First impressions last

I used Burgess & Partners Plumbing services for the first time this past week based on their radio campaigns. My drains were blocked at home and I knew my DIY tools were not going to be effective. I'd like to share my experience as a customer in the hope that the comments can be used as constructive feedback.

1. I appreciated the B&P website and quick response for someone to travel to my house. The pricing T's & C's were clearly specified upfront.

2. There were 4 access points to clear the blockage. The B&P team chose only 1 of the points to unblock the drain despite me showing them where the other drains were located. In hindsight, B&P chose the worst of the 4 options as it did not provide easy access to the main sewage line where the blockage was located. It was probably chosen because the extent of the blocked drain was easily visible where they worked but it was only a symptom of the actual root cause.

3. B&P could only get 3m of their drain cleaning machine into the sewage pipe based on the access point which they selected. The team which unclogged the blockage, used 65m to solve the problem.

4. B&P concluded that the sewage pipe flowed under the house and that the house had caused the pipe to collapse over many years. The other plumber which I used, proved that the sewage pipe flows around the foundations of the house and that B&P's conclusion was in fact incorrect.

5. B&P's staff only spoke to me when they were asked to do so by their head office team although I stood close to them and asked what their options were. The plumbers which cleared the blockage, spoke to me constantly and took me through their thinking process to understand the underground pipework layout and their systematic approach to solve the problem which I really appreciated.

6. B&P works on a rates based approach - the longer they spend on site, the higher the cost. I was advised to get a more expensive B&P camera crew on site to diagnose the problem when the first team concluded their unsuccessful attempt at unblocking the drain. Based on what I now know, this is the wrong advice as the camera is not waterproof and the pipes would first need to pumped out. Secondly, disposing of the sewage water is not straightforward due to the faecal matter and it should only be pumped into a storage tank which means more cost and time. Using a camera also does not solve the problem, it only provides more information for decision-making. The team which cleared the blockage charged me a fixed price upfront and did not use a camera. They used a similar drain cleaning machine to B&P but with more s****.

7. Lastly, to give credit to the B&P team they pointed out a new leak on a hot water copper pipe close to the area in which they were working. It was below ground level and was detected based on the sound of water escaping and temperature of the hot water pipe which it was connected to. I was later able to get another plumber in to repair it. I was very grateful for this feedback as it could have been an expensive leak based on the size of the crack in the pipe.

I have dealt with other plumbing companies across JHB over many years but this was not a company which gave me a positive first impression.