Avoid Budget Plumbing

Here is a short story about why you should avoid budget plumbing. This story relates to a facility manager who operates a large facility that relies on its plumbing working well in order to keep residents and board members happy.

So, you have been using the same plumbers for many years. They are good, they know what to, and your plumbing runs pretty smoothly with no major issues. You manage a large facility and you are always looking for better efficiencies and ways to save on money.

Then, a new plumber comes along and guarantees to do the same job as your existing plumber for 80% of the price they have been charging. Your procurement officers rejoice because this is their only focus, reduce costs. You are very happy because it improves your bottom line … it all look good. You are prepared to give these new plumbers a go; what harm could it cause; whatever we can manage it, all this goes through your mind. Okay then, let’s do this. It’ll make for a change and make my procurement officers happy and they will probably work harder to further reduce my costs. It all looks positive from here. 👍

The new plumbers seem to know their trade. They get the job done. You are happy…

Then things start to happen … the new plumbers come up against some tricky issues they haven’t experienced before. Some of your plumbing is very old and has no accurate drawings, none of the new plumbers know what to do. They suggest: “we will just have to replace it all”. You think well, they have been saving us money so far, we could do what they suggest, even though it is not in our replacement plan. Okay, you give the go ahead and spend the money on replacement. Phew, that is over, plumbing is back to normal, the residents are happy, the budget is okay – only slightly dented, we are still ahead. Dodged a bullet with that one. 🤨

The guano really hits the fan when at 2am on a Saturday night … you get a frantic call it’s really bad, something about a major disruption to the facility plumbing. The solution is ugly, lots of people are going to be upset, it is going to take weeks to get this fixed and nobody is going to be happy. 😯😓

Somehow you recall your old plumbers never had these issues. You wonder, those plumbers were doing our plumbing for many years, perhaps they knew something more than our new budget price plumbers. A nagging voice in the back of your head goes, “why did we change from our old plumbers?” The plumbing worked, the old plumbers understood our needs, they understood our plumbing. The old plumbers seemed to have no trouble solving those clunky, funky anomalies that are now plaguing us. It is now looking like our new plumbers are going to have us replacing much of our old plumbing in order to make life easier for … well whom, for them.

How is it that our old plumbers didn’t have this kind of trouble with our plumbing? You think, maybe they did have the same trouble, but knew enough to make it work and save you from these rebuilds and late-night panic phone calls and stress.

How are you going to stop the cash outflow created by your decision to cut costs by using a budget plumber? Sitting at your desk on Monday morning, you try to figure out how to explain all this to the board of directors. The CEO can still hear the ringing in her ears of how wonderful these new plumbers are going to be and how much money the facilities group are going to save by using them.

Then it hits you … most things that start out cheaper, cost you more in the end. You slap yourself for forgetting this truism.

You eventually come to the realisation that your decision was a false economy and you need your old plumbers back.

Luckily, you are a realist. You swallow your pride, and call the old plumbers and ask them to resume looking after your facilities. You breathe a sigh of relief, your plumbing is in good and safe hands again.

You make a note in the facility management plan … AVOID BUDGET PLUMBING … contact Conburg Plumbing NOW.