Four steps, and none of them is a form
Short on purpose. Nobody wants to read a process while the laundry is flooding, so each step says what you get out of it and how long it takes, and the detail sits underneath for anybody who is not in a hurry.
- Step one
- A plumber answers
- Quoting
- Whole job, before we start
- Hourly rates
- None on domestic work
- Warranty
- 12 months, in writing
What actually happens, in order
Written from the customer's side of it rather than ours.
- 01
Ring us, any hour
A plumber answers — not a call centre and not a message service.
The phone goes to a plumber. At two in the afternoon that is whoever is not under a house; at two in the morning it is whoever is on. Either way you are talking to somebody who can tell you whether what you are describing needs a van tonight.
Quite often the answer is that it does not, and we will say so. Talking somebody through shutting a stop tap at 11pm and booking them in for eight the next morning saves them an after-hours rate, and it is the reason a good share of our work comes from people who were once told they did not need us.
If it is an emergency you get a time, not a window with a day attached. If we are going to be late you get a text, because sitting at home wondering is the worst part of the whole business.
- You get
- An honest answer about whether this is tonight or tomorrow, and a time
- How long
- Under five minutes on the phone
- 02
We turn up and look
Diagnosis first, with the van stocked so most jobs finish in one visit.
The first thing that happens on site is that the water gets stopped if it needs stopping. After that, we work out what is actually wrong rather than what it looks like — which for a plumber usually means a camera, a pressure test or a meter reading rather than a guess.
The vans carry the parts for the jobs that come up most: hot water units in the common sizes, tap and toilet spares, and the jetting and camera gear. That is why most jobs finish the first time somebody comes out.
You are welcome to watch, and most people do. If there is a camera going down a drain we will turn the screen around — it is your pipe.
- You get
- The cause, shown to you, not described at you
- How long
- Usually 20 to 40 minutes
- 03
A fixed price, before anything starts
You hear the number before a tool comes out, and you are free to say no.
Every job is quoted as a job. There is no hourly rate ticking over while you stand there doing arithmetic, and no bill at the end that is bigger than the conversation at the start.
Where there is more than one sensible way to fix something, you get both numbers and the honest trade-off between them — including the one where we make less money. The slab leak job on this site is the clearest example of that: the cheaper repair was the wrong answer for that pipe, and the customer got to make that call themselves with both prices in front of them.
If a part we allowed for turns out not to be needed, it comes off the invoice. A fixed price has to work in both directions or it is not a fixed price.
- You get
- A written number, and the right to walk away from it
- How long
- Before any work starts, every time
- 04
Fixed, tested, tidied and guaranteed
Twelve months on workmanship, in writing, with the certificates lodged.
Work gets tested before it gets closed up — pressure tests held, drains flood-tested, gas connections tested and combustion checked. You are told the result rather than reassured.
The site gets left cleaner than a plumbing job has any right to leave it, old units and packaging go with us, and any compliance certificate is lodged and emailed the same day rather than the following week.
Twelve months of workmanship warranty goes on the invoice in writing. If something we did lets go inside that year, we come back and it costs you nothing, including after hours.
- You get
- The test results, the certificate and twelve months in writing
- How long
- Same visit, unless a part has to be ordered
Four promises, each of which costs us money
A promise is only worth reading when it costs the person making it something. These do.
No hourly rates on domestic work
You get a job price. If we are slower than we expected, that is our problem and not your invoice.
No charge for a quote we have not earned
If we cannot fix it, you do not pay for the attempt. That includes the drive.
No selling you a system you do not need
If your hot water unit has years left in it, we will tell you and fix the part instead. It costs us a sale roughly once a week.
No certifying somebody else's uncertified gas work
We will quote putting it right. No licensed gas fitter can sign off work they did not do, and anybody who offers to is not one.
The part everybody wants to ask and most people do not
What does a call-out cost?
We quote the whole job up front rather than charging an hourly rate. You hear the number before anything comes out of the van and you are free to say no. Where there is an attendance fee it is credited in full against the work if you go ahead on that visit — and it is shown on the invoice at zero so you can see it was not quietly added back.
Is there a weekend or after-hours loading?
For booked work, no — a Saturday morning replacement costs what a Tuesday one costs. For genuine after-hours emergency attendance between 6pm and 7am there is a call-out from $290, and it is quoted on the phone before we leave, never added afterwards.
Why are your prices published when nobody else's are?
Because "competitive rates" tells you nothing and everybody writes it. A range with the reason attached lets you work out roughly where your job sits before you ring, which is the entire point. The bands on each service page are indicative — the fixed price we give you on site is the one that binds.
What if the final price is more than the quote?
Then we have made a mistake and we wear it. The only exception is when we find something genuinely different once a wall or a floor is open — and in that case everything stops, you get told, and you get a new number to agree to before anything else happens.
Do you take card?
Card, bank transfer or cash on completion. No deposit on domestic work under $2,000, and no surcharge on card.
Ring us and find out whether you need us
It costs nothing to describe what is happening to somebody who can tell you what it probably is. If it can wait until morning we will say so.
Plumbing Contractor PL 7742 · Gas Fitting GF 3318 · 12 months on workmanship, in writing on every invoice