In previous blogs I’ve covered  some of the many technical topics that I can comment on, and I’ll do more of that in the future. I’ve talked about low flow toilets that flush, sump pumps that pump and super efficient oil fired boilers. I’ll have more to say about gas boilers, water heaters, and many other plumbing and heating related topics and products, but right now I’d like to talk about money!

Dennis Foley Plumbing is a flat rate plumbing contractor. That means that we will give you a price in advance for just about anything that we do, and we expect to get paid the same day.

Standard Water Heater

To help illustrate what a flat rate contractor is, let me tell you a few stories.

Here is a typical burst water heater call that many of you have put in to a plumber in the past. Let’s say he’s a good one and calls you back promptly. He comes to your house, takes a look, maybe makes a few phone calls, leaves and returns either that day or the next, with a new water heater. He disconnects the old one, installs the new one during which he realizes that he’s missing a part. He leaves to get that part, returns promptly, finishes the job, takes the old water heater with him and leaves. Hey, I said he was a good one. He called you back, did the job promptly, took his trash with him and completed the job in a timely manner. There is one big problem though. You have no idea of what the bill is going to be. You don’t know if you’re going to pay for the first visit, the return visit, the extra trip to the supply house, you don’t know what was included and what was extra, you don’t know if taking the old heater costs more, and you have no idea when you’ll get a bill in the mail! Sound familiar? If you’ve used a good plumber it will. I know, because I was that good plumber. My customers used to call me up and ask for the bill! When I was busy I wouldn’t bill for more than a month for smaller jobs, sometimes more. And my customers didn’t know what I was charging them, and when. Often I had to go back and figure out what I was charging them myself. I didn’t know either.

Contrast that to what we do as flat rate plumbers. First, we strive to always have our phones answered by a person. Sometimes it might be an answering service, but they always let us know when someone calls. Then we explain that there is a $49 dispatch fee, and that the plumber or technician will tell you the cost after they look over the problem. He arrives, looks at the water heater and gives you a price. You know the cost in advance. Many times he’ll have what he needs to do the job on his truck, and will do it right then, and you know the cost in advance. He explains what is included in the job, and let’s you know if any thing not included needs to  be repaired. And you know that potential extra cost in advance. He starts the water heater and realizes that his truck is missing an essential bit of hardware. He has to go to the supply house to get it, but you know it’s not costing you anything extra, because you know the cost in advance. He finishes, cleans up and takes the old water heater, which you know was included in the cost, and collects the money. You knew at all times what was happening, and what the cost was. That is flat rate. Hey, we’ll show you the prices in the book anytime you want!

I can tell you  more stories. Here’s another one about water heaters. One of our customers decided to have Home Cheapo install a water heater for them. Hey, it was 30% less than the cost my plumber quoted. I do understand that motivation, I’m not rich either. To keep the story short I’ll tell you the outcome. He didn’t have hot water for 2 weeks. There were many trips to his house, and many extras, to the point where the cost ended up being over $300 more than our quote. Of course, they would have hot water in few hours if they had given us the job. Just check out Yelp to get some feedback about Cheapo Depot plumbers. You do get what you pay for.

Here’s another one. We had to replace a back outlet power flush toilet. We hate them, and our toilet company doesn’t make them. We quoted the job and installed the new one. There were so many problems with it that we had to return the first one and install another one. There were so many problems with that one that we returned it and installed a third one from a different manufacturer. The customer paid the original quote for the plumbing. That’s it. Hey, we gave him a price and we stood by it

In the price book there is a list of value rates. Those are the discounted rates that the The Denny Club members pay.

Thanks for listening. Sorry I don’t have any pictures of money!