There are a number of freelance plumbers listed in almost every major yellow pages across the world. Online classifieds are also filled with plumbing services which only consist of one or two people. Most of these services offer no guarantees, quotes and so there is no way of knowing what to expect when you hire them. At times people may consider hiring these freelance plumbers for small jobs but then they may later find out that they were overcharged.
Many of these plumbers are not even registered and may not even be tax payers which are all the more reason to avoid them. That said apart from all these reasons we look at a few other more serious reasons why you may want to avoid hiring plumbers via online classified ads and the yellow pages.
How do you know they are experienced?
You may call up the first available plumber listed in the yellow pages and they may even arrive within 30 minutes at your doorstep but how do you know that they are experienced to handle the job? There is absolutely no way for you to know that the person who is going to take apart your plumbing can do a good job, so all you can do is keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best.
A better thing to do would be to hire a reputed plumbing service to handle things for you.
They may have a criminal record
According to many experts one of the biggest dangers of hiring freelance plumbers who invest nothing more than in an advertisement is that they may have criminal records. People who have criminal records are often those who may go back to a life of crime if left unchecked. However, as a client you may not be aware if the plumber you are hiring was once a criminal and if that was the case what were they convicted of.
This not only puts your plumbing in danger but also your family. This is another big reason to stay away from plumbers you know nothing about.
They may be scammers
Have you ever come across a plumber who charges ridiculously low rates? There are quite a few individual plumbers who charge very low rates to attract people to their services. Once they are hired, they will ask for an advance to buy items like pipes, taps, washers etc. and simply disappear. At times all you can do is to report the matter to the police but this still leaves you back on square one i.e. a broken plumbing that needs fixing.
You may probably save more money and time by dealing with a professional plumbing service the first time around. That way if the plumber does not do a good job a reputed company is responsible to fix it till you are satisfied.
Will you get your money back?
What will happen if your plumbing suddenly breaks down just a week after a cheap plumber has fixed it? How do you go about getting your money back? In most cases the plumber you first hired will refuse to fix the problem again. They may say that you spoilt the plumbing or that your plumbing will need to be completely redone from scratch just to save themselves the trip and time they spend fixing your problem.
Some plumbers may even refuse to pick up the phone to speak to you. So, this means that you then need to hire a plumber again which translates to you having spent twice as much as you would have if you hired a professional service.
You get what you pay for
In the plumbing industry you get what you pay for. Cheap plumbers are often not experienced and those that are experienced are not cheap to begin with. Plumbers that have a good reputation will help save you money in the long term though because they will always do a good job and use high quality materials that last a very long time.
Citations:
- Tips to Find an Experienced Plumber
Mark has been in the plumbing industry since he was a young man. He received extensive training as a plumber from his grandfather before graduating from a professional plumbing course. He currently trains young plumbers and writes DIY articles aimed at helping ordinary people understand and fix common pluming problems.