Monday, November 8, 2004
Plumbers' flat rates frustrate consumers
By CANDACE HECKMAN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
The plumbers' description of her broken, root-clogged drain
pipes scared Jaimie Shaw so much that she started throwing
the toilet paper in the trash can and running down to the
basement after flushing to make sure it hadn't flooded again.
She didn't have the $23,000 the plumbers estimated it would
cost to replace her badly damaged sewer line. In the meantime,
she said, the plumbers acted like aggressive salesmen and
told her she wouldn't be able to go "number two"
without causing flooding.
Joshua Trujillo / P-I
Jaimie Shaw, foreground, and Mary Lou Blakely in their basement
bathroom where sewage backed up, leading to an inflated repair
estimate.
Shaw and her partner tried to get the contractors to drop
their price or, at least, provide a complete breakdown of
the labor and materials needed for the plumbing. But the plumbers
refused.
After calling a second, third and fourth plumber to come
out to her White Center home, Shaw discovered that her pipes
were fine. No break, no damage, no reason to replace them.
"I couldn't believe it," Shaw said. "I was
fully expecting to shell out thousands of dollars to a plumber
who could replace my so-called broken pipes. But when they
all said that there was nothing to replace, I was furious."
The company, South West Plumbing & Waterheaters of West
Seattle, has drawn dozens of complaints to the Better Business
Bureau and has logged 57 to the state Attorney General's Office,
including seven this year and 11 in 2003.
The Attorney General's Office receives many complaints about
contractors -- and plumbers are the contractors most often
complained about.
Although many customers have complained about South West
diagnosing unnecessary plumbing work, nearly all of the complaints
involved the contractor's practice of billing by the job,
instead of by the amount of time the job is estimated to take.
The practice of billing by the job was the reason the South
West plumbers could not give Shaw and her partner a breakdown
of their repair estimate.
One of South West's managers, Helen Kennedy, disputes that
her plumbers told Shaw that the line was broken. Kennedy said
the work the plumbers recommended was necessary to give Shaw
what she asked for: a guarantee the sewer would never back
up again.
But Shaw said she never requested that.
Her partner, Mary Lou Blakely, began questioning the plumbers'
motives after they refused to detail the work estimate.
South West is not alone. Many plumbing contractors, particularly
large firms, will use a by-the-job rate to bill their customers.
"I think that the frustrations we hear from a lot of
the consumers who come to us claiming they've been gouged
are often attributable to those who do not use the by-the-hour
pricing," said state Assistant Attorney General Doug
Walsh.
Details are usually lacking from most flat-rate estimates,
Walsh added. When customers don't understand exactly what
they're paying for, they easily feel duped.
Some consumers would complain about being overcharged, no
matter how a job was billed, said Larry Fritts, a business
agent with United Association Local 32, a plumbers and pipefitters
union for the Seattle area.
In one example, a plumber could go out and quote a $400 flat
rate for the job. The customer would sign off on it, but at
the end of the job, the customer realizes the plumber was
there for only an hour.
In another example, a plumber could go out and quote an hourly
rate for the same job. But if he runs into complications,
it could take several hours to complete a job. The customer
might then question the plumber's diligence.
"It's kind of a double-edged sword," Fritts said.
The local union represents contractors who bill by the hour
and those who bill by the job.
"Personally, I think consumers are a lot better off
with the hourly rate," Fritts said.
South West advertises otherwise. A recorded message on the
company's telephone system repeats, "We charge by the
job, not by the hour, which saves you money."
"If the contractor bills hourly, then there's no incentive
for the contractor to get the work done in a reasonable amount
of time," Kennedy said. "In a flat-rate situation,
the customer knows upfront what it's going to cost them to
get the work done."
The flat rate also protects customers from jobs that go awry,
requiring more time than estimated, she added.
Fritts and Walsh disagreed.
Fritts said hourly plumbers also often give customers an
upfront estimate based on how long they think a fix might
take, factoring in parts and other costs.
Walsh added that by definition, a good plumber usually has
few problematic jobs. So, while there is a risk, the customer
is more likely to save money by hiring an hourly contractor.
He added that the flat-rate prices many plumbers carry around
in company manuals are so "mysterious" that no one
from the Attorney General's Office has been able to figure
out how they were derived.
"Our pricing structure is based on over 25 years of
industry experience, which includes over 1 million completed
jobs. We feel it fairly represents the cost of providing products
and services of the highest quality to our customers,"
wrote Terry Turner, South West's customer service manager,
in a letter responding to a customer complaint two years ago.
One million jobs represents 109 jobs per day every day for
25 years for the company. But in another letter responding
to the Attorney General's Office earlier this year, the company
said it served 800 jobs per month, about 25 jobs per day.
Kennedy declined to discuss details of South West's business,
such as number of jobs, how the company pays its employees
or how their job rates are calculated.
Emergency situations are the ones that put consumers at the
greatest risk for being taken by an unscrupulous contractor,
Fritts said.
"I think, because we were women, they thought they could
take advantage of us," Shaw said.
SMART CHOICES
Always shop around for plumbing services, even in an emergency.
Try to identify at least three reputable plumbers before an
emergency. Get references from friends and family members.
Check contractors' certifications with the state Department
of Labor and Industries. See the Web site at www.lni.wa.gov
Ask the plumbers to give you a detailed estimate of how much
any job will cost and how long it might take. This way you
can compare hourly costs, even if a contractor bills by the
job.
P-I reporter Candace Heckman can be reached at 206-448-8348
or candaceheckman@seattlepi.com
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