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anonplumber7
@charter.com

anonplumber7 to Prevailer

Anon

to Prevailer

Re: Water heater pilot light won't light

You're actually paying for a plumber at maybe 55 bucks an hour if he's union. Probably less with a mr. rooter guy. That includes hourly wage, insurance and whatnot too. He probably drives a 30,000 dollar van or maybe a box van which could cost more. Insurance, 1500 dollar a month yellow page ad at least, tools, insurance, bond, franchise fees. Mr. Rooter gets a percentage of every service call...

They're not making as much as you would think. The fact that it costs 10 dollars for the part doesn't mean much at all. It costs a lot more for the company just for that guy to show up at the door.

but I have had good luck cleaning off the thermocouple...

By the way, I know that mr. rooter gives up front pricing. If you had a problem with it why not tell him to leave?

runnoft
Premium Member
join:2003-10-14
Nags Head, NC

2 edits

runnoft

Premium Member

said by anonplumber7 :

You're actually paying for a plumber at maybe 55 bucks an hour if he's union. Probably less with a mr. rooter guy. That includes hourly wage, insurance and whatnot too. He probably drives a 30,000 dollar van or maybe a box van which could cost more. Insurance, 1500 dollar a month yellow page ad at least, tools, insurance, bond, franchise fees. Mr. Rooter gets a percentage of every service call...

They're not making as much as you would think. The fact that it costs 10 dollars for the part doesn't mean much at all. It costs a lot more for the company just for that guy to show up at the door.

but I have had good luck cleaning off the thermocouple...

By the way, I know that mr. rooter gives up front pricing. If you had a problem with it why not tell him to leave?
I understand the economics of rolling a stocked truck with an expert technician, he can only make so many calls a day, his expenses build even when there aren't enough calls, franchise company that drove out the mom and pop shops, yadda yadda, but here's the point you're missing, anonplumber. If they charge over $175 or $215 for a five-minute repair job on a $10 part most customers can do themselves, and the customer realizes he's being ripped off, that same plumber doesn't get called back when there's a more expensive repair that requires some real expertise, and buys some bad word-of-mouth and online reviews to boot. It's shortsighted. Sometimes the smarter thing to do is to give the customer a break somewhere and use the quick easy repair to build a longer-term customer relationship. There are lots of ways to do that.

I note you're quoting $1500+ monthly for a yellow page ad. I wonder how long it will be before that starts to seem like a ripoff to you because customers are moving away from yellow pages before calling a plumber. It may still work now, especially if it's easy-mark senior citizens that are the target audience, but I wonder for how long.

Prevailer
Freeze a poopy.
Premium Member
join:2001-10-03
Your Mom

Prevailer to anonplumber7

Premium Member

to anonplumber7
said by anonplumber7 :

By the way, I know that mr. rooter gives up front pricing. If you had a problem with it why not tell him to leave?
Because I can't leave work to be there during the day when they came. My wife, who doesn't know any better, was there. I had to get play by play in between calls. He had already left to go get parts by the time I found out anything about it.