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Peter's kitchen sink runs directly into a drain in the garage and one morning last December, he noticed it was blocked. After seeing an advert for Emergency First Call offering an OAP discount, he called them out to help. Their plumber Jamie arrived and appeared to clear the drain by jet washing, but warned that it would block again in the future unless more work was done.

"He said to me he would have to excavate the cement around the small drain and rebuild it," Peter told us.

Peter declined this extra work, having already been charged £223 by Emergency First Call for this one small job. But soon after the workman left, the drain started flooding again. Describing his conversation when he called them back, Peter explained,

"I said can you come again? He said he would charge me if he did... I got so angry at that because he hadn't dealt with the problem adequately."

Peter called out another company to clear the blockage who rectified it within 20 minutes. So the problem that he had already paid over £200 for, and been told could require rebuilding the drain, was actually quite simple to fix.

Gillian and Roy in Kent have also been in touch. Their driveway drains became blocked last August. Like Peter, they rang Emergency First Call for assistance and were visited by their workman Jamie.

"They used some rods and then they used water pressure, but it still remained blocked," Gillian explained. "He said he had to dig up the whole of the drive to find out why."

Jamie told the couple he couldn't give a quote until after he'd excavated and could see how much work needed doing. The couple felt they didn't have a choice and went ahead with the work. When the job was finally completed Jamie dropped the bombshell, the bill was a whopping £7,050.

And to make matters worse, a few days later Gillian and Roy became concerned with the workmanship and called out a surveyor to take a look. He said it was very was poorly done and even negligent. He said it would cost a further £2,500 to put it right.

We'd heard enough, and decided it was time Jamie had a call from us. We called him out to a house in North London, where our expert plumber Mike Griffin blocked up our drain using natural materials from the garden. Mike told us it would be a simple problem to rectify and would need no specialist machinery. He said he would expect a plumber to use just their hands and water, and perhaps a plunger, to clear it - and it should take no longer than one hour.

Sounds simple enough. But when Jamie arrived with his friend Graham, they told our actress they needed to use a jet washing machine at a cost of £167 per half hour, including labour. After the actress agreed to the work Jamie joined Graham outside and told him the rate they had negotiated. Graham commented,

"I'd better slow down a bit, hadn't I?"

And slow down, they did. Jamie proceeded to bring out lengths and lengths of hose from the van and then wash the driveway, wasting a few more minutes. He did eventually put it down the manhole - shame it was the wrong manhole, and pointing the wrong way.

And after a lengthy tea break, Jamie said he was willing to throw in an unnecessary freebie - checking the drain for broken parts with a camera. But before that, he told Graham,

"It's a bit too easy, isn't it?"

Yes Jamie, easy to take money off an old lady. Harder to explain how you're going to take pictures of the drain, because he doesn't have any camera equipment at all.

But despite this, he still tells our actress he's got some bad news after using his 'camera'.

"You got a little crack...so anything going down there is catching." Jamie explained.

After a quick bit of measuring up, Jamie gave us a quote for this pointless digging and repair - a massive £4,200. And by the way, that doesn't include VAT, bringing the total to an incredible £5,000.

We said no to this new job, and instead asked for the bill for today's one hour and twenty minutes worth of work. A reputable tradesman should charge under £100, and under Jamie's original rates it should come to £602. But even that's not enough for Emergency First Call, and Jamie charges £801, explaining to our actress that we had to pay for two hours because once it goes over the first hour they charge hourly.

It was then time to confront Emergency First Call. For our friend Jamie, we called him to another house in North London.

This time the house had a terrible drainage problem - so bad even the cupboards were foaming! Just as well Matt was inside one, waiting to confront Jamie about the camera he claimed to use and huge charges he made for a simple job.

And after a raft of abuse from Jamie and his lady friend on the telephone, we realised there was no hope of an apology from him. So instead we visited the boss of the company, Jim Pharoah, but he didn't stick around to talk to Matt either...

We've also spoken to Essex Trading Standards who have told us they are aware of Emergency First Call and are taking action to ensure complaints are being addressed by the company. They have also told us that they've made it clear to EFC that breaches of Consumer Protection legislation will result in legal proceedings.