Pimlico Plumbers
Reviews and Complaints

We paid £27k for a kitchen installation. When Pimlico reinstalled the gas cooker their engineer said it didn’t work. After obtaining the part they said was missing, a second engineer came to install it and raised different issues. We asked Pimlico to suggest a solution but they have refused even to discuss the issue. We raised a complaint through their formal procedures but they have declined even to acknowledge that. We paid the full quote in trust that they would resolve the question of the cooker but it seems that as soon as they got paid they refused any further discussion.

Expensive and mis-leading quotes

Lack of follow up or review

Job never completed !

Issues created

Customer Service dreadful , no effort to deal with complaint they just ignore rather than review the problem .

We have endless e-mails requesting support and explaining the issue and have been left with no option than to serve legal proceedings .

This is just a warning to other customers .

Be Careful .

Pimlico plumber arrived on Saturday 01 Jul 2023 to install shower cabin at 16:55 but charged me from 16:30 @200/hour on a Saturday evening. Upon complaint, no written response. Though they called me and asked for the evidence of 16:55 arrival. Their vehicle tracker itself proved that van entered SE1 only at 16:40 still they are unable to take my word when proved that their plumber recorded wrong time. I was also charged for 25minutes of report writing. Effectively I was forced to pay for 50mins total that is £166 for nothing.(25mins wrongly recorded arrival time and 25mins of report writing). Plumber kept discouraging me from getting Vidalux S78 installed and convinced me to throw it away. At the end I paid £694 to throw away brand new Vidalux SS78 and still refusing to refund money £166 for wrongly charged 50mins.

Pimlico Plumber customer service called me at 16:04 after I booked them for emergency work. They said that plumber with me in 40mins. I told them that it will take me 30mins to drive to the property. They said that plumber will take at least 40mins so it is ok. I left my home at 16:10 and reached the property at 16:40. Waited for 10mins by the parking gate. Noticed Pimlico plumber van drove past at 16:50. I ran behind the van to guide him to the property.. Finally caught up with him approx 150meters away. Plumber had to drive around since one way street. Plumber was at the property at 16:55. Plumber kept discouraging that Vidalux unit is not good quality and will leak and eventually convinced me to throw it away. Plumber took 25mins to write the whole thing in his report. Luckily he was honest here but dishonest in charging me to write the report for 25mins. I was not in right mental condition because I had lost £1637 in total for nothing that left my tenants without shower cabin hence I just signed the report and paid the money without realising that I have been charged for wrong arrival time and wrongly for 25mins of report writing.

I Pimlico plumbers l (08/04/23 16:17). We wanted a quote to instal an integrated fridge freezer in our basement flat and to remove the old model. I supplied the post code and address and was told that this would cost £120. On Wednesday the 12th of April Michael Tierney the engineer from Pimlico arrived at 12.00 pm. Immediately he informed me that he would be unable to remove the existing fridge up the steps and he would need to call another colleague and it would cost another one hours work @ £120 per hour. On the phone call, it was never asked if there were stairs in the flat. I asked if I could help him and the refused this and said it was too heavy. When his college, Mark Pierse, arrived I overheard them say it was actually not heavy, and I have since moved the fridge fairly easily on my own.

He complete the work then told me the costs would be now over £500 – I could not believe it and he explained that the charge was 120 per hour for his time and the 2nd person would also be charged by the hour. When I challenge the price he would not leave and was annoyed, he told me the rates had been agreed in my booking call. I told him that I was not informed of the hourly rate or given any indication of what the cost would be (, I was not asked about access to the property and if there steps (however the post code would clearly indicate this) and the fact that this is a central London location.

I became quite upset and he said he could reduce the cost by £100 if the left the old fridge behind. He insisted that I had been fully informed by about the hourly rates and that it was time based. I said this was not the case - he then called the his office and had them listen to the call - he passed the phone to me they said I had been fully informed but did not let me listen to the call. I was intimated as a single woman alone with this bullying man in my home I felt I had no choice but to pay, despite the fact that he had already called his colleague and charged for it.

