1st Choice Commercial & Residential Services

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

This issue I have with First Choice plumbing is that their method to fix the plumbing issue was WRONG and HARMFUL to the homeowner.  First Choice said the water COULD NOT

Regards,

Wow. I'm usually taken advantage of in some way by Plumbing Contractors looking to get in, do as little as possible to get their jobs done and get paid. Not by these people. I had an urgent problem and between Michelle and Bryce, they answered my questions on the phone on what to do. Thank you. First Choice came over and were very pleasant to deal with. Jon assessed my water heater damage . He also showed me where the previous installer had deviated from code on the old water heater installation, removed the old unit and gave me advice on maintaining my new unit. He then gave me a veteran's discount when he found out I was a veteran. Thank you. David came to install the unit a couple of days later and was professional and courteous in every way. He answered my many questions about the installation(even while he was trying to do his work) and did a very clean job getting my copper pipe connections back to code. Thank you. Excellent team work! Kindest Regards, Erich

We are sorry you are unsatisfied with our services. We are not sure why technician would tell you that it wouldn't be covered because when tech closed out with the office he did report that it was covered by your home warranty company.  We are currently trying to locate the valve you...

have as it is an older style valve and not readily available at any of our local suppliers. As of the topic of the service fee we unfortunately required to collect it per your agreement with your home warranty company. We do hope you withdraw your complaint with our company as we are researching your valve so we can get something to fit with your currant set up so  we can get you taken care of as soon as possible.

I do not believe ms. [redacted] is aware of how our pricing works or what truly happened at her rental property. 1st ill start by saying the saying the most expensive part of repairing a slab leak is in exposing the leak (jack hammering, digging) and then putting back fill back in and adding concrete back. The repair itself is quick and inexpensive accordingly. We fixed her original leak correctly, and it did not leak again. She had a new leak which we came back out, opened up, and verified at that time that it was not leaking at our repair. ms. [redacted] and I agreed on that. I then sent Dave out to look at the job that I told her would cost $1700.00 to repair. Dave said he would contact the home warranty company to see if they would pay a portion of the fee. When they declined to pay anymore Dave agreed to do it for less money, now $1100 to help ms. [redacted] out. She agreed to pay the $1100 to fix the hot water line from the manifold to past the point of the leak in the line. Now any misunderstanding between ms. [redacted], Dave, and her contractor comes after this. It always happens when one of our plumbers want to help a customer out and offer extra services at no charge, confusion sets in and customer all of a sudden thinks everything is free. Her emails that she has supplied only further shows my statements are true. I’m sorry ms. [redacted] thought that we were going to repair her complaint for free and only charge her if she decided to do all the extra work, but that is not how this company operates. It has been implemented with this company that no extra work is to be offered free for charge from this point on.

These people are making things up as they go along!  The tech absolutely untightened the pipe under the sink...not only did I watch him do it, but he told me he was doing it to see if he could tell whether it was the hot or cold tap that was leaking.  The tech never said anything about not turning the taps too far...I don't even think it is possible to do that...the [redacted] just said that he "fixed" the problem...there were 2 of us standing there when he claimed to have fixed it.  There were also 2 of us there when he came back and the tap was NOT popped off, or in any other way changed from how the incompetent tech left it.  The [redacted] even claimed that we had switched the hot and cold taps, which we don't know how to do and which were on the correct sides, and then he switched them to be on the incorrect sides...real genius at work there! The tech has done nothing but lie and deserves to be fired and the company needs to fix what he broke!!!  This company has many, many reviews stating that they break things so they can then gouge the consumer to get them to pay the company to do extra work.  I will not accept this; my next step is to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office!

on 10/29 our plumber was called out for a possible leak from water heater. at that time he could not find a leak and asked the customer to keep eye on drain pan. on 10/31 we were called back out for a no hot water issue. at that time the water heater was considered bad. we then had to get with the home warranty company to get an authorization to replace water heater. once we got the authorization to replace we ordered the water heater and got the customer on the schedule for our next available time slot. when working thru home warranties, there are procedures to follow. I apologize they take some time but we did get to mr [redacted] within 72 hours of diagnosis. please keep in mind that the winter time is our busiest time of year and we had many people on the schedule to take care of as well, and we handle everyone in order

When plumber originally came out to diagnosis issue, the water heater should have been replaced then or at least a work order should have been made.  We went without hot water for a few days which was an inconvenience and could have been prevented if the proper diagnosis was...

done.  Plumber forgot to turn hot water back on and maybe if he remembered, he would have been able to identify that the water heater was going bad.  Instead, he just left without making sure we had hot water.  Unfortunately, I couldn't use outside contractor since home warranty would not have covered the work.

my recollection of the events are correct I was the first visit to your house you were the one who brought up anything about a P.R.V  I told you I didn't know if you had one, a P.R.V has nothing to do with drain lines. We then removed your garbage disposal and made a small mess which we cleaned up. I told you that I recommend putting a camera in the line to verify no  breaks in the line before hydrojetting. I did tell you the $250 would go towards hydrojetting if no breaks. Once the camera was run we found to much sludge to get anything thru. We snaked thru the clean outs you agreed to hydro jet then cancelled. Your damage is from you plunging your sink casing back pressure on your seals. Not from us!!

