The price is so not right
Right! Let’s play a game then.
It’s called “Guess how much I had to pay an emergency plumber to come and fix my leaking shower this afternoon”.
I discovered it yesterday where there was a pool of water on my bathroom floor, and found that the whole of the back of the wall behind the shower outlet was very damp and smelly. Eugh!
A quick call round plumbers listed on yell discovered that most were tied up, and would take a few days to get to me. Er.. I haven’t GOT a few days – I leave in a few days, and so I had to plump for one that could come sooner (i.e. today), only it cost me more bucks- oops, I mean pounds, sorry.
So off you go – to the nearest pound please, how much was my total bill today, including labour (charged by the half hour), parts, and then VAT on top of that. He spent two hours replacing the inside of the main shower control knob which had indeed worn away and was leaking quite badly.
I’ll give you a hand – it was more than �100, but less than �500.
My bathroom duck (which I haven’t packed yet) goes to the winner. I’ll also try and do my best Brucey ‘Higher‘ and ‘Lower‘ bit in the comments …
After living in London for the first 33 years of my life and working for the 
So for ten weeks in June, July and August 2009, I drove 20,000 miles around the the lower 48 contiguous states of the USA visiting towns and places that shared the same name as places on The London
£267
£213
$444
I mean that in pounds. 444lbs?!
How does one type the pound symbol on this american keyboard?
#2 – Higher!
#3 – Lower!
Coco – You can insert it by using the HTML code that is: Ampersand, then a hash/pound, then the number 163, then a semi colin. Like this:
Gives you a british pound like this: £
You can look up all such codes for this and other symbols on this page here.
£326
£482.55 (incl VAT)
(BTW – postage of your duck to NZ will be much cheaper I promise!)
£349
£400!
#4, I’m the only Semi Colin round here. I wish I was a whole Colin.
£423.
bruce, that’s disconcerting. you have no neck! aagh!
£395.66. It would have cost me a bottle of Tequila, but that’s ‘cos my downstairs neighbour, who spends his time making a mess of the garden, is a plumber. He helpfully left a box of boiler bits with me on Monday night. Not sure when they’ll be fitted: but it’s nice to know that come next winter, when the boiler goes out, I’ll have a working clicker thingy rather than dicing with death and singed eyebrows to get the thing relit.
~x~
£ will correctly give you a £ sign.
375 quid.
£362.
£368
Let’s say 3hrs at £80 p.h. plus parts plus VAT comes to £355.91, Just what you need
when you’re about to leave the country.
#9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17- all LOWER!
So it’s more than £326, and lower than £349 …
£336
£342
£329.40
Hm… £340
#20 – Lower! (You can’t win the prize anyway, oh ‘Anon’ person!)
#21 – Higher Senji!
#22 – Lower Tom!
That narrows it down to higher than £329.40, and lower than £336.00 – And I think I should insist on you all getting the pence now, just for the hell of it …
How about £334.40?
£332.91
#25 Higher Alan! (And did you get my £10 btw?)
£334.89
£330.29
Lower than £336? Higher than £334?
Errr….
Fwiw, I had a badly leaking mains inlet in my attic a year ago – called a guy out on a Sunday morning to come. He spent an hour and 5 minutes fixing it up and charged me 86 quid (the one-hour rate)! It turns out he was a salaried plumber from a bigger organisation so there was no bonus for him if he charged me for 2 hours’ work. *And* he was a nice guy!
You paid: 335 quid. And 65 pee.
£335!
£335.17
#27 – Mikey, LOWER! Eek! Just slightly lower!
#28 – Higher!
#29 – I’m going for the pennies now too Ian, pay attention!
#30 – Higher Nic!
#31 – Lower Anthony! Got to get the pennies as well
#32 – Higher Kate!
Higher than £334.00, lower than £334.89
£333.93
Not get £10 yet, posted or via internet banking?
#34 – Higher than £333.93! (And lower than £334.89)
£333.96?
#36 – Higher! (And still ever so just slightly lower than Mikeys £334.89)
£334.00
£334.80
£334.85
#40 – Mikey, Higher! C’moooon .. almost there.
£334.87
334.90
£334.86
Respond Brucey dammit, I want the duck! LOL
WE HAVE A WINNER!
Well done Alan! (And comiserations, Mikey). One rubber duck in the post to you. Except that’s not quite the end of the story…
*sobs*…so close, snatched away at the final hurdle
I know how you feel Mikey … *sobs with Mikey holding his hand*
i swoop in with an offer of £334.88, as thats what it should be if the plumber had rounded correctly, as it would be £334.875, which should be rounded up…
not a sore loser!
Yaaaaaaaay, Hurrah. That was better than watching THE MIGHTY GUNNERS go thru to the Final last night. BUT, what have I left myself in for? “Except that’s not quite the end of the story… “. Sounds ominous…………..