Greedy Plumber Oweighn

Beware of Sneaky Pricing Tactics! My Experience with a Locanto Plumber:

I recently had a plumbing disaster—my toilet was overflowing, and I discovered the culprit was a faulty inlet valve. In my search for help, I found a plumber named Oweighn on the Locanto website. We started chatting on WhatsApp, where he quoted me R750 to bring and install the inlet valve, plus a R250 call-out fee. Simple enough, right? But things took an interesting turn.

I did a bit of research and realized that the inlet valve itself cost way less than R250, so I told him I’d purchase it myself. He agreed. When he arrived at my place, I already had the valve in hand, ready to go. Here’s where I made a mistake: I didn’t ask about his labour charges upfront. In my experience, plumbers usually have a call-out fee and charge by the hour, so I assumed this would be the case.

The job was done in less than 15 minutes, and I handed him R250 for the call-out. But to my surprise, he told me I still owed him. Curious, I asked how much, and he threw out a figure—R550 for labour! I was shocked. R550 for 15 minutes of work? And when I asked what the call-out fee covered, he couldn’t even explain. It became clear: he had calculated the total to match the original R750 he quoted, even though I’d bought the part myself.

Suddenly, it made sense why he had asked how many toilets I had before sharing his call-out fee. As a woman, especially a Xhosa woman, I’ve seen this game before—some men see where you live and immediately try to inflate the price. But, no thanks! I paid him the R550, but I wasn’t about to let this go. I requested an invoice. And guess what? The invoice listed R750 without even breaking down the costs correctly—apparently, he couldn’t even do the math to realize R550 + R250 doesn’t equal R750!

In the end, it felt like a bait-and-switch situation, but I held my ground. Ladies (and gents), if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, ask about every charge upfront. Trust me, it'll save you a lot of unnecessary frustration!