How Plumbers Respond To DIY Price Complaints, Do Integrators Have This?

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Brian Rhodes
•Jul 12, 2018
IPVMU Certified

I recently needed to have a licensed plumber do some work.  Like security integrators, good plumbers are not cheap (nor should they be) and they commonly deal with DIYers who claim they can install DIY equipment much cheaper.

On the invoice, the plumbing company printed this to cool off anyone upset about high prices:

My thoughts:

  1. Who the heck reads this?!?!  Wall of words in tiny print on a ticket, I bet no one that might be swayed by this reads it. There has to be a better way of expressing/displaying this, but how?
  2. I really like the points it makes to justify higher prices - better equipment, skilled techs, on-site service & warranties. These are all 'value points' many integrators sell themselves on too.

Do you print something similar on your invoices? Do you think it works?

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Brian Rhodes
•Jul 12, 2018
IPVMU Certified

The language here is not plumbing specific, so I wonder if other trades use it as boilerplate?

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Undisclosed #1
•Jul 12, 2018

You can have the plumber tattoo it above his plumber crack. - Joke.

Perhaps make a t-shirt with the verbiage and send it to your customers once the job has been delivered.

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Undisclosed #2
•Jul 12, 2018

"Many of the products we offer are available only in professional grades"

Possibly true, but then again, many are not.  I see various "pros" shopping for plumbing, electrical, lumber, etc. at our local "home centers" all the time. For plumbing in particular often times the stuff at the local home center is inferior to the almost-identical same product through other sources (eg: a Delta faucet might have plastic parts at the home center and metal parts when purchased through a proper supply company), but many times the homeowner really doesn't know the difference.

 

(1)
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Sean Patton
•Jul 12, 2018
In reply to Undisclosed #2

This always bothers me. "We don't sell the same stuff as the big box stores", run into them at the Pro Desk @ Home Depot the next morning.

In the security world there is a distinction of closed channel equipment/software and equipment you can walk into Best Buy and purchase. Certainly, that line of distinction has been made blurry through Amazon/online retail purchases, but there are still a few manufacturers whose products are difficult to find online from legit sources.

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