I recently had a handyman company I’ve used before come over and update my bathroom. I’ve used them before and they do good work at reasonable prices.
In this case, it’s a small bathroom, and what I wanted them to do was paint, replace the vanity and sink, and tear out the old light fixture and replace it. They did all of this and I’m happy with the work.
Because they were in the bathroom, I’ve been using the other shower in the house. I just went to use the shower in my bathroom (the one that they worked on) and discovered that the man had flipped the switch to make the water come out the bathtub faucet instead of the shower (probably to rinse out his brushes). I never use the bathtub, only the shower, so I never flip this switch.
So, the switch was stuck, and wouldn’t flip back. I pushed harder on it and got it to move some, but now no water is coming out at all from the shower OR the faucet.
I called the company back and talked to the boss. He said it’s probably some kind of valve, that they get old and eventually fail. But he doesn’t want to fix it for free. He’s getting grumpy about “If I have to fix everything I touch because it’s old…” and trying the passive-aggressive “Well, I like you as a customer, so if I HAVE to…” (with the implication that I’m being unreasonable).
My point is, the guy doing the work wasn’t supposed to do anything with the bathtub or the shower. I don’t really like him rinsing out stuff in the tub anyway, but that’s not a big deal. But if he flipped the switch and broke the valve, then I say they should eat the repair.
Am I being unreasonable here? I don’t have a lot of experience dealing with handymen, so if I am I’m willing to back off. But I’m annoyed that the guy flipped the tub switch over without checking with me first, especially when it was sticky and obviously not used.
If you have a handyman you like and trust, then you have a pot of gold. Whatever you pay him to replace that old valve – irrespective of who broke it – will be a bargain, compared to what it could potentially cost you to find another good handyman. They are a rare breed.
If the diverter broke in the course of normal expected use, then I don’t think it’s on the handyman to eat the cost of the fix. The breakage was coincidental to his use of the fixture in its intended fashion.
If I misunderstand, and he broke it by, I dunno, smacking it with the vanity while jockeying it around, or if you told him not to mess with it then I suppose you have a case.
I think you’re being a bit unreasonable. The fixture was old and needed to be replaced. If you ask him to do it at or near cost, that’s one thing, but he shouldn’t have to do it for free unless this was a new fixture that you sure they broke thru negligence.
“He said it’s probably some kind of valve, that they get old and eventually fail.”
is true.
People who work on your stuff are going to need to turn a valve now and then. If they misuse something, it should be on them. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. The case seems to be that you think you know it was old, but you would have never touched it so you never would have needed to replace it. Too. bad. If it were your business, you’re not going to eat costs like that either.
Unreasonable to me. It sounds like it was either ready to break or broken but in a working/livable condition already (you hint at that by saying the valve was sticking). I do feel it gets into that second category broken in a livable condition, which means it is broken so as such he couldn’t have broken it.
What kind of switch? are we talking about a little knob on the tub spout or a lever or handle on the wall that you turn? Got a pic? Could be an easy fix.
If the guy switched it he should have tested that it would switch back. For that failure they should forgive your unreasonable demand and not charge you extra on top of the usual price to replace it.
Do you think you never would have had a guest who flipped that switch? I would think it’s a good thing that the handyman discovered it was broken before a guest did.
You probably would have had to flip it eventually-- you would have wanted to fill something from the tub. If it was broken, it was broken. Personally, I would pay for it, although maybe you can get a deal from the guy, like if he has a basic service charge in addition to parts and hourly, he’ll write off the service charge, as though it were part of the original job.
We’ve got a couple of those switches also and they do get corroded and stuck if you don’t use them. I’ve had luck by spraying them down with CLR or Lime-Away and working them loose.
I think it’s on you. If he’d have asked, you’da said OK. I think it’s implied that you would provide a work space for the handyman to work in, and that includes a working valve. He didn’t break it; it broke when he used it. That’s a different thing.
As others said, if you have a handyman you like, does good work and doesn’t charge an arm and a leg because he knows which button to push, you don’t want to burn that bridge.
Since as of right now he doesn’t feel it’s his responsibility to fix it and come to think of it, if a friend was showering at your house and did the same thing, you wouldn’t make them call a handyman and pay to fix it, I’d offer a semi-compromise. First, wait until you see him next, just like you cooled down, he may have as well. But my suggestion is that you approach him and say something along the lines of 'Ya know, that thing was probably going to break sooner or later anyways, I haven’t used it in 10 years. If I pick up a new one from Home Depot could you toss it on next time you’re here?" and hopefully he can…even better, maybe he’ll say he’s got one on the truck and he’ll just take care of it, no charge.
They’re cheap. Like 10-15 bucks. This way, he’s not charging you $30 for the part, at most he’s going to bill you for the 10 minutes it takes him to fix it (assuming nothing else goes wrong) and maybe he’ll see the compromise, and your value to him as a client and not bill you for the time.
One thing, if he agrees, make sure you get the right kind. If you’ve never done it before, watch a youtube video or two so you know what you’re looking for and not making 8 trips to the hardware store.
Also, to the posters that said that he didn’t break it, it just happened to break, we don’t know that for sure, do we? At this stage, for all we know the thing was totally frozen up and was bashing on it with a wrench to break it free. I mean, I doubt that, but it is possible he could tell something was wrong and just didn’t feel like walking outside and using the hose.
If you had flipped the switch for whatever reason and it stuck you wouldn’t think twice about paying him to replace it. It only had one more action left in it no matter who flipped it.
Painters have to rinse out their brushes somewhere, and the bathtub is as good as any, being easy to clean and not likely to stain.
I agree with others that this is just normal operation of the fitting and if this happened it was already broken before he touched it. If you did not want them using a faucet when they were working in the bathroom you should have made that clear first so they could make other arrangements.
Unless you have high shower / tub fittings, with side sprays for example, the diverter is most likely in the tub filler which are cheap and simple to replace.
It is your fitting that was old and at the end of its life, expecting the contractor to eat the cost of fixing it is not reasonable or fair.