Plumbing dispute - Advice needed

Hello all,

My water main line running from the meter to my home leaked under my yard. I had called 4 plumbers to give me estimates. I hired the second plumber as they have good reviews on kudzu. They quoted $2200 and offered to do the job for $1900. They mentioned that they will trench under my yard and replace the pipe. They did a good job, but they were able to finish it by just digging two holes, one near my meter and one near the wall where the pipe enter my home. He was able to pass the 3/4" Black PE tubing through my existing 1" PVC which was leaking. The whole job was completed in 2.5 hrs and approx $1000 / hr is extremely crazy.

The final two plumbers returned my calls and quoted $600 and $900 respectively for the same job using the same materials.

I feel that I have been cheated and have paid almost 2 to 3 times other reputable plumbers have quoted. I have to repeat that I'm not complaining about the quality of the job, but have been taken for a ride for trusting the plumber.

I would like to negotiate a fair price with the plumber who did the job. I paid with a check (12/14/2014) if that makes any difference.

I'm looking for advice on what my options are.

Thanks!

Newbie Homeowner

Welcome to the site.
Did the quote say he would replace the 1" pipe or did it say he would replace it with 3/4" pipe, if so he did not fill the contract.

nealtw said:

Welcome to the site.
Did the quote say he would replace the 1" pipe or did it say he would replace it with 3/4" pipe, if so he did not fill the contract.

Click to expand...

This is the description of work

"Replace water line service with 3/4 PE pipe from meter to copper inside basement" Total 1900.

There is nothing wrong with asking for a break on the price but he did do what he said he would do with a lot less dammage to your yard. If you had contracted someone to do it this way and if they had trouble and had to trench the job would then have paid more, or would you have said no this is the contracted price.

lithnes14 said:

This is the description of work

"Replace water line service with 3/4 PE pipe from meter to copper inside basement" Total 1900.

Click to expand...

I do not want to sound cold or a smart azz.
please do not take it that way.

this is the reason, you should get estimates from different contractors.
and then WAIT till all the estimates are in before making your decision

you can ask for a break in the price.
you signed a contract, he fulfilled the contract. pay the man.
you are having buyers remorse

You can't get gas at Exxon and say you'll pay less cause it 10 cents cheaper at Shell down the road. You agreed to his price before he started the job, not after. Sorry, you owe him his money, stop payment on the check and you could be prosecuted.

When I was a young guy and making about 3 bucks per hour I locked my keys in my car and called a locksmith. He came out and said it will be 35 bucks. And I said how did you come up with that price and he said the cheapest window in your car is 40 dollars and he handed me a hammer and told me he also replaced auto glass. I told him go ahead as I had tried every coat hanger trick I could think of to no avail. He went to his van came back with a 4 foot long polished stainless curved rod thing and had my car opened up in less than a minute. Looking in the van he had hundreds of these things all tagged. I asked how much does one of those things cost and he said about 25 bucks. I remember thinking he just made $2000 an hour. I was only really mad at myself for locking the keys in there in the first place and my dad pointed out I wasn’t paying for the actual time he spent doing the job I was paying for all his overhead and all the time he spends sitting around waiting for someone too stupid to remember their keys to call him.

In your case the plumber quoted you worst case and allotted enough time for the job in his schedule based around the pipe getting stuck and then having to go to plan B and dig up your yard. He got lucky and things went smooth and your yard wasn’t as messed up as it could have been.

The same analogy could be made say he did need to dig up your yard and unloaded a ditching machine and cut a slit across your yard in 15 minutes and laid the pipe. You are not paying for the 15 minutes you are paying for his equipment and all the time that equipment is waiting to be used. You would feel better if he had two guys with shovels hand digging the ditch for 8 hours and you could equate the cost to labor.