I flat out believe they wrote the diagnoses which is given to my home warranty company for approval in such a way that I not the warranty company would be responsible for the repair.

Your recollection of the events is incorrect temporally.  I was upset that you sent the first tech to my house who made the diagnosis that the leak was caused by a "pressure release valve" (there is a vent less than 5 feet from the sink) The second trip was when my pipes were taken apart making a mess and said that you thought there might be leak but I had to pay 250$ for the camera.  At no point was I told the 250$ would go towards hydrojetting.  After the visit with the camera was complete, your techs assured me that there was no leak, and that I needed to hydrojet.  They stated that there was no leak and that water leakage was my fault from before.  Your tech did not re-assemble any of the kitchen pipes but claimed that the sink was blocked and had to be hydrojetted. I put my own kitchen sink back together, cleaned up the mess they left including the scratch in my cabinets and the broken base board, and tuned on the water.  Since I was told several times by your tech there was no leak the sink should back up again.  The sink flowed regularly, which the techs had just snaked.  I let the water run with hot water and Dawn as recommended by your second visit.I called your office the next day and told the person on the phone about the leak.  They assured me again that I had to hydrojet the line, even with the leak.  I told them this is not a good idea, as hydrojetting would flood my house.  The response was "The tech will be sent out with the hydrojet and make that assessment".  At this point I cancelled service under advisement of the home warranty company. This complaint is clear:  I was told that 250$ would be required to assess for the presence of a break in the pipe.  I paid the 250$, and was told there was no leak.  During the process, damages were incurred to the property.  I then ran hot water and soap as advised by your second visit to clear the pipe of any remaining blockage.  This resulted in a large leak, causing additional damages to the property.

on 1st visit tech disassembled faucet , rebuilt faucet (new seats and seals). Explained to customer that the right handle stop was broken so she could only turn so far or it would leak. Customer acknowledged and signed invoice with everything stated above. Tech left and within 1 1/2 hours was called back to property for faucet leaking again. Tech came back to property and noticed handle now off of faucet. tech was going to replace faucet but customer didn't want the builders grade that was available (per her home warranty coverage). The handles were backwards and turning opposite ways so tech did fix that. This call was denied coverage thru her home warranty company due to misuse, old age, corrosion. She is upset and claims we are at fault, but if that was the case we wouldn't have contract with the warranty company . Customers are always upset with us for not lying to there home warranty companies for them. No difference here. Our tech hasn't lied or broke anything of theirs

These statements are not true. We did do a leak repair for Ms. [redacted] rental property. The repair to the copper, which was smaller then a pin hole, was made using braze, not solder. It fixed the leak properly, which is a common way to repair such leaks. This was...

explained to Ms. [redacted]. She did call us out for a recall the copper pipe leaking from a different spot, not from our repair. So “i” then gave her a quote thru email to repair the soft copper line that was leaking from the manifold to past the leak to try and prevent this from happening again for $1700 which included access to manifold from drywall. My plumbing supervisor looked at job and told her he would discount it to $1100 to help her out financially. He also stated he would replace the cold lines once he inspected them in the wall if they needed to be replaced at no charge, but they were in good shape, so he did not replace them, he only did the hot side, which what was agreed upon originally for $1100. amongst her conversations with Dave g, the plumbing supervisor, she at some point got confused and thought we were going to do the original repair for free and the added things for $1100. she was given the opportunity to have Dave go and do the other repairs if she wanted him too, but she and her contractor canceled us from coming back. I'm sorry for her misunderstandings, but she was not mis billed for our service. The repair was made that we said we would do for the agreed $1100.

This is in response to complaint number [redacted]  I am sorry if this has caused you grief.  There was no internt in not ansering or retutning phone calls.  We are sorry we weren't able to help you in the way you needed this situation was never our intention. As for you $$65.00 we...

would be more thatn happy to retun this to you.  We wish this whole matter could of gone another way.  If you do need anything please give us a call.

