Bishop Plumbing, Inc.

On June 13, 2016, Mr*** ***'s son in law, ***, placed a service call because his air conditioner was not working It was explained to him at the time of booking the service call that there would be a dispatch fee of $just to come to the home and that once on site the
technician would quote a price for any work that needed to be performed *** agreed with these pricing policies and proceeded to book the service call for later that day At that time there was no way of knowing that there would be a diagnostic fee involved Our customer service representatives are NOT technicians Once the technician arrived on site and could not determine the problem via visual inspection, he quoted a diagnostic fee because he would have to take apart the unit in order to figure out the problem He called *** on the phone (per his request) and explained the options (diagnostic fee or replacement of units) *** then arrived at the job site and refused all work He paid the dispatch fee and our technician left the property Mr***'s age has nothing to do with this matter, especially since *** had asked us to call him upon arrival He was actually supposed to meet us on site from the start We feel that the dispatch fee is justified and will not be refunded as it was explained to the customer PRIOR to the customer booking the service call

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: The sixth sentence in the Message From Business reply makes absolutely no senseAre we to understand that Bishop believes it is possible to do a visual inspection of an air conditioner to determine what the problem is? How is this possible? I would suggest that this is impossibleCan an auto mechanic tell you why a car does not work by looking at it? Can a doctor tell you why you are sick simply by looking at you? Claiming that “visual inspection” is a possibility, even though it is not, becomes Bishop’s excuse for charging a $diagnostic feeIf one were a cynic, one might conclude that this is a way to hide the hidden cost of a service callIn other words, a repair cost would automatically be a minimum $379.95, whether a $part needs replacement (which was our case) or lessIf everyone who called Bishop understood that their service call would automatically cost $379.95, nobody would call themIt is an unfair practice and that is why we feel we were misled and that is why we want our money refunded In my years of dealing with service providers of all types as well as my year-old father-in-law’s longer experience, we have never run across this practice of charging a separate diagnostic feeIn the past many repairmen have come to our homes and charged a dispatch feeThey would examine, say, in this case the ac unit, explain what was needed and give a quote for the cost of the repairUsually this would be the cost of the necessary part and on rare occasion, sometimes an additional labor cost if the repair would take a longer timeWe would have the option of authorizing the repair or replacing the unitEither way, never have we encountered a diagnostic fee, until nowAnd a $fee for what? Maybe minutes of work? That is usually how long it takesIn this case, the second repairman we called was able to tell us within seconds which part needed replacement, as soon as he removed the back panel which took less than a minuteAlthough the Bishop technician was unable to do a visual inspection of the ac unit and did not know what was wrong with it, it is curious that he was able to offer a $option to replace the ac unit and the perfectly working furnaceThis makes me feel very uncomfortable and suspiciousThis does not create the impression that the technician is operating in the best interests of the client
Sincerely,
*** ***

Bishop Plumbing Inc., maintains our position in our original response to Mr***'s complaint There will be no other offers made

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/21) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted]/Op Mgr
Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Contact Email: [redacted]@BISHOPPLUMBING.COM
Per Ms. [redacted]'s request, a technician was dispatched to her home on March 14th for a slow draining bathroom sink. Upon...

his arrival at the home and his visual inspection of the problem, he quoted a price of $594.00 to rod the drain. Ms. [redacted] signed and/or initialed her approval on the work order in no less than SIX different places on the work order prior to the technician performing the work. Once completed he collected a total of $633.95 (after the $40.00 coupon discount).
On March 16, 2015, the customer called and filed a complaint in our office regarding the price she paid for the work performed. on March 17th, [redacted] (not [redacted]) called Ms. [redacted] back and went over Bishop's pricing policies with her. She initially agreed to the good faith refund of the dispatch fee and then declined it due to the waiver.
Bishop Plumbing does not owe Ms. [redacted] any type of refumd. The pricing that was quoted to her came out of a flat rate pricing book that does not recognize age or gender, therefore, she was NOT taken advantage of because she is a woman and a senior citizen as she alleges.
When calling other "reputable" plumbing companies there are several factors that Ms. [redacted] should take into account, for example: 1) Are these other companies licensed? Are the actual plumbers licensed or just the owner of the company? 2) Are the bonded and insured? 3) Do they have an established office or are they working from their home?
Mrs. [redacted] also needs to realize that price fixing is an illegal practice in the State of Illinois and Bishop Plumbing does not partake in it.
Mrs. [redacted] sites that Bishop Plumbing Inc., has had 22 complaints over a 3 year spam but does she realize that is actually less than 1% of the number of service calls we performed in that three year span?
Regardless, Bishop Plumbing Inc., performed a service, in an efficient manner with UPFRONT pricing. There will be no refund offered to this customer.
We now deem this issue to be closed.

