Plumbingforce

Same guy as last time both times been great! On time both times service has been great defo recommend

Avoid, Avoid, Avoid this company. I booked a plumber on Friday morning and was given a slot, they took my payment details. I had to call 3 times for an update to be told oh don, t worry the engineer is coming to you next. I called again at 5pm for a further update and was told it could be up to 6pm. At 6pm they called me to say that the plumbers job had over run and they would book him for first thing Saturday morning between 9am - 1pm I called every hour and was told that they could not give me any updates but the booking is fine. At 12, o, clock I rang and asked for someone to contact the plumber and find out approx what time he was due to arrive. I was told that they couldn't contact the plumber as they are not allowed to have their phones switched on while working, I asked if they could send him a text just to confirm. I was told that they don, t do texts! I rang again at 12:45 to be told that they would be re-booking the job for the afternoon between 2-6pm. Again I called every hour to Ben given even more pathetic excuses why they couldn't contact the plumber " he's working on a boiler and not allowed his phone to switched on" next time "he's dealing with a gas leak"! I rang again at 4 pm and said that I would stay on the phone until they called the plumber to find out if he was coming or not to save me waiting another two hours after already wasted the whole day. To be told " oh your job in next in the queue, it hasn't been assigned to anyone yet but not to worry as there is still 2 hours. I asked if the plumber would definitely turn up to which they assured me they would. At 5pm they called to say that they would need to re -schedule for Monday.
This company is so badly run which reflects terribly in the level of customer service which is virtually non existent to give you bull $#*! excuses every time you ring.

Plumbing force? More like plumbing fraud! Do not touch with a 10 inch barge pole...

Flush wasn't working on my toilet so I had them come out to fix it... £260 later for parts and labour + VAT and the plumber" ripped out a pipe and failed to give a clear reason as to why it needed to be taken out (especially considering that he initially said we just needed a new siphon). In the process of ripping the pipe out he also managed to put a substantial crack in the toilet, meaning that I needed a new pan and seat and was billed £750 for parts and labour on that job to be carried out the next day. No apology from the plumber for breaking the toilet. £1000 to fix the flush on my toilet. What an absolute joke! Does plumbing fraud think people are made of money?! Or do they just not care who they rip off?

Plumber came back the next day and fitted new toilet as I felt I didn't have much choice in the matter once he had broken our perfectly good one. He left the old toilet in the hallway! So after all that he couldn't even dispose of our old loo for us.

Furthermore I phoned the number on their site to make a complaint and this number is only for making bookings. There is no one to speak to on the phone to make a complaint and I was told to email them my complaint and that the person I spoke to would make sure someone got back to me as a matter of urgency! I sent the email at 8am and heard nothing back all day. I later read on the website that complaints are to be made by letter. So I wasted my time and even took time out of work to compose my email to then later have to faff on and write and print a letter to post out to them in the evening. I am fuming!

We requested two taps being repaired. The kitchen tap levers are now in a different position (they should have been left the same whatever the reason, we only needed the o-ring replaced, why inflat the job?), the hot tap is a lot stiffer than the cold tap, they're 45 degree tap levers and the full range of flow is now just in 10 degrees, so they're over sensitive with most of the range now being pointless.

The bathroom tap was fixed fine, but the whole tap is now a bit loose against the sink and i'll need to tighten it.

He also did some extra work to the toilet, we signed off on this so it's fair enough, but in hindsight it wasn't that much of a problem. The cistern would stop flowing eventually. Cost us an extre £125 odd.

When quoted the price over the pjone of 99 per hour it wasn't mentioned that that was exc. VAT. I guess a lot of people would consider this, but probably not many domestic customers. The full cost for two easy tap repairs and the additional toilet work was over £450!

Overall the job was inflated with pretty poor quality. We just needed an o-ring replaced and an insert replaced for the other tap.

Won't use again.

Update: from 12 days later, the kitchen tap is now leaking again!? Literally what did we spend £450 on. Will be calling tomorrow to get a fix.

2nd Update: said they would get another engineer out but said they would charge us if it wasn't because of a part they used. For the high price and shoddy work it's not worth the risk. I also asked that if the leak was found to be for another reason, that should have been spotted during the first expensive visit and a FOC visit, but they disagreed. Mad way to operate.

I tried to change my taps, turns out the waste on my sink has entirely perished and was no longer attached to the sink. I called plumbing force to fix it and also do the taps while they're there as I realised I didn't have the right tools.

They were here for 10 minutes, and gave me a quote for the work, said someone will be in touch to arrange a time. Charged me £118.80. Then left.

3 days later no one has been in touch and I can't use my kitchen sink so I phone them and arrange them to come on the Saturday morning before 12.

Saturday comes and I check my bank account to find out they have charged me for the call out, and also another £160. They phone to say they will be late and should arrive before 4. I ask why they have charged me when the work hasn't been done.

They say it's for the 2 pumps they fixed.

What pumps.

The pumps they fixed when they turned up on Saturday.

I tell them that didn't happen and the bloke was there 10 minutes, said he didn't have the parts they needed and left.
They say they will have to look into it.