I feel devastated by this experience. That the cost of the installation was more than the cost of the fridge is unbelievable. I now clearly see that I have been deceived, intimidated and extorted f. I have now had them sent me a recording of the call and there was no mention of an hourly rate whatsoever - so they lied to me again. At no point during the quotation call did Pimlico Plumbers indicate how the cost could escalate, and it seems wrong to charge one full hours work for another person to come and take 10 minutes to lift a fridge up a stairs. this is pure exploitation and fraud. They have now refunded me UK 200 and removed the old fridge without my permision.

I had a leak at my new property in Edgware Road and two of the Pimlico Plumbers team arrived and spent around 5 hours trying to figure out where it was coming from. In the end they concluded there is no leak from my property which was great, but I was presented with a bill of £1700 I had to pay there. I paid it part in cash and part or card. A week or so later I got several calls from their collections department that I still owed £300 as they had not included any VAT when I settled the works on the day.

In short be mindful what you’re charged for and when you pay as it seems they have poor systems, are possibly not trained on how to use them or are incompetent regarding charges. The job they needed to do was fine however they are expensive and to me seem to have hidden charges which appear even after you have paid what was asked for. Mistakes can happen but I was clearly told if I don’t pay the extra charges my details would be passed over to debt collectors.

That’s Pimlico Plumbers, not owning up to own errors and well its your problem you got to deal with it and pay. Id suggest looking for a cheaper alternative unless you really have to have them out and well will be paying for it.

Today (29 December 2022) I called a plumber at around 9:00 am to unblock my kitchen sink. I was told that today's rate would be £190 + VAT per hour. I was told that the plumber would come within 1 hour. At 10:45 I called them again to say that the plumber was not here yet. I was told he was just round the corner. He came at 11:15. After less than half an hour he told me that he finished the job. The blockage was gone. But he told me that during his work a small part of the plastic fittings was broken and now water was leaking. I asked him to sort that out. He went out, came back after about 20 minutes and fitted the new plastic part in less than 10 minutes. He than charged me for 1 hour 30 minutes work + cost of the plastic spare part (£37.50) that he had broken. The total that I had to pay was £387. But when he left my place I noticed that water was still leaking. I panicked, rushed out, and found his van was still outside. I implored him to come back and deal with the leaking. He came again and stopped leaking by tightening the spare part. Then when he left I carefully examined the old spare part that he had replaced. Nothing was broken in there. I WAS SHOCKED THAT PIMLICO EMPLOYED SUCH PEOPLE.

Having booked an appointment for a Pimlico Plumbers roofing engineer to come round last Monday, it ended up that no one showed all day (the early part of the day for which I had paid someone to attend our home to be here for the engineer during the early hours as I was at work) and then they tried to come post-6pm which did not work as not only was it complicated dark that time of day I also no longer could get access from builders in house next door for the engineer to access the side of our home on which the damaged gutter is located. I called several times that evening and finally rescheduled for tomorrow, but then Pimlico called and said that rescheduled appointment would have to also be rescheduled. I’ve just now called to reschedule and was told I had to wait two more weeks to get an appointment. I then asked to speak with manager 5 times and was told by the agent that the manager, Leah (whose name I had to ask multiple times to be given) would not speak with me. I have NEVER had such horrible service especially from someone in a “managerial” position! Leah should not be in that position if she can’t actually tend to a clients simple request to speak with them, full stop.

On Thursday 3rd November I contacted Pumlico Plumbers to change 2 leaking taps and to reprogramme the EMMETI heating system.

In order to secure the work a deposit of £192 was debited from my card. I received an email confirming this along with the date for work as Friday 4th November, between 12pm and 6pm. On Friday at approximately 5.50pm I called customer service with my reference number to find out where the plumber was. I was informed that they wouldn't be coming to my home that day because there was no one available in the area. I cancelled the job that day and requested a refund. I am still waiting.

Called Pimlico Plumbers about a leak from shower/bath on 2/7/22 - they resealed bath and dug a groove under waste - guaranteed work for a year and charged me just over £1600 - I knew it was expensive but was grateful it had been resolved. 18/8 leak started again. I called Pimlico - they said they couldn't come back til between 6 & 8 pm 19/8 but they turned up at 4.30pm in a very bad mood. They took off all the sealant they had previously put on and said that was all they could do because the tenant was larger than average and the bath wasn't supported (they knew this from the start but were happy to take my money and issue a guarantee) the only way it could be fixed would be to take the whole bath out and refit. I asked about the guarantee and plumber said he had been stupid to issue it and it was a mistake. I would have to contact office - I asked him to do that but they had all gone home at 4.50pm. I wrote an email to the office that weekend to which customer service replied saying no refund would be given. but I could have 10 per cent off the cost of refitting the bath if they did the job.

