FD Plumbers / Flinkdink Loodgieters - Think Twice!

Contacted FD Plumbers (aka Flinkdink Loodgieters) to assist with a leaking pipe outside my bathroom wall. Sent a photo of the leak so as for them to send the right team the first time and for the leak to be repaired asap.

Paid R839.50 on 10 May 2022 after 2 guys arrived at around 16:00 to come to the conclusion that the leak detection team should have been sent instead. Paid R1,450 for the leak detection team that was sent 3 days later after another person was sent in the interim also to come to the conclusion that the leak detection team should have been sent.

Leak detection team found that an elbow was leaking against the bathroom wall just below the tiles. I was shown all kinds of things by the person who did the leak detection on his infrared camera, after having been told by the manager previously that gas would be used to detect the leak. 5 days later a team was sent to fix the leak. Leak was not where leak detection team "detected" the leak. It was on the complete opposite side, 600mm from where they started breaking my tiles, next to the bath. Took them 6 hours to again, detect the leak. In total I paid R7,707.31. Also take note that they do not accept EFT. I had to pay this amount by credit card (or you can pay with cash) before the guys left my premises. A hell of a lot of money after having been told that FD Plumbers try to save their clients as much money as possible and by numerous occasions that a "Quotation Team" would be sent and that a quote would be submitted to myself prior to any repairs being done. No quote received to date.

I found that the copper tube they used to repair the leak was off-cuts used from previous repairs done, off-cuts soldered together with straight coupler. The team told me that they would be back in 2 to 3 days to close the hole, they wanted to wait until everything was dry first.

2 days later I enquired on when the hole would be fixed as I haven't heard anything. Good news - they decided to refund me for the initial call out of R839.50. Bad news - I was told that unfortunately they wouldn't be able to fix the hole. This even after their own plumbers told me that they would be back to fix the hole which tells me that under normal circumstances, they do indeed go back to clients to fix holes. In my opinion the refund was done as for FD Plumbers to get out of finishing the job. To date, now a month since I initially contacted FD Plumbers for assistance, I still have a 600mm hole in my bathroom floor.

On 20 May, my insurance broker requested FD Plumbers to confirm what the cause of the leak was. FD Plumbers did not respond. 7 days later, on 27 May, my insurance broker, once again, contacted FD Plumbers. FD Plumbers advised that the cause of the leak was due to corrosion. Now this does not agree with what the leak detection team initially found - a leaking elbow.

On 8 June we requested FD Plumbers to provide us with the piece of pipe they removed from my bathroom for insurance purposes as there are now contradicting statements from FD Plumbers - corrosion, leaking elbow. This pipe belonged to myself and should never have been removed from my premises by FD Plumbers. From the number of geysers on top of the vehicle's roof they guys who fixed the leak came with, I'm guessing FD Plumbers replace burst geysers for insurance companies and therefore they should know not to remove things like these from clients' premises. They informed us that unfortunately they could not provide us with the pipe as they have disposed of it. They were, however, kind enough to leave me all the broken bathroom tiles in front of my front door for me to dispose of.

We were also told by FD Plumbers that leak detection was successful as leak was detected within 400mm from where they started to break my tiles. I measured it - it is indeed 600mm, leak detection was thus unsuccessful, for which I paid R1,450.

For interest sake I enquired about a PIRB (Plumbing Industry Registration Board) COC to be issued for the work done. I was told that a COC could be issued, however, it should have been issued without me requesting it and work should have been done by or under the supervision of a licensed, qualified plumber. It makes me wonder if COCs are issued when geyser replacements are done for insurance companies. As per the PIRB, a PIRB COC must be issued when repairs are done to hot water systems. No PIRB COC was issued in respect of repairs done to my hot water system. One of the reasons why I chose FD Plumbers - were under the impression, based on Google Reviews and number of years in business, this is how they would conduct their business.

Fine print on their job cards: complaints not logged within 48 hours of completion will not be considered. So for example, say the pipe they installed in my floor, made up of off-cuts and soldered together with copper couplers, starts to leak, they do not take any responsibility for their own cheap installations. They're not trying to save their clients as much money as possible, they're trying to save themselves as much money as possible.

Wanted to give FD Plumbers only 1 star, but will give 2 stars for the team who finally fixed the leak as they did, in the end, find the leak.

Not always the best idea to make use of a business' services purely based on Google Reviews and what their website says about them.