They call back at 4 to say they aren't coming today. I ask them about the money again and they say it's for the pumps they changed.

After going through the whole thing again they said they need to check with the engineer and he isn't in until monday. I offer to email them the quote as proof of what he actually did/gave us, and I email it over. They say they're look at it and get back to me.

I hear nothing until today when I have to phone them because they STILL haven't been in touch, and they say the charge is for the pumps they fitted.

Apparently her manager wasn't in. Yet miraculously they managed to put me through to someone that could help.

After having to go through the whole thing again with her and saying I had sent emails etc and got nowhere she said, oh, that person doesn't work in the aftersales so he coudn't help.

I tell her I'm not speaking to aftersales, and noone has ever mentioned aftersales because i NEVER GOT PAST BEFORE SALES!

Anyway... the money should now be going back in my account and I fixed my sink myself instead.

Moral of the story, don't use plumbingforce.

Dear reader, I sincerely hope my experience here would help others in the same situation to make a better decision than the one I made. My boiler was down, it was getting cold and I was desperately looking for someone for a quick repair. I would have gone for SSE's all inclusive package, only to find that it would take more than a week before they could send anyone. So I went for plumbingforce because they could send someone immediately. They claim to be transparent with the way they charge with no hidden cost. I will describe what exactly happened to me and let the reader decide.

I arranged the appointment online, that was easy enough. They told me the charge would be £ 99 + VAT for an up to one hour session if it's not on the same day and the plumber would arrive within a half day time slot. So I waited and waited and the plumber arrived an hour after the time slot. He spent about 10 minutes checking the boiler and suggested that in the longer term I would need a new boiler. Meanwhile he'd carry out a repair which would involve replacing the external filling loop, which may or may not resolve the issue but it would cost me a further £280 + VAT regardless. Then off he went, £118 gone and I was no better off. Had I agreed with the suggested repair, assuming the best case scenario that the repair did resolved the problem, I would have spent £118+336=454 for the repair. If the repair didn't work, then I would have been £454 out of pocket and I would have been no better off.

Instead, I waited out the week for the SSE plumber, which charged an all inclusive one off £75 + a 12 month cover of ~£14.50 per month (total ~ £250). Not only that the price covered the parts and however many hours of labour [Note: this is only true for simple repairs though, see later], it also came with a 12 month cover and money back guarantee if they fail to repair the boiler. So my recommendation to people is not to rush with these things. Go to a friend for a shower if you can, get a hot air heater for the time being if necessary etc. For me, the final diagnosis is that there is too much sludge in the system so it would need a thorough flush (which is not covered with the plan) and that was not worth doing because my boiler is rubbish and old. So, I had my money back from SSE and I am getting a new boiler (not from SSE) which would include the system flush as part of the installation.

Some companies think they can charge people a fortune whether they can do the job or not. I think it's wrong. I am sure most people would agree.

A Good Plumber arrived and he completed a relatively good job with the tap fitting. However a small leak appeared in the water waste pipe of the one part of the sink waste unit. Although the plumber made a relatively good test of the finished job (he was a good plumber to be fair), the sink which has a dual sink area presented a small leak in the water waste pipe of one of the two sink area waste pipes (One of the waste pipes was tested, however the second waste pipe from the small sink unit of the two sink workstation was accidentally overlooked for the leakage check). Within one hour of the completed job I called the support center to flag this leakage issue that presented. I also flagged the invoice that had been billed to me. I was assured that I would be charged £85 + VAT (and plus any extra charges for incidentals that might need to be included - fair enough). I was charged £99 + VAT for the job however this was not was agreed. The day of the job booking the plumber failed to attend even though I called the call center to esquire of his whereabouts. The time keeping is appalling. Because the Plumber failed to turn up on the agreed day (I spent the whole day waiting), I pointed out that the fee was slightly less at £85 plus VAT for any following day appointments so the lesser fee was agreed. The final invoice did not reflect this agreement so I called up to flag this issue. I was told that the excess was mistakenly charged and I would be refunded for this mistake. So there were two issues with my experience with Plumbingforce. The customer support center are extremely rude, unhelpful, confrontational and condescending. In my attempt to report the small leak from the waste pipe which had appeared one hour after the tap fitting, I was rebuffed by the customer care assistant. I was accused of insulting the Telephone customer care assistant. I was accused of talking down to the assistant merely for attempting to describe the leakage issue. I was told that if I want a plumber to examine the job I would have to pay a further £99 + VAT. I was extremely perplexed at the accusation of being insulting to the assistant. I asked her which particular adjective I used to insult her, however the assistant was unable to qualify her false and disturbing accusation. The customer service falls short of anything acceptable in regards to resolving any customer issues. This scant disregard to customer satisfaction and after care, the dismissal of problems and issues with no objective to come to a reasonable resolution, coupled with confrontational and reactive communication is the unreasonable behavior that you as a customer will have to contend with when trying to resolve any issues that arise with this company. I fixed the leak myself with a new seal that I purchased from B&Q, as Plumbingforce failed to call me back regarding my call to them about the issue.