Emco Heating Plumbing Drainage Gas

The plumber charged a very high hourly rate (and worked very slowly), and then DOUBLED the cost (based on local plumb centre prices) of the taps he bought on the invoice. He told me that the whole system was unsafe and would endanger my children, and recommended a refit costing several thousand pounds. (2 further plumbers said this was nonsense and nothing needed to be done). He agreed to compromise by replacing part of the boiler, but A YEAR later tried to charge me for the work that I had said no to, becoming very aggressive on the phone, insisting it had been done. He came out to see for himself that it hadn't been, and then tried to say I had underpaid for the original work.

I would not recommend that ANYONE use this man.

The plumber arrived roughly when expected, charging the emergency rate (£140 / hour) which I knew about (much more expensive than the competition, apparently) in advance. It was mid afternoon on Friday - not the middle of the night. It was a simple job - connecting a washing machine and a dishwasher to existing pipeworks in a space where there had previously been a dishwasher and a washing machine - but he was fairly slow about it, didn't complete the installations in over two hours, and spent plenty of time getting parts and going back and forth to the van. His view on the job was that the kitchen counter needed to be completely taken apart and rebuilt with a larger gap for the appliances.

The following day I and a friend had finished the job with no specialist tools or knowledge in 40 minutes. All the plumber had needed to do was to measure the gap with a tape measure and drill one hole.

So, booking someone with that rate is my own fault, and I've paid up, but I think it's fair enough to good service at that price. If he can't puzzle out fitting two appliances into a gap the size and shape of two appliances I don't think he's worth more than £2 a minute. Poor.

UPDATE - SOME MONTHS LATER

Have just discovered to boot that the dishwasher was plumbed in loose and has been leaking since it was installed. I'm awaiting a call back... so the experience was worse than I had thought. Avoid.

Like other reveiwers I too suffered with EMCO having called them to check my Central Heating system early January 2013, whuich was working but I was new in the flat and felt it needed technical oversight. The guy spread out his so-called work for 3.5 hours, charging £ 125 for first hour then £ 85 for subsequent hours. OK my mistake in accepting this. But on leaving with my cheque, my C/H system was worse then before and he specifically asked me to call him if any further problems. Well there was and for two days I had no Central Heating.. So I re-called and finally got him to return to check his work I had paid for. His first demand on his return was he wanted " more money " I remonstrated that the job had not corrected the fault he was paid to do, days previously, £ 495. After much arguing he left and I have since instigated legal proceedings aginst this EMCO - plus their regiustered office in London E2 8DD.A plumber friend later came and sorted the problem in 10 minutes.

Scoring guide - and recommendation -, I'd give 0 out of 10. These people should be exposed by every avenue possible.Beware.

The plumbing and heating engineer was very knowledgeable and happy to help work on any issues in our house. He responded within 1 hour to our emergency job, when I couldn't get response from anybody else during late night hours. My husband and myself would definitely recommned this company.