As a homeowner, chances are that you will need the services of a plumber at some point. Plumbing is generally the kind of trade that should be left to professionals, but not all plumbers will provide you with the same service. There are plumbers who operate out of small family-owned businesses that have a sense of honesty and integrity, but there are also other plumbers who will do their best to charge their customers as much as they can for seemingly simple tasks. These are the plumbers that work on commission, which means they can charge more money for each problem they fix. This isn’t a bad system in theory, but in practice it can give some plumbers a license to “discover” new problems that absolutely need to be addressed now lest they grow into something that will be even more difficult to fix in the future. Of course, each of these issues adds more to your overall bill, and in the end some people end up paying hundreds of dollars more than they should be paying.
If you need to hire a professional plumber to fix a problem in your home, it’s best to stay away from commission-paid plumbers if you have the choice. There are certainly trustworthy plumbers that are paid on commission, but unless you are absolutely sure that you know one, it’s best to find a licensed non-commission local plumber instead. These plumbers don’t go out of their way to charge customers for jobs that may or may not be done; they charge customers for the job that they were hired for and nothing else. Even if a commission-paid plumber is honest and won’t try to rip off clients, a non-commission plumber is almost always going to be cheaper.
Take a look at local licensed plumbers in your area the next time you need a plumber, and always trust your instincts whenever you hire an independent contractor for any kind of repair or maintenance service.
By Nick Wert
