Ferguson’s Plumbing

Subject: Allegations of unconscionable conduct: Date: 23-10-25 To whom it may concern, I am a customer of Point Plumbing Ltd (ABN 11 164 770 852) who are now trading under Australian Trades Pty Ltd. At this time, their current business names are also Willson's Plumbing NSW, Anderson's Plumbing Australia, Lloy'ds Plumbing & Gas, Bob's Plumbing NSW and Truefix Tradie. On the 19th of August, 2025, the NSW Building Commission took disciplinary action by suspending their trade licence for 60 days. On the 27th of August, 2025, the NSW Building Commission issued a public warning, stating, 'NSW consumers are warned not to deal with Australian Trades Pty Ltd (300418C) and Charbel Alha (190178C) in connection with residential building works or plumbing and drainage works because of the risk that consumers may be exposed to unconscionable conduct, use of unfair contract terms, and undue harassment and coercion.' I engaged with the company in April of 2025. I state the following in brief: I am living on the Disability Support Pension and did not have hot water for several days. I contacted ‘Dan’s Plumbing’ using their website and was approached by ‘Ferguson's Plumbing.’ Unnecessary charges. It included accessing the hot water unit, main power supply, main water valve and turning them on and off, as well as a charge to remove the trade waste from the site. I discovered that other companies do not incur an extra charge for removal, as it is already included with their service. Overcharging. The company charged me 57.3% more than the market value of the hot water unit. It was purchased from Reece, a plumbing supplier, for $1,227.93 and sold to me for $2,880.52, making an extra $1,652.59. In addition, their total fees (including the 10% pensioner discount) were $7,228.99 to investigate ($476.19) and replace/install a hot water unit ($6,752.80). A quote from a competing service would charge me in total (including the 10% pensioner discount) $2845.13. A gag clause. As my dispute was about a 10% deposit that is unpaid, I was offered a fee waiver on the condition that I did not engage in conduct which could be seen as tainting their reputation (like writing a review) and that I treat all discussions and negotiations confidentially (discouragement from making a report to Fair Trading or seeking legal advice), and this is the final settlement. An admission of charging more than market value. I spoke to a customer service agent named [Name Removed]. In my concern, I stated that 'I still have been overcharged.' [Name Removed] repeated how 'there is no such thing as overcharging, as our prices are not regulated.' I responded with, 'then why did the company charge nearly double for the hot water unit in comparison to the place supplying them?' [Name Removed] stated, 'We can do that because there is no price regulation, and we can set the price.’ Scare tactics. [Name Removed] stated, 'I would like to work on this, but I would prefer we didn't go to Fair Trading or the Tribunal. I have been to fair trading and won several times; they will tell you the same thing as I am telling you now there is no such thing as overcharging,' and you run the risk of not receiving anything. We would also lose 10% - 20% from Humm, as we pay your interest fees. There is no clause in any contract stipulating that they pay my interest fee. Hurtful comments about my disability to discredit my concerns. [Name Removed] stated ‘how can you manage this without a carer? Do you have a carer?' ‘how could your mother leave you in charge of this, who is she to do that?' In reference to unlicensed electrical work, I sought legal advice from the Home and Building Advocacy Service (HOBAS). The solicitor stated the company did not have the appropriate license at the time of this review.

