Hey,
Am Samstag, diesem Wochenende, war ich gerade dabei, etwas zusammenzubauen, und es passierte ein Unfall, bei dem ich den Thermostatkopf abbrach. Die Heizung ging auf Stufe 5 und der Raum wurde richtig heiß.
Wir dachten nicht viel nach, gerieten in Panik (sind gerade eingezogen, wussten leider nicht, wen wir anrufen sollten, versuchten es beim Hausmeister, antworteten aber nicht) und riefen einen Notdienst-Klempner/Heizungsmann an.
Wir erzählten ihm, was passiert war, und er sagte, er werde einen neuen Thermostatkopf bekommen.
Er kam in 20 Minuten und führte eine zweiminütige Schnellinstallation durch.
Wir haben Mist gebaut und nicht vorher nach den Kosten gefragt. Dafür hat er uns 621 € berechnet.
Aufschlüsselung auf dem Foto.
Wir hatten Angst und dachten nicht daran, einfach zum Bauhaus zu gehen und uns ein Werkzeug und einen neuen Kopf zu besorgen. Er verlangte auch, dass wir bar bezahlten, und ging nicht weg, wenn wir es nicht taten. Der Grund dafür sei, dass wir neue Kunden seien und neue Kunden immer bar zahlen, sagte er.
Ihm zufolge seien 600 für den Hamburger Notdienst und den Samstagsnotdienst normal.
Wir wissen, dass wir wahrscheinlich betrogen wurden und das Geld weg ist. Ich habe der Rauchzentrale und meiner Verwaltung eine E-Mail geschickt.
🙁
https://i.redd.it/cwo321ef7v1h1.png
Von buzz_ftw
30 Kommentare
Its expensive, but I wouldnt say its necessarily a scam. Some of the cost is for hardware, some for his work, some for driving to you and some for work on the weekend.
If you are not the owner of the apartment maybe the owner has to pay, but usually he has to order the craftsmen
When I moved into my apartment six years ago, I had the very same accident happening to me. I went to Obi, bought a new thermostat head and installed it myself. This probably cost me less than 20 Euros. Calling the Notdienst was unncessary and the amount he charged is insane. It’s unfortunately quite common to scam people in such a situation. Maybe contacting Verbraucherzentrale isn’t such a bad idea.
„Heizungsthermostatkopf“ for 169 is absolutely wild. Those things are ~10€
The only thing that you overpaid on was the Thermostat Adjusting Valve(those are probably max 40-50 euros for non-smart models), everything else is cost of the plumber’s labor or travel.
It’s always expensive to get someone to come over to fix something, weekend & emergencies even more so.
So it’s not a scam unfortunately, that cost is bit on the high side yes but not completely outrageous
Sure you got scammed: Anfahrt plus 1h work done plus Wochenend Surcharge while he was with you for 20 min is outrageous. A Thermostatkopf usually costs a tenth of what he quoted.
Unfortunately, yes, you definitely got ripped off. But sadly it’s quite common for them to make up a big number like this. Because plumbers are usually contracted by Hauswervaltung, the few private ones can charge whatever they feel like…I once paid one 300€ for a bit of sticky tape to fix a broken pipe (which didn’t work).
You already did the right thing to do to Verbraucherzentrale, but if you don’t have legal insurance, you’re probably not going to get anywhere. There’s case law where if a Handwerker massively overcharges, you can demand the overpayment back, but you’ll definitely need a lawyer for that (and they’ll probably charge you more than you’re trying to claim).
I would probably try to forget about it and treat it as a learning experience 😞
If you have Liability Insurance or Home Insurance (I forget the German word), you can send them the invoice and they can pay you back or cover some costs at least.
When I break anything at my rental apartment, I tell the Hausverwaltung who then sends someone to fix it and I pay them. And then I take th invoice and claim from my insurance
If this is a legit company and the invoice has the relevant details, it isnt a scam.
Labour in Germany is expensive and the weekend call out added to that. Most trades have a minimum cost so regardless if the job takes 5 mins or 2 hours you will pay the call out fee. The parts cost is where they likely inflated the cost a lot, which is normal.. I take my own parts to the Autowerkstat after ordering them online for example.
