Companies like this should be stopped from trading as they play on the desperation of the public who, by the nature of an emergency callout make themselves vulnerable to what is a company whose whole trading ethos would appear to be that of deceit and exploitation. We needed to find a plumber for a blocked basin in our bathroom which was explained clearly over the phone to the woman at Swift Plumber - but despite this - I was told there would be an initial callout charge but that the engineer would need to look at the work and give us a quote on site.She also advised the plumber would cover our local area and would be with us within the hour but on his arrival, which was over 2 hours after my call, we found he had travelled over 45 miles from East Sussex. Despite being told the plumber would quote when on site, he immediately asked me to give our email address and advised the company would have to quote before he could start. I received an email within minutes which to my astonishment gave a rate for the first hour of £249.00 plus VAT, with the the hourly rate of £219.00 plus VAT thereafter. Needless to say I called Swift Plumber back immediately to question this and was met with a very aggressive tone with the woman advising if we didn’t want to have the work carried out, we could let the plumber go but we would have to pay the call out charge regardless. I complained bitterly about the extreme cost of what should be very simple job and was told the minimum charge per hour would be £219.00 per hour plus VAT, despite her refusal to quote an hourly rate at the time of booking. The only reason I can see for this practice is to have both the customer and plumber put on the spot and ultimately either suffer the problem or pay the blackmail fee for the work.We felt extremely sorry for the plumber who had said he was called away from his home on the basis of being told we had a large job to clear some drains which would be worth his while but left with nothing, as we were unwilling to submit to Swift Plumber’s blackmail tactics.Do not use this company as we believe they are using vulnerable people to undertake the work and desperate customers who, if they cannot wait, are extorted from their money.
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Swift Plumbers offers a full range of services, including heating, boiler repairs, plumbing, bathroom installations, drain clearing, and electrical work, to cover all your domestic maintenance needs. Our transparent pricing begins when the engineer arrives at your property, ensuring no surprises and backed by our guarantee on all work.
With 24/7 availability and a rapid 1-hour response time, Swift Plumbers stands as one of London’s largest independent service providers. We employ over 200 highly skilled tradesmen—plumbers, heating engineers, drainage specialists, and electricians—completing over 2,000 jobs monthly and prioritizing excellent service and customer satisfaction.
We operate every day of the year, and our reliable customer service team is ready to dispatch a local engineer within an hour for any emergency plumbing, heating, or drainage needs.
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