I feel they mis-sold the initial guarantee - I would never have paid that much if I had know it would still leak. That they offered the guarantee when they knew it wouldn't work

I called Pimlico to get my fridge water line installed, I was misled to think that the work would take an hour, then was made to pay £144. When the plumber came he looked at the fridge and said that the work would actually cost almost £900 just to fit the water line fridge! I of course refused to pay that amount, as I do not have the means to pay that amount for a water line fridge in this economy! Long story short, I ended up paying 144 for just a 20 minute work! Plimico should issue refunds if the work has not been carried out!

On complaining to Pimlico Plumbers, I have not been issued a refund.

I will take this up with my legal adviser because this is just daylight robbery. I want my money back.

£120 for 10 minutes visit to quote

Lovely engineer but clearly ripped off with price as he changed the price from two days ago when he had already started the job.

It seems there is a private agreement between them that even the simplest job will take over 2 hrs so they can cash in. It's very obvious. There were clear discrepancies between what he said To me and what was on the invoice too which I pointed out, but was ignored.

I explained in detail to customer services lady Claire what happened (after being passed through departments (to wear me down no doubt)) and still no resolution. I would have been very happy to discuss to settle but she seemed eager to take her time so still no resolution and an hour of my day gone (because apparently my time is worth less than the engineers). Very disappointed.

Pimlico installed my boiler in in 2018. In the subsequent maintenance service have raised a recommendation that the boiler system needs flushing. I raised a complaint with them saying that flushing should have been done at the time of boiler installation and if it was this recommendation should not have come on the invoice. I have been in email conversations with Pimlico for the last 2 months on this and no resolution has been reached. Pimlico today called me and said its just recommendation and to ignore it. Please help resolve this dispute.
After spending £6k for an installation, I would expect it to be done properly. They are neither providing clarity on this case nor resolving it. My ask is to investigate what was done at the time of installation and do the flush free of cost to ensure my boiler system is safe for us. I have got all the relevant emails (of the 2 months conversation), invoices (with the recommendation) and original installation checklist (claiming the flushing was done).

On the hopes that my request is a realistic one, please help resolve this dispute...

Pimlico Plumbers was called to repair a boiler that had a build up of dirt internally. Their plumber spent 3.30 hours at the flat and was unable to identify the very simple solution, i.e. to clean the boiler ! This is a very common, very simple issue, that was resolved in 1h40 minutes by a normal plumber that charges the market rate, which is half the Pimlico Plumbers rate. Despite Pimlico Plumbers then charged only 2 out of the 3.5 hours, we still can't understand why he did not quite simply used that time to fix the issue as any plumber. The Pimlico Plumbers require full payment in advance but the office is still failing to justify the 2 hours and also why their plumber could not even propose the correct solution at the outrageous rates they ask. A total waste of money and time.

Pimlico engineer simply looked at boiler and said i need a new one. So I paid £192 for them to try sell me brand new boiler at over £2000.00.
Got a second opinion and the boiler was repaired for under £200.00.
This is how Pimlico wants to make money, by not providing any service, just take money upfront and send someone to upsell you other things.

Our bathroom ceiling has been rudely opened two holes by Gary the plumber Pimlico sent without our permission just before Christmas 2017. We kept in touch with Pimlico customer service team and paid a visit to their office last year. However, they could not find out the leak and left the open ceiling unfixed for more than 2 years. The following is the email we reply to Shannon Tamsett the customer service assistant manager in February 2018. You can obviously know the difference between both parties.