Service was performed at Mr. [redacted] residence on March 31, 2017.  A sump pump was installed as well as some debris clean up in the some pit.All prices were quoted to Mr. [redacted] UP FRONT and PRIOR to our technician completing the work and Mr. [redacted] approved all work to be completed by signing...

and/or initialing the work order PRIOR to our technician performing the work.  Mr. [redacted] even signed the work to acknowledge that the work was completed to his satisfaction upon completion. The only discount given to Mr. [redacted] that day was $100.00 for a coupon.  There was no $25.00 discount given for a review.It appears as though Mr. [redacted] is upset with the COST of the work that was performed and has decided to slander Bishop Plumbing's name on any site that he can.  It's alarming that Mr. [redacted] has a cost complaint AFTER he approved all work to be done at the pre-quoted costs and after said work was completed in a timely and professional manner.We deem this complaint to be egregious in nature and we consider it to be a closed issue.

Complaint: 11029408
I am rejecting this response because: after having a different plumbing company come out to check out the problem, I found out that an extension kit had to be ordered: this was not included originally, with the work that Bishop plumbing did: the valve stem was too short, plus, the way that bishop plumbing assembled everything, was to have a square shaped piece of hardware fit over the round valve stem: the only thing keeping it all together was a screw: this screw was the only thing, making it all work, and because of this, it would eventually loosen. If Bishop plumbing's technician took the time, to advise me of the extension kit needed, and ordered it, and used it, that by using the CORRECT hardware, that was needed, this problem would not have ever presented itself. The job was done without using all the right parts, and this was told to me by another plumber. I have now had the work done correctly, by a different plumbing company, and it has not failed since.
This extra work cost me an additional $224.00 which could have been done right, the 1st time, by Bishop Plumbing. And I would not have had to go through this whole ordeal, taking time off from work, paying extra money, and having multiple appointments made to remedy this problem. .
Sincerely,
Fred [redacted]

Complaint: 11029408
I am rejecting this response because: I know I tried calling earlier than what they are saying. And I was not quoted any reduced fee. And I was told over the phone, before a technician came out, that it would be no charge. Then when he arrived, he wanted to collect a fee just for coming out.   
Sincerely,
Fred [redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/23) */
Contact Name and Title: Kristina[redacted]/Op Mgr
Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Contact Email: [redacted]@BISHOPPLUMBING.COM
On the morning of July 15th, Mr. [redacted] called our office to schedule a service call because there was a toilet leaking...

into the basement. Our office scheduled his appointment for that afternoon.
At that time it was explained to the customer that there was a $79.95 dispatch fee to have our technician come to the home. Once on site he would do a visual inspection to determine what work needed to be performed and would then quote a price to complete that work and that the price quoted would be in addition to the $79.95 dispatch fee. Mr. [redacted] agreed to this pricing policies and proceeded to schedule the service.
Unfortunately, there were various emergencies that morning and our technicians were tied up on their jobs. Our dispatcher, [redacted], called Mr. [redacted] and rescheduled the service call to the following morning. Due to the inconvenience of him having to wait until the next morning, Denise also offered to waive the dispatch fee if the customer went ahead with the quoted work.
The following day, our technician, [redacted], arrived at Mr. [redacted]'s home and inspected the problem area. Upon his evaluation he quoted Mr. [redacted]'s tenant (who was on site) a price of $632.15 to perform the necessary work. His tenant called him and he declined having the work performed at that price. [redacted] was able to call the office and get a price reduction as an "introductory offer" of $495.00 since Mr. [redacted] was a new customer. Mr. [redacted] still declined having the work performed and also declined paying the dispatch fee.
He then called our office and spoke to [redacted] and stated that she promised him that we would waive the dispatch fee the day before when she called him to reschedule him. [redacted] explained to him that she offered to waive the dispatch fee IF he went with the quoted work.
We have since mailed Mr. [redacted] an invoice for $79.95 as we feel that we are entitled to that dispatch fee since Mr. [redacted] declined having any work performed.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/07/24) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I was specifically told that as a result of my appointment being rescheduled Bishop Plumbing would waive the dispatch fee. There was never a single mention that work would need to be performed as a prerequisite to the dispatch fee being waived.
Since Bishop Plumbing straightforwardly stated the dispatch fee would be waived because they had to reschedule my appointment, they are now clearly attempting to renege on their agreement; and I am not responsible for that fee.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/07/27) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted]/Op Mgr
Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Contact Email: [redacted]@bishopplumbing.com
It is NEVER Bishop Plumbing's policy to waive a dispatch fee UNLESS work is authorized to be completed. If a customer declines having work performed for whatever reason, the dispatch fee is always collected.

