“Now well over a month since engineer John answered my
booking on the 17/12/21. And ample time to confirm my
boiler itself, as having no real problems. And paid £144 for
relatively nothing. And as a vulnerable couple in our mid
80s we could ill afford. Now the issues in my review:-
*John arrived at 6pm when already dark. I pointed out this
was no time to call, for non emergencies, on vulnerable
customers - most of whom would not answer the door. He
did offer to leave.
But, I reluctantly allowed him to continue - Big costly m
mistake !
* He even had to use his own light source.
* Removed the boiler cowling.
* Spent some time checking the flue outside with comments.
* Pointed out that there was a pinhole and slight leak from
the fan housing which I could not see as it was so faint.
* Proceeded to condemn the boiler outright. While pointing
out a bit of rust on the cowling. While asking if I wanted to
keep it on, which, being unconvinced of the fault, and our
vulnerable situation, I said I would.
* The boiler continued to work on and off, which it had been
doing for a long time anyway. And which prompted me to
call on Pimlico Plumbers in the first place to fix.
* It was not fixed.
* Called a local recommended engineer (should have done -
had I known of him - in the first place)
* He diagnosed the problem was not the boiler but the
timer/controller/cylinder water temperature thermostat.
Which were sending false signals to the boiler. Hence the
erratic boiler function.
* He showed me how to manage the situation via the
water temperature thermostat while he locates a
replacement unit. Which will be arranged for a date after
Christmas. I was not charged a penny for this kind
assistance and time.
* John did not refer to anything else other than the boiler.
So missing the real reason for the erratic working of it.
* At the present time I am managing quite well.
* In conclusion, with my experience, of P.P. is that I was
virtually robbed of most of £144, as having not received any
service with a satisfactory result.
* While promised I would receive an email with the price of
what it would cost for a replacement fan. EVEN THIS
NEVER MATERIALISED. (in retrospect it was just as well as
a rough estimate would have been in the hundreds).
But having no message, what does that tell us !
* As a consequence, I certainly would not recommend
Pimlico Plumbers, as, excessively expensive, with poor
service, in my case, to boot.
Yours
A dissatisfied customer”
“Hours worked on invoice fictitious, materials costs fictitious, work done not up to regs - all agreed by Pimlico. Remediation offer was a refund but then I'd have to pay again to get them back to fix work that was botched in the first place.
No showers or full heating for 3+ weeks now and they couldn't care less!”
“Hi,
They missed an appointment because their engineer just parked the car near my building and tried to reach me by phone (I was in a conference), but he never try the belldoor (my wife was in the flat waiting for them). Now you are trying to charge me anyway, so I disputed the bill. Fortunately me building has CCTV, and the concierge sent an email stating that no plimlico car was in the building at that time. Instead of giving me an apology they are trying to charge this disputed bill with a "nice" 10% discount. This is totally unfair, what should I do?”
“Very poor experience of customer service! Paid £700 for fixing a non working shower and replacement of thermostat. The shower stopped working a week later. Solution given to me was that we will have to pay for another visit as the work was not guaranteed (apparently was written on invoice)!
I wish I had read all the reviews here before calling them. Will not be using them again. You are lucky if your problem gets resolved, if not, you need to keep paying £120 per hour for work that is not always guaranteed!”
“I agree I was completely over charged £1700 to install a hive hub. One person arrived and called in his friend who could have done what was needed and left but he stayed and they both charged me. Do not use this service. Their minimum charge is £1000- and each charged you separately as if you are paying for two jobs. Beware they are very friendly and lull you into a false sense of security.
By the way after spending the entire day they left without synching up hive with the app.”
“I was shocked to be charged £703 for replacing the seal around a bath, as the job apparently took 4.5 hours. Pimlico Plumbers were pre-advised that the gap between bath and wall was large and silicone wouldn't be sufficient. The plumber removed the old silicone and concluded that this was indeed the case, so had to go and buy some bath seal trim - at my expense. The whole job of removing the old sealant and applying the new trim took 4.5 hours, which seems an extraordinary time for a relatively simple task. Pimlico Plumbers refused to acknowledge that they were insufficiently prepared for the job, at my expense, and that the time taken to complete the work was excessive, again at my expense. I was shocked and disappointed with the whole experience.”
“I just had a horrible experience with a carpentry job with Pimlico Plumbers. I asked them to fit engineered wood floor and skirting on the ground floor in the kitchen area. The job ended up being 2x as expensive as alternative providers but I needed to do it urgently. As a result, Pimlico Plumbers did such a bad job that I have to redo everything.
Among other issues: the wood was not cut to size so that there are horrible gaps under the door.
The parts of skirting and steps are coming off.
The underlay is sticking out.
There are gaps between the floorboards.
There are gaps between floor and skirting.
Of course I submitted a complaint and now they claim that I don’t have any guarantee on the job (not sure how it is legally possible) and that as a gesture of good will the same engineer who did such a horrible job will come to fix some bits. I wonder who is going to pay for the damaged floor boards.
