About Leigh Plumbing Service Rates...

We charge our customers on a time and materials basis.  This maximizes plumbing service rates to customer fairness - the consumer pays for what he gets and gets what he pays for, no more – no less. Consequently, the plumber gets paid for his time and his materials – again no more and no less.

Leigh Plumbing does not increase its plumbing service rates for evening hours or weekend emergency plumbing service rates, or for our commercial Bio-Clean and Kontrol grease rap and drain treatments. 

 As the commercial says: "Life comes at you fast."  We understand that, annd we don't take advantage of it.     

Why Leigh Plumbing Doesn't Use Flat-Rate or "Up-Front" Pricing

The marketing campaign invested in convincing the consumer that flat-rate, or "up-front" pricing is the best way to go has been remarkably successful, and many consumers have been swayed to believe its claims: 

Evan Conklin of Evan Conklin Plumbing and Heating, Seattle, Washington, wrote the following statements and paragraphs.  Leigh Plumbing's brief experience with flat-rate, or "up-front" pricing, supports his analysis:

"Somebody needs to take a close look at where this flat-rate pricing has come from as it relates to small repairs. The customer didn't dream this one up." 

The concept is this: Increase the labor rate significantly, increase the profit margin on all materials sold and make a lot more money.

The way to achieve this, was to mask the higher price of both labor and material until it was too late to find another option. This was done by simply not having an hourly rate. With no hourly rate the consumer can not price shop.

 Now the cost of the job could not possibly be known until the plumber had gotten into the house, racked up some kind of charges such as a “show up fee”, diagnostic fee” or “travel fee” - typically $100 to $125.

Only then did the customer know the “flat rate” cost of the job...pay the $100 -$125 for nothing of real value - or go back to the phone book and call another unknown plumber.  

     We ordered an "up-front" pricing guide, loaded everything into the computer and optimistically launched off our new high profit system: "Flat rate pricing for residential service and repair work is intentionally designed to dramatically increase both the customers’ cost and the contractors profit." (Conklin)

So why did we abandon  the flat-rate, "Up-Front" pricing program after only 3 weeks?

We soon realized that when a truly experienced plumber, as Kevin is, works at breakneck speed and uses the "up-front" formula for profit, the cost of labor to the customer can be more than double the conventional "time and materials" billing system.  And well..."duh" to us...during those 3 weeks, our regular customers soon realized it, as well. 

The obvious and not-so-apparent results of years of flat rate pricing: (Evan Conklin, www.seattleplumber.com)

1. The general public is paranoid about calling a plumber out of the phone book. (For good reason).

2. The average cost of plumbing service to the consumer has gone up dramatically, way beyond the cost of  inflation - primarily due to the flat-rate. (Those of us on hourly have seen a dramatic drop in profits - leading to the conclusion that maybe these flat-rate shops are on to something)

3. The mechanics are poorly trained, as the bulk of most training is sales oriented.

4. There is little evidence that the plumber’s perspective is anything other than profit. If they do not up sell, they will not make what they would make if paid an hourly wage.

5. The pride of being a professional plumber is very lacking today. (I interview these guys all the time). Turn over is high within the flat-rate service shop due to burn-out from long hours and high stress. One guy I interviewed was fired from his last job for not making his $1500 a day sales quota (he claimed) at a flat-rate shop.

6. Customers rarely call twice making larger ads necessary in the yellow pages
Full-page ads are common ($15,000 - $25,000 per month!) in the phone book. If you pay out this much to advertisers, there isn’t much left for payroll.

7. Small local shops are invisible, as they can’t compete with large advertisers for exposure. Small neighborhood shops mean lower overhead and best pricing to the consumer.

8. Liability insurance costs have sky rocketed for all due to poorly trained incompetent plumbers causing property damages.

9. Employers certify many plumbers with little regard for proper training or knowledge of the craft.

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