The quality of the work at Tasman Plumbers Wellinton was very good and we are very happy with the job. The two plumber who installed the Rinnai heater were very friendly, professional, and tidy. They arrived on time. I would be very happy to have these two do work for us in the future. Excellent workmanship.
However, the managers of the business, in my view, were unreasonable when it came to the invoicing of the job. At the time of getting a quote I thought it was a bit on the high side, $3565, to replace an existing heater and install a new heater (which can be purchased with a flue for under $2500).
So I asked for an explanation ahead of agreeing for them to do the work, and they advised that there were more parts than I anticpated and the job would take most of the day. They said that their hourly labour cost is $70+GST per hour, which seemed reasonable to me. On the basis of this I was led to believe the labour time would be 12-13.5 hours, depending on the exact cost of the extra parts. I was a bit surprised by this, but was happy to take their expert judgement.
I accepted the job in good faith because: 1.) reviews for business on no Cowboys are very good; 2. the hourly rate was fair; 3. While expensive I was actually paying people to be in the house doing work (very happy to pay for as long as the job takes).
The plumbers arrived at around 8am and had finished the job and left us by 11:50am. Great. I therefore asked the owners if they would consider reducing the invoice slightly to reflect the actual labour costs. I also asked them to confirm what extra parts had been used.
They did not give me this Information and disputed me that the job had not taken most of the day. But the simple fact is: even if they charged me between the hours of 7:30am to 12:30am which would be more than enough time for travel time, paperwork and picking up the parts that would be only 10 hours of labour (2 people x 5 hours).
I was told the job would take most of the day. That was a key factor in accepting the quote, and it didn't take anywhere near that long. I was disappointed that they didn't think it fair to a small reduction in the invoice price.
The management then gave me a series of explanations to try to justify the labour cost that just didn't stack up (e.g. time to dispose of rubbish, there was only one box!; or time to issue the gas certifcate). They also refused to acknowledge the job didn't take most of the day (disputing my record of events).
I was surprised that they didn't either 1. front up to say they got it wrong about there being "no" extra parts or instead 2. tell me what those mysterious parts were. They refused to tell me how much they charged me for the heater and mushroom flue - I fact it appears they will never tell you the cost of the parts when you get a quote. Perhaps this is normal, but I found it very uptransparent.
I got the general impression that they were surprised I wasn't happy about being charged for the original amount and that I wanted to know the costs of the parts. Perhaps because they are a good business, they don't have much experience at this kind of customer engagement. Perhaps they genuinely thought I was being an unreasonable customer. Or perhaps they think they don't need to care as they have enough happy customers and a successful business. I don't know. Regardless of what they thought I had some genuine comments and questions that they didn't deal with it well.
I would recommend this business if you are not too worried about the price of the job, have time to get more quotes, or potentially bigger jobs. But the way they quote and charge does not seem very fair for small jobs like mine, so it might be worth clarifying the approach with them upfront. I do think this is an honest business who know how to deliver a good plumbing service, but they could be better at responding to the customer and being willing to front up when they've got something wrong. They will probably be good for others, but it just didn't work out for me. There are lots of people out there on tight budgets who I believe deserve better. " read more