Business ProfileforD & S Plumbing

Called for help researching & repairing a minor leak in our bathroom. Were told that they would send a repair man right away. No mention was made at that time about their fees or minimum charges. We waited around & finally 2 men arrived approx. 2 hours later & took 15 minutes to locate the cause & run a 3 foot long bead of caulking around the end of the tub surround where it met the tiles to fix the problem. We asked how much the fees would be for this minor repair & were told that the office handles all of the charges. Again no mention of hourly, minimum or travelling fees. A few days later, we received a phone call from the office asking for the e-mail address to send the bill too. Once again, we asked for the cost of this 15 minute repair, but were told that they had yet to input the data. No mention of hourly, minimum or travelling fees. Finally the invoice arrives by e-mail & they have charged us for an hour and a half of labour and travelling time for 1 plumber ( their office is approx. 15 minutes away ). When I complained about the excessive time charged, they told me that they could have charged us for the 2 men sent instead of just 1 & that a minimum hour plus travel time to be charged was a company policy. They had 3 opportunities before & after to tell us that, but failed to do so. Very bad business practice & we would not ever recommend them to anyone looking for plumbing repairs in the future.

Although we never want to have an unsatisfied customer with our services or fees, we also understand that we cannot satisfy all customers even with our best efforts.
It is not a normal practice for us to announce our fees on initial contact for us to send a technician. We gladly inform our customers of our fees on request.
It is stated on our invoice the flat rate for up to the first hour for both one and for two service technicians. Standard practice is a minimum of 1 hour charge.
These guidelines for fees are common across all services of all trades.

It is difficult and at times, impossible to provide an accurate quote over the phone as the scope of the work may be greater than the customer was aware. There is no charge for us to come out and look at the scope of work to provide a quote.

All our vehicles have two technicians as not all services/jobs can be properly completed with just one tech. On simple service calls such as this one, it will be billed out as one technician even though two showed up.
This service was successfully completed on the same day of receiving the call.

Even though our office is located approximately 15 mins from this service call, our technicians likely will be dispatched from anywhere in London or surrounding area.

We have been in the business for over 18 years. That does not happen from "very bad business practice"
We strive to provide quality services for all our customers.

We thank you for your business and payment.
Regards, Management Team.