ADEY magnacleanse unit

[dan_the_plumber]

Honest though I might buy a magma cleanse. I am actually pretty up on system cleanliness. Some customers are switched on to it. But there are certainly are large number of customers who would rather you just add a bottle of ‘boiler silencer’

 

[Riley]

Ha ha I hear where you’re coming from but I think communication goes a long way.

 

[Pickwickpick]

Communication does help, but it can only go so far. For last couple of years I've been splitting my work/time between Birmingham and a fairly wealthy bit of London and its a completely different mentality. Most of my clients in Brum I have a fight to convince them that its worth spending a bit more now to save in the long run and that cutting corners is a false economy, to the point where I turn down some jobs as i won't put my name to something that I know will not last. Most of the ones down in London its the complete opposite if anything, I'm telling them they're going ott/wasting money, but they don't care/

 

[dan_the_plumber]

I find it difficult to flush some systems I work on. No valves work, no drain offs, no filter to connect on to and radiators which are so far gone if you hit them with anything heavier than a biro they would crumble into steelobix

 

[Riley]

Communication does help, but it can only go so far. For last couple of years I've been splitting my work/time between Birmingham and a fairly wealthy bit of London and its a completely different mentality. Most of my clients in Brum I have a fight to convince them that its worth spending a bit more now to save in the long run and that cutting corners is a false economy, to the point where I turn down some jobs as i won't put my name to something that I know will not last. Most of the ones down in London its the complete opposite if anything, I'm telling them they're going ott/wasting money, but they don't care/

I completely understand that but I think the only way to stop people doing half @rsed work or cut corners is to stipulate how things should be done and work down from there. Please please dont think I’m saying you and Dan are in that category that’s not what I mean. The difference with you and the wronguns is you know how it should be rather than just bodgitt and leggitt you will actually explain it to the customer. My biggest issue is when there is no contractor/customer communication. We see it on here all the time where a customer comes on and says that they’ve been stitched up by a dodgy plumber and it actually turns out that the contractor has done exactly what they’ve said they’ll do but the customer hasn’t listened or bothered to ask questions. Don’t get me wrong it happens the other way too. I just don’t want to give any of my customers any recourse in this litigious society that we live in to tell me I didn’t do something or at least explain why it should be done even if they decline.

 

[Riley]

I find it difficult to flush some systems I work on. No valves work, no drain offs, no filter to connect on to and radiators which are so far gone if you hit them with anything heavier than a biro they would crumble into steelobix

Flushes don’t have to be that aggressive most of the time the flow and pressure produced by the flushing machine is no greater than that produced by a combi boiler so if you’re doing a combi swap you probably aren’t going to cause carnage in doing one. There are always ways onto a system be it using a wet vac or cutting in a connection point.

 

[Pickwickpick]

I completely understand that but I think the only way to stop people doing half @rsed work or cut corners is to stipulate how things should be done and work down from there. Please please dont think I’m saying you and Dan are in that category that’s not what I mean. The difference with you and the wronguns is you know how it should be rather than just bodgitt and leggitt you will actually explain it to the customer. My biggest issue is when there is no contractor/customer communication. We see it on here all the time where a customer comes on and says that they’ve been stitched up by a dodgy plumber and it actually turns out that the contractor has done exactly what they’ve said they’ll do but the customer hasn’t listened or bothered to ask questions. Don’t get me wrong it happens the other way too. I just don’t want to give any of my customers any recourse in this litigious society that we live in to tell me I didn’t do something or at least explain why it should be done even if they decline.

Yep agreed, dealing with & communicating with clients is one of the hardest bits of being self employed, you can do the best job in the world but if the client had something else pictured they could still come away from it unhappy. You end up having to be very good at reading people and adapting how you explain things. With some of the more difficult cases where they're pushing for unreasonable savings I lay thing out in 3 tiers, 1) ideal way to do it but more expensive 2) corners that can be cut to bring price down but will not compromise the soundness of the job 3) corners that must not be cut. I can work with 2) but if they insist on 3) I walk away.