Where are the Polish plumbers?

[Gatherer]

Out of interest what is the job? sounds like it's a bit of a nightmare and the tradesmen don't want to get involved. they should just come out and say that, if thats the case.

It's a long story but partly involves a combi-boiler and a booster pump, two pretty common things but both beyond the ken of the plumbers we've encountered.
And you're right- in some cases they just didn't want to get involved, which is a rich position for a professional. We all have our trades- in the service industry myself- and I just can't believe the consistently cavalier attitude to customers. You end up like the original poster hoping for some competition (or a slowdown) to put manners on them.

 

[ubiquitous]

...both beyond the ken of the plumbers we've encountered.
And you're right- in some cases they just didn't want to get involved, which is a rich position for a professional.

One of the hallmarks of a professional (and of good service in general, imho) is being able and confident enough to concede that one is not an expert at everything and to decline to take on a particular piece of work unless one is 100% sure that one has a sufficient level of expertise and knowledge in order to complete the job and deliver a solution for the customer.

You sound like you would prefer to have one of these plumbers get involved, and incur costs for you, even they do not know how to fix your problem. This doesn't sound sensible from your viewpoint.

 

[Gatherer]

One of the hallmarks of a professional (and of good service in general, imho) is being able and confident enough to concede that one is not an expert at everything and to decline to take on a particular piece of work unless one is 100% sure that one has a sufficient level of expertise and knowledge in order to complete the job and deliver a solution for the customer.

You sound like you would prefer to have one of these plumbers get involved, and incur costs for you, even they do not know how to fix your problem. This doesn't sound sensible from your viewpoint.

Just to be clear- it's only because they never came back to do the job (coupled with a noticeable lack of familiarity with the system spec) that leads me to believe the work may have been beyond them. I may well be wrong and would be happy to be proved wrong. I've yet to hear a plumber say that something was beyond their expertise- and this stuff as I said is not exotic- they just didn't do the job.

If someone had conceded they couldn't do it I'd hardly have wanted them to try and learn in my home and at my expense would I?
I agree with you knowing your limitations is a hallmark of professionalism- but so also are reliability, punctuality and courteous phone use.

 

[ninsaga]

Class work from some Polish Plumbers here

 

[aircobra19]

Class work from some Polish Plumbers here

No plumber or even handyman did that. Thats a spoof.

I can only echo other peoples experience. While there are some very good and professional tradesmen, there's a lot of bad ones. I haven't used any non-Irish myself, but the work I've seen has been decent, if not as good as the very best Irish tradesman. But it comes down to the person themselves.

But I see no reason why a non Irish tradesman who's been working here for many years, wouldn't be up to date with the latest equipment and techniques.

A little bit of competition will do no harm.

 

[Bronte]

That's no spoof, what we don't know is who actually did the work. I organised a 'reliable' plumber through a relation in one of the large Irish builders. The plumber also works for this builder. He put a hole through a ceiling, put an exit pipe into the shower tray, it was absolutely unbelievable as in this video clip, I kid you not - it was appalling. I'd paid some money for the work and refused to pay anymore, he threatened me with law etc.... He was Irish and still works as a 'qualified' plumber for this large Irish builder. To prevent bad blood my relation actually suggested I pay the Irish plumber!! I hired un qualified Poles to fix the job and they did an excellent job and my relation who subsequently went on to build a fine house hired not one Irish tradesperson from where he worked but instead hired the Poles I had found.

 

[joanmul]

We had occasion once to get a plumber who was a friend of a brother-in-law to do a plumbing job for us. It was a very simple job. It was a disaster. A sister-in-law got him, not knowing that we wouldn't have recommended him, and he was a disaster for her too. He leaves everything leaking. She calls him Leaky.

 

[gary71]

I work in a industry, where any poster here, if they wanted to could pick up some tools and start calling themselfs gas fitters, plumbers etc.. and i can tell you, just by reading some of the posts you could have a better working knowledge than some "professional" i have butted heads with. For me, it shouldn't be a issue about polish workers being better or worse than Irish trades man, it should be about con men charging for work they are not qualified to do, these plonkers come in all shapes and sizes, you will find most proper engineers would welcome a scheme to help identify themselves as professionals, because crap tradesmen can effect day to day dealings with a customer, i find when i identify faults, i see people trying to decide if i am full of it or not, so i would love to have a shiny badge, to show i have my papers and there can be a element of trust and i can get on with my job, as for pricing, in a ideal world you should get what you pay for and be able to choose a local who is established in the area or somebody passing threw with out the overheads, but as i said you have fellas charging top dollar for diy work, so good luck to anyone trying to decide what they have in front of them, be they Irish, Polish or like me a plastic paddy, because it can be bloody hard work.