It just looked so incompetent but my main hope was that Pimlico Plumbers is a reputable company who will do a good job and will fix a problem. Apparently I am mistaken.
Maybe good for a small job, horrible for anything else. Terrible customer service.
Of course will be taking further legal steps.”
“£1800 to change just 6 metres of guttering! Yes that’s right but luckily I pulled out before I went ahead with the work following this exorbitant estimate from Pimlico Plumbers. However, I had to pay them £120 for an assessment. Pimlico Plumbers charge £100 by the hour plus VAT for any job they turn up for, whether or not any work is carried out. One man arrived and he said he needed scaffolding and it would take him a day and this is how Pimlico Plumbers arrived at the astounding figure of £1800. Another firm quoted me £220 including VAT for the work. I expected two people to turn up to change the guttering and because it was just him I had to hold his ladder. Pimlico Plumbers later said that on reflection it would have been better if two workers had been there but by me helping I made things more safe. I take this to mean that Pimlico Plumbers find it acceptable to ask customers to take responsibility for the safety of their employees.”
“TERRIBLE SERVICE. Do not use Pimlico Plumbers. Unprofessional service. Extremely poor customer service. Massively over priced. Failed to carry out repair properly and left toilet completely broken. Requested urgent fixing of the problem. No apology just tried to charge even more money then didn’t even bother to turn up to fix it. Phone service was rude, unhelpful and unprofessional. No explanation for failures just made excuses. I would never use Pimlico Plumbers again. Not professional. Not recommended.”
“Beware! Very smooth customer service when you phone to book. The pattern is then a catastrophe scenario where attending plumber blasts you with a list of things wrong with the boiler, quotes some exhorbitant fee to fix , but “ can’t guarantee “ it will solve the issues, and the punchline is, the only guarantee to solve is to replace the whole boiler at an even more exhorbitant fee. It’s a well rehearsed patter. AVOID at all costs!”
“I would not recommend this company to anyone, behind their attractive front is a cleverly designed rip-off scheme. They would quote low (don't forget to calculate VAT). Next, you will be convinced to pay a booking fee and then their engineer would ambush you with an exorbitant bill on arrival. Beware. Avoid this one. There are better options in the market. Be always clear about the final price you will have to pay.”
“My boiler was fixable but the guy came round and said it wasn't worth fixing due to age. He then gave me a quote for a new boiler for more than £4,000. I got several alternative quotes for about half the price. I paid a Saturday rate of £190 to be told my boiler wasn't worth fixing and then to be given an outrageous quote. A few days later another plumber came round and replaced the gas valve and serviced the boiler for £270 and told me the boiler was in good condition. I would never use Pimlico Plumbers again... very expensive and very disappointing service”
“I had an Pimlico engineer who wasn't be able to fix a leaking but he charged me anyway plus he charged me 150 pounds for extra 20 mins past 6pm although he spent at least 30 mins on call with his partner and I paid for that time,
I have complained to the customer service who said we will fix the issue and back to you with the refund but they are totally disappeared . very expensive VS poor service”
“My boiler was fixable but the guy came round and sound it wasn't worth fixing. He then gave me a quote for a new boiler for more than £4,000. I got several alternative quotes for about half the price. I paid a Saturday rate of £192 to be told my boiler wasn't worth fixing and then to be given an outrageous quote. A few days later another plumber came round and replaced the leaking valve for £100. I won't be using Pimlico Plumbers again.”
“I had a boiler service and was told a gasket needed replacing. I asked the engineer to replace it and he went to get the part. He did not reduce the charge for the considerable time he was absent and I paid without checking times properly.
When I phoned to complain I was told his vehicle tracker showed he had been away fromy property for 40 minutes. I believe he was absent from my flat for more like 75-90 minutes. There should have been a reduction in cost for this.
The customer service woman who phoned me back was unresponsive and had no time at all for my story.
My experience is that if you have a fixed-rate boiler service with this company (which I won't again myself) do not get them to carry out any additional work needed as you may be overcharged.”
“I had an experience with Pimlico Plumbers recently that I found bizarre. We had a leak from a shower on the first floor; water was coming through the ceiling into the kitchen on the ground floor below. I mailed Pimlico asking them to take a look.
When Pimlico has called in the past, they have cured the relevant problem and then recommended some kind of ancillary work. And as long as the main job has been done, I have gone along with this; a plumber needs to earn where he can, just like the rest of us. It may even be helpful; I have to take their word for it.
They came soon and went to work while I was at the office. My wife gave them the number to call me at work so that the plumber could recommend his extras, which involved some kind of new pipe above the kitchen. As usual I said, yes, go ahead.
When I arrived home from work I read the description of what Pimlico had done and saw the bill, which came to around £2,300. There was no mention of fixing any leak. There had been some sealing work done in the shower and a new pipe over the kitchen but nothing that looked like they had attempted to cure a leak. A couple of days later I sent Pimlico a video of water streaming through the kitchen ceiling.