In future try and figure things out yourself, and use a notdienst as a last resort.
Yes, you got scammed, but worse, that’s probably even a legal scam. They’re shamelessly exploiting people’s plight. It may well be that the amount is too high and you might be able to get at least some of it back, but as you’ve already paid, it’s probably not worth the effort.
Don’t every pay directly. If he doesn’t want to leave, call the police.
And don’t be embarred, this scam works with a lot of people and sadly there isn’t anything done against these people.
This is outrageous.
I mean all the prices for him coming over and working are fine, high, but fine.
But 170€ for the head of the thermostat, when you can buy it in retail for like 10-15€ is just crazy.
Idk man.
Also does your landlord do not have an emergency number for such cases?
This honestly looks very questionable. Weekend emergency rates are a thing, but 621€ for a 2-minute thermostat replacement is steep.
The biggest red flag is the thermostat head itself at 169€. Standard replacement thermostat heads are often in the 30€ range, even branded Heimeier models are commonly around 15 to 35€, with more specialized versions around 50 to 80€. A 500% margin on the thermostat alone could qualify as excessive.
You already did the right thing contacting Verbraucherzentrale. Keep the invoice and ask a few local heating companies what they’d charge for the same Saturday repair. If this turns out massively above market rates, excessive pricing can sometimes be challenged.
Don’t blame yourself. Panic + no heat + being new tenants is exactly the kind of situation emergency services rely on.
Do you have Haftpflichtversicherung?
Isn’t the „Einsatzpauschale“ combined with working time illegal? I thought i had seen some jurisdiction about those combinations some time ago …
well… it’s too expensive. I guess this thermostat head is about 10€ in the Baumarkt nearby and just one nut to screw on. And they are working at Saturdays. Also one can lose a needle valve with a clamp till Monday or so. If the valve is intact of course.
Don’t pay and dispute.
Labor costs and everything okay, given it was an emergency. But the material cost is a scam. These things cost 10€.
Yes you did get scammed!
I feel like this is an appropriate amount for someone getting up on the weekend, finding the tools and materials and even having the knowledge to fix it.
The Thermostat should be cheaper, yes, but he also had to buy it and then your bill would „only“ be a 100€ less.
Next time, just google first and open a window. Maybe ask a neighbour.
Next time, when anything like this happens, and you are with a commercial larger landlord, call them first.
They often have a „Hausmeisterdienst“ under contract (or even employed themselves depending on size) that does small repairs like those for fair prices. And they have the exact spare parts for every small thing thats installed hundreds of times through all their apartments.
I am no lawyer, but usually they are not allowed to charge more than the regular price without informing you in advance.
A thermostate head costs 10 € in the Baumarkt, here they want 169€ for it. I would check the type of the Thermostate head they used and check if it really costs that much. Even if it does I would doubt that it was necessary to use such an expensive one.
80€ for a 2 minute job is also very high, I think they have to charge in 6 minute intervalls, 80€ is probably the full hour price.
Also Saturday is a regular weekday unless it was in the evening? Also it is only allowed to overcharge the work time and not any of the other things, so if the working price was overcharged as well.
Somebody who puts pressure on you to pay in cash immedeatly is usually at least suspicious.
If you have a legal insurance I would definitley talk to a lawyer otherwise it will probably cost more to get the money back than it is worth.
Getting some emergency fixes at weekends and in the evening can be very expensive, but this seems to be very excessive. 50 to 100€ would be an appropriate price, maybe a little bit more if it was in the evening.
I would at the very least leave them a negative google review, don’t call it a scam or anything, as they often threaten to take legal action against negative reviews. Just note down the facts, at which time you have called them and how much you have paid and everybody else should be able to see for themselves if they want to hire them or not.
If it helps you:
I once closed myself out of my flat, keys stuck in the door insides. Saturday night. So I called the emergency service which takes 300€ just for showing up, usually 400-600€ when done.
