Scammed customers struggle to strike back against dodgy plumbers.

Last week, Google announced it would ban all adverts by plumbers in the Netherlands in an effort to tackle the scammers who had been placing ads to lure in hundreds of victims.

The ban, unfortunately, came too late for Sophia and Johan who paid thousands of euros for a job on their houseboat in Amsterdam. Even worse, she says the local authorities have done little to help her and her partner Johan set things right.

A few months ago, Sophia and Johan discovered a leak in their ceiling during a cold and rainy night.

Johan, who was working nights at the time, tried to fix the problem, but eventually realised they needed to call a plumber who could determine what exactly was happening.

In a rush, he choose a company after a quick Google search, called them, and was told a plumber who could also handle problems with roofs would be there soon. Sophia, who was ill and feeling lousy, stayed up late to deal with the disaster and Johan headed to his workplace.

About an hour later, not just one but two plumbers showed up. “They told me they’d fix it and give us a lifetime guarantee,” Sophia told Dutch News. “Their call out was €400 plus €40 an hour for each plumber. They said I could claim it on our insurance and they’d send me the invoice.”

They spent about 30 minutes on the roof. When they climbed back down, the leak was slowly stopping but so was the rain outside. They told her it would end in about ten minutes and the remaining leakage was ‘old water.’

Then they showed her an invoice on an electronic tablet and demanded she pay it on the spot – the bill was also much higher than the original estimate at well over €2,500. All alone, sick, exhausted, and facing down two surly plumbers in the middle of the night, Sophia decided to just pay them.

“I was panicking and one guy said to me ‘the longer you take to pay, the higher the charge’ and that was when I knew I needed them out of the house,” she said. “I was scared. They said the invoice would be emailed to me within ten minutes. It never arrived.”

When Johan checked the work on his return home, he realised they had not done anything at all. The leak was caused by a cover that had been removed and set aside by a forgetful repairman a few days earlier. The leak had stopped with the rain.

Not the only ones 

Johan and Sophia both repeatedly tried to contact the plumber’s company for an explanation or at least a copy of the invoice. They were told a manager would call them back. They never did. Then they were told they’d get an email. It never came. They also diligently filled out an online complaint form on the company’s website but never got a response. After all that, Sophia tried to call yet again and discovered her number had been blocked.

Googling revealed additional details about the company and how it has treated other customers. Sophia and Johan found dozens of complaints, one star reviews, and blog posts with horror stories about customers dealing with problems caused by the company’s plumbers.

“There’s a whole community of people affected who also want their story to be known, primarily to stop them,” Sophia said.

One customer described their toilet overflowing with sewage waste after it was supposedly fixed. Sophia and Johan contacted a few of their fellow victims.

“The plumbers’ MO is so skilled that you don’t realise what’s happened until they’ve gone,” she said. “The people we’ve spoken to all describe the same feeling. One woman hadn’t gone to the police because she felt so stupid about what happened.”

Further frustration

Sophia and Johan repeatedly contacted the authorities and even went to their local police station with evidence of what happened to themselves and others. After several conversations and exchanged messages, Sophia says no action was taken.