A senior individual visited and appeared to me concerned. Next he bought a plumber to run some tests. This came up blank; they were unable to determine the cause of the leak. They said they would have follow up with a trace and access and that would cost £3,000 but, given what had gone on before, Pimlico could consider a discount on further work. I discussed that with my insurance company, who said that sounded rather expensive and they would expect the price to be in the £300 to £400 range.
I then called Plumb London. I paid a little around £120 for one of their plumbers to look at the leak and diagnose the problem. The diagnosis was in line with what the insurance company had guessed it would be, just by listening to my description of the problem over the phone.
Curing and restoring involved pipe and tap work, removing tiles and retiling, sealing and grouting, followed by installing new shower screens. This came to around £2,000. Had I continued with Pimlico, I would have been paying over £5,000 before any work on a leak had been started.
There have been no problems since. Plumb London also fixed the new pipe above the kitchen that Pimlico had installed but was leaking.
Pimlico tell me that I do not have a complaint because the work was “authorized” and they had offered a discount on future work. It seems easy to offer a discount when your quote is many multiples of the market price.
My objection remained that I had not called them to carry out the work of their choice; that ancillary business has to be earned; and that whatever work they did in the shower was of no value to us because we had to undo it to fix the leak. I wanted my money back.
The last mail I had from Pimlico gave a version of events that I saw as incorrect. I have gone back with corrections. I am happy to continue discussions with Pimlico but Pimlico has stopped responding.”
“I called Pimlico Plumbers as I needed someone to service my boiler. The helpdesk was super reactive and professional. The engineer, on the contrary, was a disaster: first thing he asked to view the user manual, which we didn't have. He was staring at that thing like it was the first time he saw one... Then he played a YouTube video to see how to service the boiler............. I called the helpdesk complaining about that, but I was told that it was impossible as their engineers were all super professional... I wish I had filmed that!
So, he left saying that he found an air gap issue, but he rectified it and, quote, "any further issues with internal air gap, further investigation required at the hourly rate".
The next morning, at 5am, the heating system kicked in and woke us up making a dreadful noise, gurgling, bubbling for almost 30 minutes! For the entire period of our holidays, every morning it was the same "concert".
I eventually wrote Pimlico Plumbers, but they've never doubted for a second that their engineer was the best, that he carried out a marvellous service and that the issue was pre-existing... Total denial! The boiler was working like a swiss watch before but after the King of Plumbers job, we now live with a mumbling cylinder that wakes us up every single morning.
Unreliable, unprofessional, uncaring, irresponsible, in denial, to avoid like the plague! Paid £138 for breaking my boiler, now I have to look for someone else and pay to rectify a problem that wasn’t pre-existing.”
“We asked Pimlico to check our boiler back in March. We picked Pimlico because of all the great reviews that can be found on other websites... The plumber was really nice and professional, and we made the mistake of trusting what he said. He said that we needed to replace the boiler, suggested a brand new boiler he had available. And we agreed. Things went bad on the very same day but we gave them the benefit of the doubt. Things were meant to be sorted out the day after. Except that of course they weren't and 7 months later, the boiler is still not working right, is costing us so much money to barely warm up the flat.
We paid full price, and so expensive it was as well, in the hope that it would be dealt with quickly, that the service and the quality would be brill.
7 months later, the matter is still not resolved. The brand new boiler provided by Pimlico has had 3 faulty parts already.
We have to keep chasing and chasing as they forget about us every time we stop doing so.
We learned from the boiler provider (which is currently refusing to validate the warranty because of something that Pimlico did) that the boiler that Pimlico gave us back in March was a 3Y old model, so much for brand new top price eh...
Please be smarter than us and don't be fooled by Pimlico, they do look the part, but that's all they do, stay well away.
We communicated with Pimlico through emails and phone calls, they can respond very fast like 1h, or not until they are chased a couple of weeks later.”
“Extremely poor and expensive service!!! We have paid over £1000 to Pimlico Plumbers to be left with the very problem they were called out (twice) to fix. We have had to call another company and they have fixed the issue in one visit.
Not only have we paid an insane amount of money to Pimlico Plumbers over two visits, when we have then called an alternative company to rectify the issue (which they did) we have been shown the appalling job Pimlico had carried out, whilst "attempting" to fix the issue.
Additionally, the plumber from Pimlico spent 50% of his visit talking, going back and forth to his van and generally wasting time and then left the house with the problem still not fixed! My complaint to Pimlico has been responded to with an apology and an offer to discount any future call out. Absolutely not good enough!!
Pimlico were paid (amongst other things) to install a "rodding eyelet" to allow rodding to an exterior pipe. When Inspected by another plumber after Pimlico left the house with the problem still not fixed (and £1000+ bill!!) we were extremely shocked to find the rodding eyelet/access had not been drilled through properly and simply covered with fernco coupling - see pictures.”