The moment the guy comes to the door, he looks at me surprised and says: „You have little glass windows in your door?“
I said „yeah so?“…And slowly it hit me.
He still proceeded to try it the conventional way but after a minute or so he said, cheapest and easiest way from here is to break the glass and replace it the next workday.
So I ended up paying roughly 300€ for the key guy plus the repair for the broken glass window, none of it insured. Great way to lose money, definitely a lesson.
Yes. Why are they changing you a pauschal PLUS the working time PLUS a weekend charge PLUS the travel costs, and then overcharging for the part?
I could see €200 or so for that on a weekend, but not nearly €600…
A common, and semi-legal scam, I fear. These Notdienst services tend to prey on desperate people by overcharging because they know they can. At least they fixed it for you. Some don’t even do and you’re left without the money and still have the problem at hand.
The Wochenendzuschlag and Anfahrtkosten are actually okay, although the latter is usually part of Einsatzpauschale, so charging for both might not be allowed (I’m not a lawyer though). The Arbeitszeit is expensive but not excessively so. The new Thermostatkopf is outrageously expensive, if it is a normal one (not digital or smart).
Like others (and you yourself) have pointed out, you could have bought the replacement and fixed it yourselves, which would have been waaaay cheaper, of course. But compared to hiring a more respectable/honest Notdienst, I think you probably overpaid „only“ by 150 – 200€.
I would probably ask them if they made an error here, as billing both a lump sum (Einsatzpauschale) _and_ travel + work time does not look right. It’s either/or.
> He also made us pay in cash and wouldn’t leave unless we did, the reason being we were new customers, new customers always pay cash is what he told.
Yep, you got scammed. If something like that happens again: Unless you agreed to this beforehand, call the police in this situation.
… the guy had to drop whatever else he was going to do on his saturday, to drive over and do an easy fix that you could have done yourself.
This stunt was always going to cost „a couple hundred bucks“ because that’s just the base level cost that any repairperson in Germany will charge you to do anything.
Is this cost proportional with what material and time were involved? Absolutely not. That’s why people do these repairs themselves usually and don’t call people on a saturday emergency line. These sort of lines from plumbers are for „Help my house is flooding“-type situations.
Consider this „Lehrgeld“ for the future and just pay the money. Couple of hundred bucks is also not worth bothering lawyers with.
ASK legaladvice Germany
I would not pay „Einsatzpauschale“
And he should show you the bill from the Thermostat
head over to r/LegalAdviceGerman with this. they also speak english.
It’s not even a real scam, if you call an emergency hotline for any issue you have to expect to pay an insane amount, which is why you should only use it in emergencies. Next time you panic, at least take the 20 seconds to ask chatgpt because you can’t expect someone to drop everything they’re doing and drive to your apartment on a saturday, fix your issue and then ask for a reasonable amount, otherwise everyone would use that service before calling the hausmeister 😀
Where did you find the „Notdienst“-Guy? Googled it? Took the first one that looked good?
A lot of google hits for emergency services are indeed known for ripping people of. Most of them are only „Vermittler“ and will tell you that they are not responsible for anything. And even if they seem local – they are not. They are merely intermediaries for unfortunately often unreliable subcontractors. Here you will find an article of the Verbraucherzentrale: [https://www.vzhh.de/themen/einkauf-reise-freizeit/wucherpreise-von-notdiensten-zahlen-sie-nicht](https://www.vzhh.de/themen/einkauf-reise-freizeit/wucherpreise-von-notdiensten-zahlen-sie-nicht)
If you need some emergency service again, of course you can google, but you need to check:
– Are you looking at an intermediary or are you looking at a local business? Check the „Impressum“ on the website if you are in doubt, check google maps/street view if there really is a business at the given address. Look at the reviews (yes, the content of reviews is often
– Ask for an estimate for the costs, for the travel expenses and if they have some kind of „Pauschale“. If you fell that they want too much, call another one.
Unfortunately that is so with most emergency handyman repairs. I paid 300€ to get my door opened to the apartment. Took the guy 5 seconds to open.