Yoga instructor Martine Allars, right, requires home dialysis.

Yoga teacher and former journalist Martine Allars, 41, has been on home dialysis since January after a kidney transplant failed. The machine requires a special plumbing set-up with a separate water supply.

On Friday afternoon, Ms Allars arrived home to find the water tap not working. “After quickly discovering all the rest of my taps in the house worked I realised I would have to get someone out to fix it ASAP, as dialysis is how I stay alive,” she wrote on Facebook.

“I called my normal wonderful plumber but he was away. All I could think about was getting it fixed so I could do dialysis. If it couldn’t be fixed I would have to go into hospital to get it done.”

Settling on an Alexandria-based plumbing business, she agreed to pay a $280 call-out fee. After arriving at 5pm, the plumber “explained there would be a further $375 fee to look around and do a little fix”.

“Ten minutes later we had discovered the problem (a faulty valve), which he said he would simply cut out and put new pipe in its place,” she wrote.

“He said this was a complicated fix, $475. At that point I had already agreed to the first two charges without having my problem fixed. So I said fine to the remaining fee.”

Ms Allars said it was only after paying the total bill — which came to $1243 including GST — and finally plugging in the dialysis that she “realised how much money she owed the company”.

Ms Allars told news.com.au she had lodged a complaint with NSW Fair Trading and written to the plumbing company asking for $475 to be refunded. She took issue with the plumber’s charges.

Ms Allars feels she was overcharged on her $1200 plumbing bill.Source:Facebook

“As soon as they walk through the door they tell you it’s another $375. In my head I’m thinking, if I try to call another one it’ll be at least another $300 so I might as well pay,” she said.

“He cut the valve out of the pipe, now I have a piece of pipe missing. He said to me, ‘I can always cap it off and you can go to hospital.’ So in my head it’s, what’s another $475?”

Ms Allars said he was only there for 30 or 40 minutes, found the problem within five minutes, and it “wasn’t a complicated fix”.

Contacted by news.com.au on Thursday, the plumbing company hit back at Ms Allars. “I’m a bit over that,” he said. “Oh, everything’s easy. I can come do your job, can’t I? I get penalised for knowing what I’m doing.

“I can’t keep the world happy. I’m a bit over it to be honest with you. You go out there, tell them the price upfront. If she had an issue she could have said to stop. I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll cap it off.’

“The fact is we went out there to do the job and gave her an upfront price. I wasn’t happy to do the job, I was more concerned about her livelihood. It’s not like we won the lottery out of that one job.”

He said he contacted Ms Allars’ regular plumber, who told him to bypass the check valve. “We were worried,” he said. “If something did happen it was our responsibility. I said I don’t want to do anything to cause any harm. He would probably do it for free for her — it’s not our problem.”

He said he “could not believe” when Ms Allars started asking for a refund. “She sent me repeated messages over the weekend,” he said. “I really got annoyed, I could not believe it.”

He said he travelled an hour in peak traffic to reach the job. “I don’t want this headache,” he said. “This is what business owners like myself have to deal with.”

In a statement, NSW Fair Trading said: “Fair Trading’s advice to customers who are dissatisfied in their dealings with this plumbing company is to contact the trader and try to resolve the matter in the first instance. Customers who are unable to resolve their issues with the trader are advised to lodge a written complaint with NSW Fair Trading at www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au”

frank.chung@news.com.au