We advise the following: When these fellows bid on a job for you, get an estimate from them of the number of hours that they will require for the work, and ask for an estimate of the materials cost. Then do the math, and see what the hourly rate for the work comes to.
The following is our side of the story.
In our case, the estimate provided was $1500 for the removal of a concrete laundry sink, installation of a new plastic sink (for which we paid), and replacement of taps and drains. My wife agreed to this estimate under some time pressure--the old tap had started leaking in a stream, and the sink had been cracked and leaking for some time, I was out of town. She allowed work to commence, believing the verbal estimate to be just that--an estimate.
The plumber was four hours late on the second day, which is when he finally coughed up the written estimate--which appeared in the form of an invoice, such that after the fact, he could claim that she had signed off on the work. Neither payment terms nor arrival time and finish time appeared on the invoice. At that point, my wife felt under great pressure to sign, not understanding the scope of the work to be done, but with errands to run in the two business hours left in the day, a child to pick up at day care, and a long Thanksgiving weekend ahead without laundry facilities. She returned four hours later; the plumber was still working. He left as she was putting the kids to bed. She did not sign off on the work. The plumber had removed the old sink to this extent: he had taken it outside and piled it beside the front porch, with jagged metal protruding from it in an unsafe manner.
On Thanksgiving Monday, the plumber called to say that he had lost the Visa information. We noted that the old sink had not been taken away--just piled up at the side of the house. We called into question both the completion of the work and the astonishing price, considering the time spent--seven hours of work with perhaps $200 of materials (and probably significantly less)--$185 per hour.
Note that a unionized plumber in Ontario, as of 2004, made $43.50 per hour; journeymen earn, on average $30, according to payscale.com. Considering the cost of doing business--office, equipment, and fleet expenses, I would happily pay $100 per hour. Other Web resources suggest that, for an emergency call, $100 for the first hour and $75 for each subsequent hour is reasonable.
I can infer that if the plumber had not lost the Visa information, we would have seen nothing of him and would have been on the hook for disposing of the concrete. The missing Visa information was evidently a problem sufficient for him to return to the house, put the debris into his van, and then ask again for payment in full. We declined, saying that we would take the matter up with the company.
However, any attempt to negotiate with the company on the price was met with intimidation and coercion: "We must receive payment today or it is going to collection agency and will destroy your credit". This on the first business day after work had been done.
This matter will go to the Better Business Bureau, and possibly to small claims court. It appears to us that the company is in violation of several aspects of the Consumer Protection Act, 2002, which says that a representation is unconscionable--and therefore illegal--when "the person making the representation or the person's employer or principal knows or ought to know...that the price grossly exceeds the price at which similar goods or services are readily available to like consumers". In addition, according to the Act, a future performance agreement (which I interpret the written estimate to be) did not include terms and methods of payment--opening us up to the coercive language in our negotiations.
In terms of standing up for our rights before the work was done, we may not have done sufficient homework. (We did check HomeStars, which to our surprise had nothing but glowing ratings. Until now.)
Oh--and a note to anyone reading this from New Canadians--this is just the start, folks.