Attached are emails, photo of the repeat leak and video from my General Contractor, who said the pipe should have been replaced when 1st Choice did the repair instead of just "brazing" it.  Also attached is a photo from the second repair showing that only the original pipe had been replaced and nothing done to the others.  I stand by the report in my complaint.  I was not confused over what was verbally quoted to me by Dave, the Supervisor.  To avoid further disruption to my tenant, and more time he would have to take off work, I told Dave to leave it as is but asked him to speak with the office and tell them that they were not to charge me $1100 since he did not replace the other pipes. He said he would.When I spoke with Mike again on February 25th, he told me that the $1100 charge was to replace the original broken pipe and that Dave, because he's a nice guy, was going to replace the other pipes at no charge to me.  I told him that if that was the case, then why would cover up the hole with concrete and leave the property without replacing the other pipes. After calling other contractors to see how much they would charge for the work that 1st American performed at my property, I found that the $1932 that 1st Choice charged, and was paid, for the replacement of the original leaking pipe was more than fair.  To charge me another $1100 for their mistake is outrageous.  Also, 1st Choice never provided me with a written quote or invoice for either the first job, which they were paid for, nor for the additional work needed to fix the original repair and replace the other pipes.  Since 1st Choice did not replace the other pipes, as agreed upon  for the $1100, they should not be charging for that work.  At no time prior to Dave going out the second time to do the work did I say I did not want him to replace all the pipes.

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Regards,

DO NOT LET THESE PEOPLE INTO YOUR HOUSE!

I believe they are scamming people. They come out to your house as often as possible, they convince you to pay for expensive additional services which are not necessary, and they lie about the coverage of the home warranty to get more money out of you.

They were called by my home warranty to fix a leaking pipe/stopped drain.

They came out 4 times, each time with a different explanation of the issue, and each time asking for more and more money out of pocket. They always left a mess, didn't bring towels or buckets, and never reconnected my pipes when they were done. They told me I had to do a 250$ camera service to look into my pipes, which I did. They used the camera and told me I had no leaks, but a severe block that could only be resolved by a 700$ hydrojet. I asked about the leak, and they said it was my fault because I used a plunger on the kitchen sink, and the connections can't handle pressure. However, they wanted to use a high-pressure jet to clear my pipes? Then they had the nerve to ask for 4000$ to do the whole house!

They then said that I had a leak in the wall, and access and repair was not covered by the home warranty and I would have to pay out of pocket.

At that point I dropped them and got a reputable plumber who go the home warranty to cover everything and fixed the problem in one hour.

If these people are not scam artists, then they are incompetent.

We apoligize that Mrs. [redacted] feels this way. Every technician has a different way of doing repairs. We would have gone about it in a direction than they had done. But to us it sounds as if the insurance adjuster had their plumber come out so they could have it done at a better rate. Then...

just saying that what we were talking about was just wrong. (which we wouldn't have) We werent even given the opportunity to do the job so no ?harm no foul they went another way.

To Whom it May Concern: This is in response to complaint # [redacted].  We have apoligized for the misunderstanding of what we were supposed to be at Mrs [redacted] home to do, but we have since then been out there several times to correct the issue.  She has refused several technicians return...

to her home.  But the problem has been fixed.  So this complaint should be closed cause the issues has been rectified.  Thank you, [redacted] 1st Choice Commercial & Residential Services, LLC

Beware!!

1st choice will attempt to scam you into services you don't need and when your don't take their recommendations your appointment for service is somehow lost. They were sent to my house by American Home Shield home warranty.

After my appointment was mysteriously lost. American home shield involved and I eventually got my hot water heater. American home shield credited my service fee because of how poorly I was treated by 1st Choice.

I needed a water heater replaced and next thing I know I am being quoted $1000-$1500 for water damage after a four hour water heater leak by AZ Flood Squad they are not a registered contractor and are "recommended" by their partner's in fraud 1st Choice Commercial and Residential Plumbing. They wanted to cut open my walls and run some fans and then have another "recommended" company do the dry wall and paint.

I kicked them out. Tore out the wet drywall it was just a few feet no damage to framing or any additional dry wall. I spent all of $55 dollars in supplies.

After I kicked them out, I read yelp and Revdex.com reviews and this seems to be the way they do business.

Please don't be the next victim of these scammers.

I am very appreciative of the prompt and thorough work they did for my elderly mother when her water heater started to leak. It was an emergent situation, we found this company on the internet and they did not waste any time getting a tech out to her late in the evening to stop the leak and avoiding a huge flood in her home. The very next day, they returned with a new water heater and in less than an hour, they had the old one out and the new one installed. They are very professional, affordable and the tech was great.