!!! WARNING !!! Do your research, get a second quote, overcharging and aggressive tactics are this business’ bread and butter. First thing's first, I have no one but myself to blame for using these alleged rip-off merchants. I was in a bind, there was a gas leak in my apartment, my tenants had been without hot water or heating for over 24hrs and I contacted the first supplier to come up on Google. They quoted me a price to repair 1m of gas line from my stove to the outlet at $3,100. I advised the plumber at the time this seemed “exorbitant” but was in a bind, so agreed to the quote hoping it was an error I could rectify after the fact. I will admit the work was completed in an hour (which would suggest an incredibly straight forward procedure) and to a decent standard. This is where the alarm bells began. After consulting with a plumber of 40 years experience they advised this type of job should’ve cost around $500. I called the office the next day to bring this information to light and ascertain whether an error had been made with the costing. Immediately I was accused of defaming them for suggesting they overcharged, condescended by the suggestion I have no idea about overheads and even threatened with legal action and debt recovery. Given this response I suspected that this was a normal operating procedure for the business and started doing some digging to initially come across this (NB Trust Pilot does allow external links so have added Google queries for convenience): - ACA expose: Google "A Current Affair Fergusons Plumbling" - And a Reddit Thread compiling all of their negative practices here: Google "dodgy tradies hire reputation management firm reddit" Since the completion of the works, we have been back and forth to try to come to a reasonable and fair resolution, below is the timeline of the series of events that followed. - They offered a measly $400 discount - I accepted the discount on the condition that they send me an itemized invoice including parts used, brands, part numbers and a breakdown of labour - They sent back an invoice with two line items, no breakdown of parts or labour as requested and as is required by law - Google "ACCC receipts-bills-proof-of-purchase" - They also added a clause to the invoice that upon accepting the $400 discount, I would not disparage or harm the business - I have decided to forgo the measly amount of money in order to ensure I can warn others about this business’ allegedly nefarious trading practices - WARNING I suspect they also use a myriad of other businesses to obscure their predatory behaviour - Their ABN is registered to Australian Trades Pty Ltd Google - "11164770852" but I have been contacted by - Fergusons Plumbing (the business I originally contracted) - Point Plumbing another trading entity under the above ABN - As well as Dan’s plumbing - The other trading businesses operated under the above ABN are: - TRUSTY TRADIE - Truefix Tradie - BOB'S PLUMBING NSW - LLOYD'S PLUMBING & GAS - ANDERSONS PLUMBING AUS - Dan's Electrical - Willson's Plumbing Please, please be careful using any of the above businesses and expect to pay over and above market rates and be treated unconscionably. There are a couple of hypotheses I make about the organisation: - They’re only listed on pay-to-play consumer review sites - Such as - Product Review . com . au - Trust Index . io - Trust Pilot .com - On these sites the business only has 5 star reviews, all of which have an eerily similar format - OR 1 star reviews that go into great detail about their trading practices (none of which are positive) - No Google reviews as I suspect these are harder to cleanse than the sites cited above - And their cleansing practices are noted in the Reddit Thread above - They operate an absurd amount for trading entities (as detailed above) I suspect to obscure the well-documented abhorrent trading practices As a consequence of my experience with the business I have have left reviews on each and every entity the parent business operates under. I’ve also contacted Google to report them as a scam advertiser and the product review sites that they’re listed on, advocating for their removal. If I can save one person from going through the hassle I’ve had to endure dealing with these alleged rip-off merchants, this review would’ve been worth it.

Called then to come and have a look at hot water system charged $85.00 for call out fee which is pretty standard but then wanted to charge $681.00 to do a diagnostic on hot water system that’s without fixing just to look at it rang a real plumber and he came out went over hot water service and within 25 minutes told us we need a new one getting sorted tomorrow also they were on current affair tonight for try to charge a 98 year old 35,000 for a problem with his toilet another plumber came in fixed problem for $550.00 wow

After using Dan’s Plumbing/ Fergusson’s Plumbing again for my 90 year old mum’s plumbing problem I have to say I am not impressed with them at all now and we will definitely not use this company again. They charged $1,100 to unblock the toilet drains and quoted $12,000 to do another job to “fix” the problem “tree roots” I asked for a quote to be sent to me as I would have to discuss with my husband. I was also told that if I signed the quote for $12,000 that day they would take the $1,100 cost the the days plumbing off the $12,000. Upon reading so many other reviews this is what they are also known for. I called numerous times and was promised the quote to this day still no quote. I thought this was a bit suspicious why they kept promising it would be in my email and yet never arrived. I told my sons about the whole situation and they looked them up on other sites. Lo and behold they are well known for charging exorbitant prices and trying their very best to get you to sign up on the spot to get the work done NOW. They also give you a quote/ invoice with what the job entails which is ludicrous. I wish I had read these other reviews before calling this company out. Please read all you can on this Company before calling them out. Save yourself some money. I don’t recommend this company and will never use again. I feel so foolish for trusting them in the first place!

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! They will overprice and pressure you complete the job. I was subsequently quoted $195 for a job they charged $3,095 to complete as it was winter and they knew I had no hot water or gas. It was less than 30 minutes once I had paid the money. Worst trade experience I have ever had. Check out the A Current Affair episode before you call them.

Regarding customer service,timeliness and job satisfaction I could not find any fault. However on the matter of rates and fees I could not offer a recomendation to any prospective customer. I was in the position of having to get the job completed and was absolutely shocked and disappointed at the final price. I do not believe the cost should be justified and regret having to have been in a position of having to get the work done.It is something I wish I could have avoided.

No call out fee but an upfront quote of over $1100. We had to go with it as it was late in the day to find someone else. The drain was cleared after less than one hour from start. We were then told the drain would be totally offline and were shown an urgent repair quote of over $12000 but limited to 1.5m depth of digging and 1m of pipe replacement and valid only if signed on the spot. Our request for more information about the broken pipe and its location in order to consider the quote overnight was met with no interest. After the 3 weeks, the drain is yet to go offline.

Untransparent and prohibitively expensive Buyer beware they go under a number of different trade names - They were called during business hours to replace a hot water system. They required signature under pressure of a multipage document withhout any exaplanation or chance to properly review the document. Charged over $6000 for a job taking less than 2 hours while the average price to supply and install the same hot water system was about $3000. Also job was invoiced to a different company - Australian Trades - not Dan's Plumbing. Later discovered they were featured and exposed on a TV current affairs programme