Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Why I won't be using Neil Protheroe's services as a plumber again :(
I originally recommended Neil last time he did some work for me. He turned up at the time agreed, did the work and was a nice friendly guy who explained exactly what he had done, I was pleased that I had found a good plumber, and popped him a recommendation up on these forums.
That was last year, flash forward to January 2016
I was planning on renovating my bathroom as there had been a leak which had damaged some of the floor and I also wanted to replace the bath with the shower, so I gave Neil a call to give me a quote and a date when he would be able to do the work. He agreed to come round on the 30th Jan which he did and we agreed on the following day that the work would be done on Fri 12th Jan and he would arrive at 8am. The work agreed was to reroute a gas pipe, install a new waste pipe, provide all the pipework for the shower and install the shower tray.
Based on this, organised a couple of days off work so I could spend the Thursday ripping out the old bath giving Neil access to area he needed to work, and also arranged with my partner's Dad to travel up to us to help out as we planned to get most of the work done installing the new shower by Sunday.
Thursday arrived, we ripped down the bathroom and ensured everything was prepared for Neil the next morning. 8am came and went, and Neil didn't show, , I gave him a call about 10ish allowing for traffic problems and got no response, I tried to get in a touch with him a few more times during the day. I eventually gave up and organised another plumber to come give me a quote on Saturday. At about 2, Neil finally got in touch to explain there had been a plumbing emergency that he had to sort out, and he was actually around the corner, I explained that I at least needed the gas pipe removed today, and the hot water capped off so I could continue working. He came round later that day and did that work for me, and said he had some work on the Saturday, but he would be there between 11ish and 3 to finish the work. I cancelled the other plumber as I thought I was sorted, however I was wrong.
Saturday came, I waited and waited, but no word from Neil. Finally at 5pm he got in touch to say he was still on a job and as it was dark and raining he wouldn't be coming today. I asked him for a date when he would come and finish the work, no reply. Finally, he responded on Sunday when I said I was just going to get another plumber, he promised he would attend on Monday, and would 100% be there, he had one small job in the am and would come straight afterwards. So, like an idiot I agreed, made arrangements to work from home....
Monday came, no sign, I tried to call him, no answer, texted him saying I needed confirmation that he was coming, and I would appreciate the courtesy of letting me know what was going on. No response. I gave up, told him he would no longer be required and I contacted another plumber who hopefully is going to turn up.
I don't know why he didn't turn up, I assume that he took on some other jobs at short notice which he is often praised for in the forums. There are plenty of posts of Neil arriving at short notice to fix an urgent problem. I understand that sometimes this will happen, and as long as it's communicated to me I'm ok with that. All I needed from Neil was a call X has come up, I'll be there by Y, I'm really sorry but it's an emergency. However, I didn't even receive the courtesy of a call/text which would have taking him 2mins.
In light of this I'm sad to say, I shall never be using Neil's services again, which shame, because when he turned up he was a great plumber :(
TL'DR
Neil although performs good work when he turns up can be unreliable and non communicative. I would think carefully before booking him for planned work, of course as the many good reports here say, your mileage may vary.
Some other replies of him not turning up:
http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topics/recommend-excellent-plu...
http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topics/recommending-plumber-ne... (my original recommendation)
EDIT:
Neil texted me today to apologise for the no shows and told me there would be no charge for the gas work he did. I mentioned to him that I appreciated it that, and all he had needed to do was contact me. Hopefully he will improve this going forward as like I said, he's a nice bloke and a good plumber.
Tags for Forum Posts: neil protheroe, plumber
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by pete s on
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As a tradesman myself I have no issue with being 'used', as long as I get paid. As for it being derogatory, you say yourself that it's a bit of shorthand jargon and that's exactly what it is…shorthand, a naturally evolved contraction of 'using the services of' which is clearly a bit more of a mouthful. As for it being classist, are you assuming that the plumber who is being 'used' is working class and the person doing the using, middle class or upper? I use a plumber in exactly the same linguistic sense that I would use a barber, an accountant, an estate agent etc. Nothing 'classist' in that at all.