Our engineer Gary has advised me that on arrival to the property he investigated the leak you were experiencing, he started by checking the pipe work in the bathroom above where the leak had occurred but did not find any evidence of a leak on the pipework, basin or radiators that he had visual access to. ( The leaking is from the speaker fixed on the ceiling of the guest bathroom on 3rd floor. I went with Gary to the bathroom above on the 4th floor. Firstly, he suggest to open the carpet. I agreed but he found nothing. Then he wanted to remove the tile on the 4th floor. He said the tile mostly got chance to broken. I hesitated and asked why not remove the speaker downstairs. After all, so much water from there and it must be good to dry the ceiling.) He then reassessed the area where the leak had appeared along with your wife and she suggested removing the speaker to see if this gave any better indication on where the leak had occurred from. Gary agreed to this and carefully tried to remove the speaker but was unable to due to it being Fixed into the floor and he didn't want to cause unnecessary damage to your property. He advised your wife of this and suggested that he would need to make access in the celling to try and trace where the leak was comping from as the celling had already been damaged due to water increase, they discussed how it would be repaired after and Gary advised that as a company we also over different trades such carpenters and decorators to make good.( It is not true. Gary didn't told us that he had difficulties in removing the speaker. He cut a hole nearby that decision was made by himself. If he told us, we would second thought and won't be surprised, By the way, my son was the witness. He was also doubting Gary's behavior. ) You wife advised Gary that she needed to have the leak resolved and therefore asked for him to continue with the work.（ It is true. Gary talked with everyone most time in our house. We had to say that Please find the problem and help fix it. It doesn't make sense talk too much to unprofessional people even to the boy. It is unfair for us to pay the time for his endlessly pointless chatting. We just want him to do something and wishing he could fix the leaking in the master bedroom. Unfortunately, he said he could do nothing without another person to remove the panel.This attitude is very disappointing. )

We are very disappointed by what Gary did in our house and we don't believe there is no problem causing the leaking. Please send your experienced staff to inspect the site. We really need your help for fixing the leaking and repairing the ceiling. You can forward my email to Gary to check the truth.

We are very welcome you to pay a visit and give a reasonable quotation.

From the above correspondence, you can feel how desperately we need Pimlico to fix the problem. However, it is very disappointing for us to wait so long.

I have had a very poor experience with Pimlico Plumbers so far. They are extremely expensive and did not resolve my issue.

I had an issue with the shower valve and they charged £120 to tell me that the whole shower unit would need to be replaced. After quoting me £2000 to replace the shower unit, I accepted the quote and the plumber returned and removed two tiles from the wall and the shower unit from the bathroom. The plumber then found some leakage and advised me it would cost £130000 to fix this. I was charged for 5 hours work for Pimlico to remove 2 tiles and the shower unit, a job I have been informed by two other plumbers that should only have taken a maximum of 2-3 hours. I complained to Pimlico about this to no avail. I naturally got other quotes once Pimlico wanted to charge me £13, 000 and was informed that the only problem was there was a crack in the shower tray and this needed to be replaced. The works have now been completed by another company for £900 rather than £13, 000!

I paid Pimlico a deposit for the initial works and as they only did £648 worth or work I am awaiting the refund of the remaining balance. Everytime we call we are informed it will be in our bank the next day. Needless to say we are still waiting for the refund.

Pimlico Plumbers charges £120/hr, one would expect extraordinary service for such rates.
I have spent approximately £1000 for getting two jobs done in the last month, some £800 of which were labor time. The job done was fairly average, with some delays, a plumber terrorising me about the state of the fixtures and suggesting all needs changing, and a screw up which led me to have to call them again to change my mains stop cock.
Having booked this last job two days ago, I am now (14:30) sat at my tenanted flat waiting for the plumber who was supposed to arrive between 9 and 12. And they don't know if they can get someone here before 4pm. They have offered me 10% off (!) to move my appointment.

toilet leaking still not fixed - poor customer service in handling problem
no care and follow up from company - had to go elsewhere after initial problem still not fixed

rip off service - too expensive - feel mugged off...
£90+vat call out for an hour then had to come back when parts arrived another £90+vat - paid nearly £400.00 total for a half hour job

Warning! Do NOT use Pimlico Plumbers. Charged an additional hour by dishonest engineer who offered our tenant to ‘use up' the prepaid hour then overran by 20 minutes and then charged a full further hour for work unauthorized by me- AND 40 minutes of that was described as ‘putting tools in his van and writing up invoice'! £150 an hour plus vat for putting tools away and writing up an invoice?! UNBELIEVABLE. Not to mention the fact the engineer then charged me two full hours despite telling the tenant he knew we had already repaid one hour and my confirming it over the phone! Outrageous! Cannot believe people's dishonestly! I will definitely be supporting independent plumbers in the future.