plumbfirst.com.au Reviews 17

My review is from an old job of installing a split system. I remembered today when I was talking to a tradie about them.

The plumber that rocked up wrote me this high quote after lying on my lounge room floor dunking biscuits in the cup of tea I offered him. At the time I thought it was quite funny but thinking back no it wasn't. When he went up into the roof to check an old gas unit I had up there for heating, he was up there for ages and I wondered if he was having a snooze. Big night out before I'm guessing.

Anyway I foolishly went with their quote but when I looked back on it he'd added a lifetime membership fee of something like $150 or $199. I've never used it and I did try once but was told by the woman on the phone she couldn't tell me the price until a plumber came out. By memory it was a simple job like changing washers. I didn't use them and went local.

What a blatant rip off adding that to my long itemised quote.

On the day of installation the guys were walking around on my cream carpet with their shoes on.

While the install went ok there were pipes outside not finished off and I had to chase for that to be rectified.

I'll never use them again and when I see their vans in the road I cringe.

Dodgy company obviously paying their plumbers for selling life long memberships that give us nothing.

PS the date of experience here is not true. I'd love to be able to add the year but it was appropriately 2017.

We had to replace an in wall cistern tank. Was quoted the job would take approximately 3-4 days.
121 days later it was finally completed. With a litany of bogus excuses as to the delays.
Despite discussing the a discount for the delays, we were threatened with legal action because the bill wasn't paid on time.

Company tried to quote us 9 grand for 4 new toilets and kept pressuring us to sign the contract, we got a second opinion and all that was needed was a new washer. Cost us 300 bucks including labour. Further to this was they would not stop harassing us to engage, calling and texting until we blocked their number.

I googled “plumber to change washers”. An easy and straight forward job. I told the Indian woman who answered this business number what I needed. I mentioned it was “a strata building with access to mains” (I’ve never changed washers, so wanted a pro to do it quickly and simply. I told her I didn’t want mains off for too long, affecting other residents). She asked about body corporate. I told her “I’m chairperson of committee. So this isn’t an issue”. She put me on hold. Came back and said “we require an upfront payment of $200 because it’s body corporate”. I said: “No you don’t actually”. And I hung up. This is blatant greed. She actually sounded proud to be purposely ripping off a customer, for no apparent reason. My old plumber (retired) has come straight in and been out in under 15 mins to change washers, at a reasonable rate too! There is NO difference whether it’s a strata building or not. This is a residential property. And this company’s Google ad says “we charge per job, not per hour”. Disgusting. Do not even bother calling them. After I hung up, I read their trust pilot reviews. And in that 5 min period, there were positive reviews added (bots).

Hi,

We dealt with Plumbfirst 4 yrs ago due to a drainage block. Ever since our first experience we have continued to use them. I would like to provide a high recommendation for their work ethic, commitment and promp service. They raise the bar in the industry . We have dealt with many but none even close to these guys. Please keep up the good work and fantastic team you guys have , thanks big time

These guys are thieves. Water hose in my toilet cistern burst. I was shocked to receive a quote if $923 to replace the hose and valve! I called another plumber and he came over and removed the hose and valve and encouraged me to go to Bunnings and Reece and see if I can find the replacement part and then to call him if I need help installing it. I found the part at Reece and it cost $123 and I could do it myself. So these guys were going to rip me off to the tune of hundreds of dollars. Beware.

DON'T SIGN ANYTHING WITHOUT TALKING TO OTHER LOCAL PLUMBERSRip off company, dodgy salespeople overcharged me for a simple hot water replacement by charging me $3800 dollars (the product was only worth $1250).
Asked a local plumber/Bunnings trades who said could have done for me for 300 dollars labor only.

What went wright....
Way overpriced service...
Left part of my evap cooler
I went up on the roof to check out the workmanship
I end up calling them it was hard to get someone to help you. that there was missing parts that would of damage the unit in the next windy day.. What kind tradesmen leaves the job like that..I got told they were getting caps screws to finish if the jod .all I got was text screws to mount the lid down still waiting for the original screws to come.
Don't use this company if you want to be short changed on workmanship and price.

I had a blocked storm-water pipe for which I called Plumbfirst to come and check out. A bloke came out and put a camera down the pipe and showed me the video saying that there were roots blocking the pipe and said he couldn't clear them with his jet, and the only way to do it was to get an excavator in to dig down to the pipe. The quote was for just under 2,000. When the workers came and did the job, they dug up the pipe and showed me the extremely small amount of vegetation that was in the pipe. There was no need at all for the excavation. Stay away from this company, they are rip-off merchants.

I was on overseas. The outside tap was a bit leaky so my partner called this compaby. They only cut the cooper pipe and put a $7 cap on top of that. I would say 5 min job maximum. They charged $450. When partner asked them why they have not put a new tap and just blocked the pipe they said it would be anther $285 for to install $12 tap. I have heard that this company is going to bankroupt. I am very happy to hear that. You don't deserve to do business.

My sight and cognitively impaired Elderly father had his drain cleared. Took less than an hour. They ripped him off for $560, then when I complained about the price they countered with "well, he signed the Contract".
Steer clear of these people who are obviously prepared to rip the elderly off.

request a plumber to do a roof inspection via there call center and told them its a 2 storey house. took the day off work to have a plumber arrive late with no ladder to charge me the call out fee and tell me i need a roof inspection. which meant another day off work for the job i original requested total waste of time and they believe this is acceptable service. no point calling the fire brigade to say the house is on fire and have someone turn up to advice it is on fire and tell you to book in for a fire truck to come out

Look they fixed a problem that an apprentice had caused multiple issues. They installed the toilets but 5 months later one was completely blocked so I called them out to unblock. People advised me that I shouldn't have had to pay the $213 or so. I was told I wouldn't have to pay the call out fee on top of that as I am a member. Maybe I should go elsewhere. They are way too expensive. My mother died last after weeks after I signed up for a bathroom reno and I lost a lot a few thousand dollars from the deposit. They don't have a heart.

I would rate this company zero if I could After being totally ripped off just over 3 weeks ago. See previous review. I now have another leak under my vanity where the tap has been installed. This company should not be in business! They are shonky!

I had a horrible experience with Plumbfirst. I called a plumber to fix a leak from my solar panel and wanted my solar disconnected and my hot water connected to my gas unit.
The Plumber who came in to check my leak, point blankly said that it couldn't be done and that I hv to replace my unit and gave me a quote for $2850.
I signed for the quote in haste as I was only thinking about getting the hot water problem fixed asap and paid $850 as a deposit. This Plumber also offered to connect a temporary Unit until the new unit is installed the next day.
After he left I felt something wasn't right and that the Solar could be disconnected as advised by my brother and this Plumber only tried to push a new unit so that he gets a good commission for selling a new Unit during the weekend.
I then called a few plumbers to reconfirm whether the solar could be disconnected. All 3 plumbers I spoke to said it could be done and that it was the cheapest option if I don't want to change the solar panels.
I then wanted to cancel the order and was told I need to pay 10% of the quote and $400 for the unit which I didn't ask for.
I didn't agree to pay these and had to let the plumber disconnect the temp Unit and leave.
I also checked online the prices other plumbers were changing to supply and install the same unit. As expected Plumbfirst price was also $1200 more. I sent screen shots to the Plumber but he said their prices are fixed and cannot reduce at all.
However I had to get them back bcos the 2nd plumber whom I called suggested that I am better off getting the same plumber to finish the half done job after they heard about my situation and what Plumbfirst had done upto that point in time.
As suggested I had to ring Plumbfirst again and they sent a different plumber to connect my hotwater to my Gas line.
This plumber was working on my unit for a while, the hot water was luke warm when we kept checking. After a while this Plumber said I hv a gas leak and I had to rectify that first.
My Gas was disconnected and I had no hotwater, no heating and no cooking facilities in the peak of winter. Consequently, I had no way of checking whether my hot water was working or not even though I was told it was fixed because the gas connection was disconnected
I was given a quote for $7250 to instal a new gas line.
As I realised the quote is too expensive, and I was not sure whether there really was a gas leak as the plumber who came first (from Plumbfirst) had already disconnected my solar (which he said couldn't be done) and reconnected his temporary Unit to my Gas line.
- if he had checked for gas leaks prior to connecting his temporary Unit (as required for compliance purposes) he wouldn't hv been able to connect his temporary Unit without touching my gas line.
- so was there a gas leak?

I did not trust Plumbfirst and also felt the quote was too expensive so I advised the 2nd plumber that I would get more quotes and then decide whom I'm going with to get my gas leak fixed.

I rang a few plumbers and one was able to come the same day.
To my amazement this Plumber could not find any gas leak at all hence he reconnected my heater,cooker and was trying to connect my hot water Unit.
He also said my Hotwater unit has not been connected properly. The hot water line was connected to the cold and vice versa. The temperature in the panel
had also been increased to 70 degrees when the maximum should hv been 50 or maybe 60 and not above.
This caused a short circuit and the unit was not heating up above 30 degrees and it was cutting off and the unit was unusable.
Consequently I was forced to get a new unit installed which was carried out by this Plumber.
He also gave me a report of his findings and a compliance report together with an Invoice (for supply and install new Unit) and for the 4 1/2 labour (trying to fix the mess caused by Plumbfirst). All these documents have been forwarded to the Plumbing Industry Commission.
I would never ever trust Plumbfirst. They are dishonest and are capable of taking their clients for a ride.

Thank you Jesse are amazing professional and honest. He did not rip.me off. He fixed the job unblocked the toilet after being ripped off by another plumber. He is kind and honourable. Jesse solved the problem and listened. I felt listened to as a women and I honour you for this. Thanks Jesse