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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Fair enough, pete s - some are happy to be instruments rather than agents, I guess.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah on
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And though I may be middle class, I'm well aware that all of the tradesmen I "use" have nicer houses than me! Self employed people have the right idea.
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Hi Richard et al,
Just to say I had a very similar experience with Neil about 8 months ago. Called him after seeing recommendations here.
Came to view and agreed to do job , needed to be done fairly quickly as a tenant/friend moving into my old flat after bad landlord experience and disrepair.
Told Neil this and I cancelled another plumber due to good reviews here.
Then found him very difficult to get hold of, he answered one call to say still doing job my Monday-shower repair then never heard from him again despite a few calls and texts and asking at least to have courtesy to say one way or another . No reply. I didn't bombard him with calls or texts as I never want to beg someone to do pad work for me-bad sign in itself if you have to and I would then rather go elsewhere.I had to find someone else-original plumber-who did a good job at short notice, which was quite stressful.
I didnt post as was reluctant as have the old feeling of if nothing good to say don't say anything at all and know he must get a lot of work from here(he told me he did) and do a good job mostly. Also sure he sees reviews as he seems to have a good marketing post almost every month..
However given what Richard has said it was so familiar I had to post, especially given the stick he is getting for it and people do need to have honest reviews as we rely on them.
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We had the same experience with Neil about 5 months ago.
We contacted him as he had good reviews on HOL lovely guy and like Rich thought great finally found a plumber who will turn up when agreed.
We agreed a date and to be fair to him he did come but then when he was due to come back and actually finish the job was another story. Both my husband and I took the day off work and he didn't show up. We called several time and texted but no reply. When he did finally get in touch he said he was stuck at another job etc. We agreed another date so I took another day off work and yep you guessed it he didn't turn up, called him, texted him no answer.
He then texted me a few days later as though nothing was wrong - I expressed how annoyed (to put it mildly) and we agreed another date. He turned up for this one (well he had to really as he hadn't been paid for the original job) he was quite curt - like I was the one in the wrong - anyway he did job. He is a really nice guy and good plumber but his time keeping, not turning up and his lack of communication lets him down.
Like Sonya above I didn't post before as he is a nice guy and had such great feed by on HOL I thought maybe I had caught him at a bad time and had a bad experience with him.
When I read Richard & Sonya's review it was so familiar.
Neil is a nice guy and good plumber but I won't be using him again.
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It's very interesting that now others are coming forward with negative experiences - it makes me wonder how many other tradespeople could be unsatisfactory but people don't want to appear to contradict such a flush of positive reviews....
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When you get the name for early rising you can lie in bed till dinnertime."
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I wonder also. I have employed the services and expertise of a painter, plumber and electrician who all had really great reviews on HOL. One was really good, two were expensive disappointments for very straightforward jobs. Might have been my bad luck that I caught them on a bad day. Each time I got a few comparing quotes but went with the HOL glowing recommendation. In the future I've decided I'll use HOL but cross check the trade check review sites which I only found out about later as they have so many more reviews with greater detail.
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I'd be interested to know who the expensive disappointments were, Issy. I've made a list of so many recommendations from HOL but would not use if their reputation exceeds the quality of their work.
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It's not at all clear what you're trying to say here....
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I've been thinking about this a lot myself. Obviously we are not all experts so when we recommend someone I think this needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.
I found a tradesman through this site who I would not recommend to others. The experience wasn't bad enough to warrant a bad review. He quoted higher than another guy because he said the job would take longer - I thought great, he's thorough. It was more the case that it was a three day job because he didn't work full days, even when he said he would be 9-5! One day he didn't turn up so the job took a day longer than he said. And the finished job wasn't quite as good as he led me to expect.
Then I saw someone else recommend the same guy here and I felt very conflicted...
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