I plow snow a little and I have a truck and plow that might cost someone 40 grand. Someone will stop me and ask me to plow a 200 foot drive way with 2 foot of snow in it and I tell them 40 bucks and they get mad because I can do it in 5 minutes. They don’t relate to it was going to take them 5 hours to hand shovel it.

As Frodo said get all your quotes and references ask questions see who you trust and weigh if you want to try and DIY to save money and then pull the trigger and if the job is good don’t look back.

i've had a few try and run off,
onr guy owned a 7/11 store. funny accent.
his septic pump went out. so i gave him a price. he accepted. i replaced pump, ck valve
we went into his store to get our money. and were informed he did not have it all.
Dan, my helper was a HUGE guy. he turned the open sign around to closed. stood in front of the door
he said. we will be right here till you get back.
I had to cover my mouth i was trying to laugh so hard. he paid us. immediately

had a lady bug me for 6 mths to repipe her house. I did not want to. because the "hood" it was in. nothing but trouble.
finally, in an attempt to get rid of her once and for all. I told her I would do. gave her a price to do the job 2 [twice] the going rate. and I wanted 1/2 up front. [momma did not raise no fool]
she paid me half. when i was almost done. she had to "run to da sto fo a minute"
never came back.

after 2 weeks. of calls to her house, no one answer, and a knock at the door. tv on, car in driveway
no one home.

the line from the meter to the house was stolen by ?????
i got a phone call about 6 am.."Is aints gots no wadder"
I told her to call roto rooter and hung up

I'm sure we all have story's like that.
Customer has one piece of coil stock missing on a fascia on a two story house and I happen to be in the area on another job.
I quoted $100.00.
And the lady went nuts about the price.
Let's see 1, 40' black tip ladder Over $400.00, 1, 35' ladder $300.00, brake, $1700.00, roll of coil stock $75.00. Stainless steel nails $9.00 a box, snips $58.00, labor for 2, people, plus truck and trailer to get the stuff there, insurance, taxes, ECT. ECT..
Umm your right the price is to low how about $200.00.
So much for giving someone a break.

I had a somewhat similar contract situation as yours. Diplomacy on my part worked for the best. I came to the understanding there was actually no real "legal" recourse therefore had to appeal to their sense of customer satisfaction. After reminding them they estimated a minimum of 3 days work, and to that I accepted the estimate, they agreed the price could be adjusted. In the end I was refunded nearly 40% of the contracted (and paid) price.

Link to thread where I posed a similar query.

When I used to bend wrenches for a ford dealer we charged a "book" rate. This is what the national labor rate estimate is to do a particular job. However with experience and applying tricks of the trade often a good mechanic can do the job in less time than the "book" rate. That is how we made money. So if the job calls for 3 hrs labor and we can knock it out in 2 hrs then we gat one hour of gravy. Therefore it is totally possible to get paid for more than 8 hrs of work in an 8 hour day.

There are too many people out there working an hourly job who think that we shouldn't be charging them our normal service call of "lets say" $85.00 for 15 minutes of work. This is the case for us in the pump business. Things like Bugs in the pressure switch, tripped breakers, bad start capacitors etc. are things that can be diagnosed in minutes and repaired in a few more. If you were to sit down and figure all the outgoing money of a day at the shop, you would quickly learn that the $85.00 show up money didn't even cover the wages, gas, insurance, wear and tear, use of things like pipe dope, PVC cement, wire nuts and all the other things that are normally thrown into that same $85.00; didn't cover an hours work and we still have to drive back to the shop or to the next job.

Plumbing dispute - Advice needed

I'll keep this simple. You got the job you contracted for at a given price. Now you've decided that for your own reasons you'd like to pay less and are trying to wiggle out. You've come here looking for validation. Forget it. Pay what you owe.

I like the route that golem took. He came here and asked questions and he understude that he really didn't have much to complain about. That should never stop anyone from asking for a break and in his case he got one. That's never garrenteed but I will bet he would call that contractor again and refer him to others. That guy didn't lose money on the job he bought advertising.