On July 17, 2015, Bishop Plumbing performed a minor faucet rebuild as well as install a new shower hear with sprayer and install new Moen shower valve trim.  On November 12, 2015, Mr. [redacted] called our office and stated that the faucet know was loose.  It was well past the 90 day labor...

warranty that Bishop Plumbing provides.  However, our customer service representative explained to Mr. [redacted] that we would come out and take a look at it and if it had to do with our work we would honor the labor warranty, but if it was anything else that wasn't within the scope of the work we performed on July 17th it would be chargeable.  Mr. [redacted] agreed and scheduled the appointment for Saturday, November 14th.  At NO time during this phone conversation did Mr. [redacted] inform our customer service representative that he had called a month before and never received a call back.On November 14, 2015, our technician arrived at Mr. [redacted]'s home and did not visually see any problem with the faucet knob.  The technician pointed out to Mr. [redacted] that everything looked fine with the faucet knob.  It was at that time that Mr. [redacted] stated that he had worked on the faucet himself but felt it was going to malfunction again.  Our technician explained to Mr. [redacted] that the warranty is normally null and void when anyone other than Bishop Plumbing touches the faucet.  The technician explained that he could take apart the faucet to make sure that everything was ok but since it appeared to be working at that time and since Mr. [redacted] had already admitted to working on the faucet himself we would need to charge a diagnostic fee to do so.   A reduced diagnostic fee of $150.00 was quoted to Mr. [redacted].  It was at THIS time that Mr. [redacted] claimed that he had no choice but to work on the faucet himself because he had called the office a month earlier and that no one had called him back.  Mr. [redacted] did not want to have our technician perform the diagnostic and our technician left the home without even collected the $79.95 dispatch fee.Later that afternoon Mr. [redacted] called our office to complain about the diagnostic fee.  He also claimed that the faucet was under a five year. Bishop Plumbing DID NOT install a new faucet for Mr. [redacted] so there was not a five year warranty with us on it.  On Monday, November 16th, Denise called Mr. [redacted] back. Denise explained that the technician that was out could not physically see a problem with the faucet.   Denise explained to Mr. [redacted] that we could send a technician back out and still honor the reduced rate of $150.00 to disassemble and reassemble the product to make sure it was proper.  Mr. [redacted] declined and stated that he would continue to tighten up the faucet himself. That was the last we heard from Mr. [redacted].I would like to point out that when placing the original call on November 12th to our office, Mr. [redacted] DID NOT mention that he had tried to contact us to no avail a month earlier. In fact, he did not ask us about the warranty at all.  After our customer service representative pulled and reviewed the paperwork from the original service call, she called Mr. [redacted] back and informed him that the labor warranty was 90 days but that we would extend the labor warranty if we found that an improper repair was made originally.  Also, Mr. [redacted] claims to have called our answering service on a Saturday afternoon (our office generally closes at 12:00pm on Saturday).  However, ALL calls that come into Bishop Plumbing to our answering service are recorded.  We have searched through the call logs from July 17th all the way up to November 12th and there was never a message from Mr. [redacted].   It appears that Mr. [redacted] decided to work on the faucet himself and when he felt it wasn't repaired properly he called us.  When our technician couldn't find a problem, Mr. [redacted] then admitted to having worked on it himself.  When Mr. [redacted] found out that the warranty was null and void due to this, he THEN made the claim that he had no choice but to work on the faucet himself since Bishop Plumbing wouldn't return his phone calls.Regardless, we have tried to make good on this to Mr. [redacted], even offering a very reduced rate after finding out he worked on the faucet himself.  We will still honor the reduced offer of $150.00 to take apart the faucet and reassemble it.  If Mr. [redacted] would like us to do that he can make those arrangements by calling Bishop Plumbing's office and scheduling an appointment.