Plumb London

Sent a plumber called Pavel for a call out fee of 75 pus VAT, plus £30 for every extra half hour. took credit card details in advance.

Pavel quoted 2 hours plus parts for changing a valve on a cistern - Around £300. When I questioned it - he offered to walk away and just have me pay the call out charge of £100.

It was clearly a straightforward job. But he appeared to drag it out as long as he could and at least over the hour mark. Still could only drag it to 1 hour 15 minutes. Then tried to charge me 2 hours. Luckily the office confirmed I should only pay for an hour and a half. Pavel started complaining loudly and told me to my face that he should have dragged out the work longer.

The main office seem to be honest and straightforward - but they clearly need to improve the screening of the plumbers they use.

Pavel seems to be competent as a plumber but unprofessional in engaging with customers. When he initially came to the house only my wife was there. I was so worried about the tone of his language and his overall conduct I rushed home to deal with him directly.

Avoid this company!
Terrible and crazily over-priced. I contacted them to replace a valve in a toilet. A plumber came out, didn't fix it, and charged £108 to tell me what I had told them; the valve needed replacing. They quoted me £340+vat to do the work.
When I asked what the £340 was for (e.g. parts / labour breakdown) they couldn't tell me. When I asked why I was being charged £108 to be told something I had told them, they couldn't tell me. I put a complaint in writing. I then had a couple of calls with their head office who wanted to 'go through the facts'. He tried to spin a very different story, got caught in a lie, tried to spin again and failed. Eventually said he'd give me a refund if I could give him a copy of an invoice to prove I had called someone else in to do the job. Incidentally the company I did hire (Westminster Heating and Plumbing - excellent) charged less than a third of what Plumb London quoted. The amount of time this has taken for me to sort out is utterly ridiculous.

Avoid like the plague. I know when someone try's to rip me off and can't do the job. These guys are scam artist & dodgy. Don't appear to have more than one plumber on their books. Not sure if they are even qualified. Essentially they look at your boiler - rip out a working part and claim it need 100's pounds repair, essentially more that the boilers worth, and try to hold you ransom. Best try vaillant-london.co.uk who's charges are very reasonable and they know what they are talking about.