The habit of asking for three quotes is the reason you cannot find a good plumber and it is the reason your phone calls go unanswered and it is the reason the truck never pulls into your driveway.

We are told this habit is prudent and we are told it is the only way to be safe but it is actually a trap. It is a cycle of low trust and it kills the very reliability you are trying to find. When you ask for three quotes you are not being a smart consumer but you are participating in a system that makes every tradesman in your town want to avoid you.

The Notebook in Berwick

Fiona Marsh sat at her kitchen table in Berwick and it was the week before Christmas. The sun was hot on the glass and the house was quiet but for the sound of water. The water heater was in the laundry and it was old and it was leaking.

A dark circle had formed on the carpet in the hallway and the air smelled like wet dust. Fiona had a notebook on the table and she had three names in it. She had a pen and she had drawn a tick next to the first name but there were crosses next to the second and the third.

The first man had come to the house on Tuesday. He wore a blue shirt and he had a heavy belt and he looked at the heater for four minutes. He did not touch the pipes and he did not open his tool bag. He said he would email the price that night and then he walked out the door and he drove away.

The email did not come on Tuesday and it did not come on Wednesday. The second man did not answer the phone when she called to ask where he was. The third man sent a text message and the message said he was busy and he could not come at all.

Her brother-in-law came over on Sunday and they sat on the patio. He ate a large piece of pavlova and the cream was thick and he wiped his mouth with a napkin. He told her that tradies are all the same and he said they have no respect for time and he said you just cannot get anyone to work around here.

Fiona nodded and she felt the frustration in her chest and she believed him. She thought she was the victim of a bad industry but she did not see the math of the three-quote rule and she did not see how it was breaking the men who tried to do the work.

The Hidden Cost of the Key Turn

A plumber has a truck and the truck is a warehouse. He has copper pipe and he has brass fittings and he has a machine to clear the drains. He has insurance and he has a license and he has a family to feed. If he spends his day driving to houses to give quotes for free then he is losing money every time he turns the key in the ignition.

Let me tell you how a schedule is built and how the lines are drawn on the map. A scheduler sits in an office and she has a screen and she has a list of names. She looks at the pins on the map in Berwick and she looks at the pins in Clyde and she tries to make the truck move in a straight line. A job is a commitment and it is a green block on the screen. A quote is a maybe and it is a grey block on the screen.

The Probability of No-Show

The scheduler knows the math of the three-quote rule. She knows that if Fiona calls three plumbers then the chance of her company getting the work is only thirty-three percent. This is a bad bet.

If a pipe is bursting in a house three streets away and that person says they will pay to have it fixed right now then the scheduler will move the truck to the pipe. The green block will always push the grey block off the map. The plumber does not show up to Fiona’s house because he is busy doing work for someone who has already said yes.

Fiona sees a no-show and she gets angry and she calls two more plumbers to make sure someone comes. Now there are five plumbers with a twenty percent chance of getting the job and the odds get worse and the reliability disappears.

The Pen Maker’s Standard

Liam B.-L. fixes fountain pens and he works with gold nibs and he works with old rubber sacs. He has a small shop and he has a desk with a bright lamp. He told me once that people bring him pens that are broken and they ask for a price and then they put the pen back in their pocket.

“I only work for the people who want the pen fixed and I do not work for the people who want to talk about the pen.”

– Liam B.-L., Pen Restorer

They want to go down the street and ask another man. Liam does not get angry but he does not clear his desk for them. He knows they are looking for the lowest number and he knows his number is the fair one. He says he only works for the people who want the pen fixed and he does not work for the people who want to talk about the pen.

I went to a store last week and I had a shirt in a bag. The shirt did not fit and I wanted to return it. I did not have the receipt and the girl at the counter looked at the shirt and then she looked at me. She did not trust me and I could feel it in the way she held the fabric.

I wanted to tell her that I had paid for the shirt and I wanted to tell her I am an honest man but I had no proof. We have built a world where we expect the other person to let us down and so we act in ways that make it happen. Fiona acts like the plumber will not show up so she books three and the plumber acts like Fiona will not hire him so he does not show up. It is a circle and it is a cold way to live.

A Different Way to Move

Breaking the loop is a choice and it is a choice that costs something. It requires a person to act as though reliability is the norm even when they have been burned before. It requires a business to decide that they will not play the game of the grey blocks.

They decided to serve the area from Clyde to Berwick by changing the way the phone is answered. They do not give vague windows and they do not make promises they cannot keep. They act as though the work is the goal and not the quote.

When a pipe is leaking or a toilet is overflowing they go to the house and they look at the problem and they give a price and they do the work. They do not charge a fee just to look and they do not ask for money until the floor is dry.

Who Pays for the Empty Trips?

This is a different way of moving through the world. It is a way that assumes the best of the person on the other end of the line. If you call one person and you expect them to be professional then you are giving them the space to be professional. If you call three people then you are telling all of them that they are replaceable and you are telling them that their time has no value.

The water heater in Fiona’s laundry was eventually fixed but it cost more than it should have. It cost more because the man who finally did the work had to cover the cost of all the quotes he gave that week that turned into nothing. He had to pay for the petrol for the empty trips and he had to pay for the time he spent typing emails that were never read.

The customer always pays for the waste in the system even if they think they are saving money by shopping around. The notebook is full of crosses because we treat the plumber’s truck like a pavlova we can sample for free before deciding we were never actually hungry.

Reliability is not something you find in a notebook and it is not something you find by calling every number in the book. It is something you build by being the kind of person a professional wants to work for.

It is the week before Christmas and the sun is still hot and the carpet is finally dry. Fiona has a new heater and she has a new name in her phone. She says she will only call one man next time. She says she will wait for him to arrive and she will have the tea ready and she will pay the price he asks. She is tired of the crosses in the notebook and she is tired of the water on the floor. She wants to trust again and she knows that trust starts with the first call.