7.30am on the way to a big job, keep this up as long as you can, hey we need to get our entertainment somewhere
 
Someone phoned today to ask for a price of a gas disconnection cap off and reciept/cert to say work had been done. Told her 45 pound, no chance she replied ok no probs bye.
 
moony said:
Someone phoned today to ask for a price of a gas disconnection cap off and reciept/cert to say work had been done. Told her 45 pound, no chance she replied ok no probs bye.
Click to expand...


wonder what kind of push fit they will go for
 
this was on a live cooker with the high level grill missing. just behind the hobb was the packing tape on the feed pipe
 
They'll probably buy the wrong part them ask on this forum how to fit it.
 
and some plumber sitting at home counting his pennies will tell him
 
£400 is to much but if she happy paid ,then i think is time for you to sort out your rates with them !
 
We've all had it. The 'if it takes 20 mins and you want £50 then you're asking me for a rate of £150 an hour" argument.

It's such an exhaustingly nonsensical bit of jibberish logic that you almost don't want to dignify it by pointing out how it doesn't apply to reality. It might be more fun to agree:

"I've never really thought about it like that. You're right, I fear. By way of example I worked ten hour days over the last four weeks. Made £30k in a month. It's probably excessive."
 
grahamgas said:
In a similar vein, had a guy phone me yesterday, needed a new ballvalve on an f and e tank. Told ME that it was only a ten minute job, worth the princley sum of £8. Asked where he got that price from. He said well I would expect to pay no more than £48 an hour, divided by six, equals £8.

I wont repeat what I told him to go and do!!!
Click to expand...

i heard of a chap who fitted a really expensive bathroom for some snobs who had a few quid. he got them a heap of discount and i presume he did a good job. when it came for them to pay they were about £3.75 short. he felt it a bit odd especially after him saving them so much money, when he questioned it he was told that it was to cover the tea and biscuits he had at their house.
 
kyle87 said:
i heard of a chap who fitted a really expensive bathroom for some snobs who had a few quid. he got them a heap of discount and i presume he did a good job. when it came for them to pay they were about £3.75 short. he felt it a bit odd especially after him saving them so much money, when he questioned it he was told that it was to cover the tea and biscuits he had at their house.
Click to expand...

Hahaha. Sounds like an urban legend to me!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Sounds quite likely to me. My brother in law was repointing a chimney some years ago and the customer wanted to charge him for the leccy to run the cement mixer. He shot back to the yard and picked up the genny and left it running all day under the lounge window.
 
MickBrown said:
Went to a client of mine in my village today to sort out a small leak. While there the lady told me a few weeks ago she came back from holiday and the cold water tank overflow was running. She couldn't find my number (she looked under 'P' for plumber but she had filed me under 'B' for Brown) so she called somebody from the yellow pages. A polish guy arrived, being an old house with dormer bedrooms the loft space is very restricted and he had to take out the F&E tank to get to the cold water tank. Once he had done that he went off for an hour to get a ballcock. Came back and fitted it and refitted the F&E tank. He was there less than 4 hours, bill £400. I said I would have to work for 3 days to charge her that sort of money.
Click to expand...

Pop along to your local pound shop, buy a fridge magnet, then write your name and number on a piece of paper, pop back to the custards home, and stick all on the fridge.
 
wetdrip said:
Pop along to your local pound shop, buy a fridge magnet, then write your name and number on a piece of paper, pop back to the custards home, and stick all on the fridge.
Click to expand...

That's a good argument to get the magnetic business cards from vista print to give to your regular customers
 
MickBrown said:
Went to a client of mine in my village today to sort out a small leak. While there the lady told me a few weeks ago she came back from holiday and the cold water tank overflow was running. She couldn't find my number (she looked under 'P' for plumber but she had filed me under 'B' for Brown) so she called somebody from the yellow pages. A polish guy arrived, being an old house with dormer bedrooms the loft space is very restricted and he had to take out the F&E tank to get to the cold water tank. Once he had done that he went off for an hour to get a ballcock. Came back and fitted it and refitted the F&E tank. He was there less than 4 hours, bill £400. I said I would have to work for 3 days to charge her that sort of money.
Click to expand...

I'd say it serves her right she didn't try very hard did she !
If you're in the same village she could have knocked on your door or put a not through your letterbox.
some people have no loyalty. :thumbs_down:
 
Mick browns retired now. He's taken up metal detecting in Dungeness.
 
sorry to interrupt your tales but how much is a reasonable price to change a ballcock?! I assume mine has just gone (I have water dripping from an overflow pipe anyway). I'm in Staffordshire
 
cable_guy said:
sorry to interrupt your tales but how much is a reasonable price to change a ballcock?! I assume mine has just gone (I have water dripping from an overflow pipe anyway). I'm in Staffordshire
Click to expand...

£45 if done within 30 minutes .
 
New posts
Status
Not open for further replies.

Reply to How much to change a ballcock! in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

Similar plumbing topics

P
Repeated Airlock in Bathroom
Hi, Can anyone advise as to why the cold water to my bathroom keeps airlocking? This originally happened about 12 months ago and has happened 3-4 times since. It’s an upstairs bathroom, fed from a tank in the attic. The tank is about 8 Meters away and feeds a bath, sink and toilet. The tank...
Replies
9
Views
289
Chuck
C
D
UK Can't get stopcock 100% closed to allow a tap repair
I have a plumber coming tomorrow to change a cartridge on a badly dripping tap on my bathroom mixer unit. There is no separate isolating valve for this tap so I'll have to close the stopcock. I tried closing it today but it won't go absolutely 100% closed and there is still a very slight flow...
Replies
1
Views
227
Chuck
C
johndave
Outdoor stopcock doesn't fully close
Hi all I'm hoping someone can shine a light on this for me Since our stop tap on the pavement has now been filled with sand for whatever reason, we are relying on our property fitted stopcock (this is outside on our garage wall) Unfortunately turning this to the closed position only reduces...
Replies
3
Views
219
exedon2
exedon2
Creating content since 2001. Untold Media.

Newest Plumbing Threads

Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock