southstarplumbers Reviews 74

Called them out at midnight in a Emergency they Attended on time give me a quote I accepted , them they carried the work out and completed the work and give me a full guarantee for the work carried out.will recommend as I like there work attitude.

Never had many problems, very straight forward, no different tariff. Replied my email immediately.

The plumber who came to see us a very helpful and professional. He was very tidy but communication was low so I gave him 4 stars.

I had the misfortune of having dealings with this company in January of this year. They came to my premises to install a new boiler. This procedure which ordinarily takes two days at the most in the incompetent, shoddy and dishonest hands of Southstar Plumbers took close to eight. Eight days for a boiler installation. They then proceeded to try and make me pay eleven thousand pounds for the new boiler, the installation and a power flush of the radiators. I'll just let that sink in. Eleven grand. Those two words are enough to highlight the fact that Southstar Plumbers are essentially conmen and thieves. They prey on clients who resort to them when they have no other option to fall back on. In my case British Gas reneged on their contractual obligations and I had to find an emergency plumber at very short notice. I found Southstar Plumbers. They proceeded to cheat, lie, and try and talk their way through eight purgatorial days of inefficiency and ineptitude. After they had left my premises I became acquainted with a real and honest and competent plumber and I asked him to review their installation, he told me it was one of the worst he had ever seen in his professional career, careless, potentially dangerous, botched, unobserving of the regulations, in short he confirmed what I had feared: that Southstar Plumbers don't know their **** from their elbow. Please don't use them: they will cheat you and for this they will provide you with a tenth rate service. Their license should be revoked.

I'd give 0 stars if this were possible. Eye-wateringly expensive and didn't solve the problem. Caused a second leak that had to be fixed by another plumber. Avoid. Plenty of other good, honest, reliable plumbers available. I have emailed them 4 times, and phoned 6 times.

There is a trend in the 1 star reviews - I had the same experience. Was quoted 189+VAT per our (+ call out charge). Seeing the large price tag, I asked before approving the work how much it would take - I was told 3 hours max, it ended up taking more than double (paid 1750GBP).
At the end, the issue that I called them out for was still there. The "offered" to further work on it, however without providing any assurance on the time / cost required.

A plumber called Naz came and fixed my bathroom leak that was going through my ceiling.

Highly recommend great job for a great price

Thank you

The plumber came and for 45’ he was just messing around.

Long story short, the problem was still there and I had to pay £200 for nothing.

Absolutely nothing!

Is better to have a wet floor than those guys into your flat, believe me!

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!£837 + £250 callout charge , for 2 hours on site , did not solve issue , still had water running after the visit , he could even locate the stop cock , left the property in worst state than when he arrived , totally took a single female on her own for a ride , the MD of this company doesnt want to know 100% unacceptable , we will be taking legal action against this company
LONDON YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

All my radiators were not getting hot at all and a plumber from this company fixed it. The plumber was very polite and professional and I could tell he was very intelligent. He also came in wearing mask and gloves to keep us safe unlike other companies. Highly recommend.

Really professional and tidy company. Great communication from the staff and the engineer explained the problem clearly and made me feel at ease with the work that needed to be done. Highly recommend.....

Do not touch this company. They tried to rip off my 86 year old cancer suffering Mother. Arrived at 5:30pm Friday and didn’t leave until 1:30am. Yes… 1:30am. Tore her bathroom to shreds, broke her Kitchen Plinth and in hinged an integrated washing machine door. By the way, they were there to replace the toilet flush upstairs but still managed to cause damage in the kitchen. On 3 occasions be of them sat with her in her living room trying to get her to transfer £800+ out of her account. On at least one occasion, taking her phone off her and pressing the buttons on her behalf! And this was after threatening that that would not leave or put her bathroom back into a usable state unless she paid up. Luckily my brother intervened and at 1:30am managed to get them to leave. The £800 by the way, was a down payment with an unknown balance to pay the following day if we were stupid enough to let them back in. Once I get some pictures though I will upload some of their handy work. 🤠. In the end a locally recommended plumber came the following day, put these cowboys work right and fixed the original issue for £120 in 2 hours. Yep, that’s right. £120 for what these crooks were trying to fleece my mother £800+ for.
Oh…. Then to top it all……. They threatened to take us to court. 🤣.

This company is a total scam.They overcharge and even include the phone call for booking (69£). Do not trust!

We were having problems with low water pressure. Looked up emergency plumbers, who appeared to have good reviews. Our plumber arrived promptly: this was when problems started. We were constantly bombarded with invoices, for which payment was demanded instantly. The hourly rate was £189. In total, we had to pay nearly £3,000! The day after the work was done, we found one of our rads was leaking. I contacted them, but they have not replied.
Their customer relations were dreadful, and we will never use them again.

TOOK MONEY DIDNT SHOW UP - HAVENT REFUNDED DESPITE PROMISING TO. This is factual. Called last week to arrange engineer to visit. Prepaid in advance to secure booking for two days later. Engineer didn't show up. Called Southstar, lady answered, said she would get back to me and didn't. Called back in afternoon to ask what had happened, got same lady and fobbed off again. Didn't return call. What's app South Stars to say very dis-apointed, not turned up, taken money. They ignored that, so chased, got promised a refund.... guess what. that didnt happen either. Now ignoring messages. Going to get refund through bank hopefully. Absolute disgrace. PLEASE check the more accurate reviews at Reviews.co.uk. They are scamming people left right and centre....

It is a sunday morning and my tenant texted to say the combi vailant boiler not working. I came across southstarplumbers and checked they had many positive trustpilot reviews so I went for it. They confirmed they have the same day service and was quoted £69 + vat for first 45min as minimum and able to book for 2-4pm same day - GREAT.

2.04pm my tenant forwarded an email from the plumber saying the job is more complicated than it seems and will now cost £189 + Vat PER HOUR, IN ADDITION to the minimum charge out rate (of £69). The plumber had since taken the instruction from tenant and gone ahead. Cheers - thanks for letting me know 1/2hr later. (I did ask at the end of the job why hasn't he contacted me direct.. there was a rambling but I don't really understand.. but I did get an invoice directly at the end of the job).

First question - the company has my details. Why didn't they contact me and ask me directly?

I visited the property personally as I like to understand the issue directly. That was already 1.5 hour in... he was not able to tell me whether he was any closer to getting it fixed than when he first started.. other than telling me the fan is not working... (should you not know this in your first hour?) I than have to do some math with him.. that if it is going to cost me £189 per hour and now potentially going to over £400 as it is in my second hour without him giving my any confidence that it is going to get it fixed ...did he think that I may as well get a new boiler. Oh, thats true - he exclaimed, maybe it is a good idea and he will cap it at 2 hours instead.

question no 2 - does he need 1.5 hour to tell me the fan is not working... surely when you are already 1.5 hour in your job and no where getting close, it is not that difficult to run a quick math that it makes sense to replace it? I did ask him why, he did mention there is a lot of testings to do to be sure...

At the end of 2 hours, I was told it is confirmed the fan and divertor valve needs replacing. I was also sent an invoice of £535.40 (2 hours rate + first 45min charge I was originally told).

Question 3 - why wasn't the first 45min charge included in the total cost? if it is the minimum charge, why didn't the plumber spend first 45min as the diagnosis and tell me the problem, then for me to decide whether to go ahead with further testing that will cost me £189 per hour? He arrived 1.35 and 1.40pm he sent the email to the tenant instead saying it will cost £189 per hour.. what was the original 45min minimum charge for?

I then asked how much roughly the 2 parts will cost me and how long roughly they can arrive.. he said he doesn't know as will need the office to look up the vailant model and google it.. okkkk... and oh, he did say he is confident these will solve the problem.

Then he asked if I can look at the invoice and make the payment. He did say he prefer me to make the BACs transfer there and then.. not sure why when I asked.. but he did wait by my side and he to call the company to make sure the payment comes through.

Question 4 - do they think I'll do a little runner and not pay after all that 2 hours hard work?

Anyway, it did take a little while longer than I like because after all this is a new payee to my bank..and oh, when I try to setup the BACs payee on my bank.. my bank says the company name on the invoice does not match their record.. so warned me it could be a spam company but I can choose to force through. Well, how can I possibly not force it through as I have a plumber waiting by my side to be paid. He did take a picture of the transaction details on my phone as well.. just to be sure that I pay.. how reassuring after 2 hours of testing.. I did force it through in the end. 3 hours later...I didn't get a receipt.. Bless. come to think of it.. i didn't get any email/text of the confirmed appointment either..

People, why do I feel like I have been taken advantage of because my boiler choose to break down on a sunday morning?

Question 5 - do you think I should listen to the advice to purchase the 2 parts and get it fixed by the plumber? he did provide his personal number to go direct btw. Happy to share if anyone is interested.

Vanessa

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!! I was quoted £69 + VAT for the company to disconnect a washing machine and a dishwasher, with the company saying it was a simple enough job. The job was apparently far more difficult, because the engineer did not carry the right size waste cap (ours was 43mm, and he only had universal ones - 40mm). So he had to source this (apparently the Screwfix at the bottom of the road didn’t have any) and for some reason this meant the job was a complex job, and the charge skyrocketed to £110 per hour + VAT, plus an initial fallout charge of £69 + VAT, with the whole thing taking 3 hours! You can imagine my shock when I received an invoice for over £400, when I was expecting £69 + VAT!! When I tried to discuss this with the company, they hung up on me, then didn’t answer the phone, and left both the engineer and I to sort it out. Eventually I paid £69 + VAT per hour PLUS a £69 + VAT call out charge (!) as the engineer was under orders to not leave, and reverse the work he had done until payment was received - £343!! Daylight robbery!! Never again - I strongly urge you TO AVOID THESE SCAMMERS!!

Now the company are saying I’m a liar - look at some of the other reviews with 1 star: they seem to have had the same issue as me... I’ll let the public decide who’s lying

Total rip off artists. Came to resolve a small leak, made a worse leak. Wasn't an emergency, chose to come out of hours, charged me emergency rates costing over £700 for 3 hours work. Didn't resolve the leak, just added an extra stop cock. Unnecessarily damaged and chipped plaster board. Wouldn't leave until payment had been made and claimed issue was resolved when it wasn't.
Total con artists steer well clear.

This happened over a year ago but my previous reviews seem to have disappeared on google and Im these guys are probs lt still screwing people over - be aware and be careful.

Competitive pricing, excellent quality of work and customer service.