H-E-B PLUMBING

I hired HEB Plumbing to replace the toilet flange to solve a rocking toilet problem I was having. When I booked the work I told them what the problem was & what I needed them to do. I told them the flange was probably broken because the toilet had started rocking. I would normally do this task myself,but I was having some issues with my back at the time.

I asked the girl that answered the phone what the cost would be & she said it would be $80 per hour + materials. So I figured 1 hour & maybe $25 for parts. The guy shows up, pulls the toilet & says he has to go back to the shop to get the flange. Why didn't he have it on the truck or the 10' trailer he was pulling??? I told them what I needed when I booked the job. I didn't think much about it because according to their ad, their office was 5 minutes away. Well, an hour later he shows back up & told me some story about he had to look all over the shop to find this "repair flange". He went on to tell me that it was a $65 part & that any other plumbing company would have wanted to jack-hammer up the floor & I would have had to replace about 6 floor tiles. Well, I knew that was baloney, but the guy liked to talk, so whatever.

After he had the toilet in place, he wanted to caulk all around the base of the toilet & that it would strengthen the toilet. Again I'm scratching my head, wondering what he was talking about. Caulk is used as a sealant, not a grout. I told him I didn't want caulk on my ceramic tile floor & grout, that I didn't like the appearance & the cleaning & maintenance problems it could cause in the future. He argued with me for minute, then shifted gears & said he was required to tell me that he had installed a "repair flange" not a "replacement flange". Why? This $65 part doesn't work as well the $10 flange you can get at any hardware store? I should have smelled a rat right then,but it was an easy job that any handyman should be able to perform. When he gave me the bill & he's charged me $118 for the $65 part, then charged me 3 hours labor, for a total of $365.

To be fair, I DID ask him to give me his "opinion" on a shower leak I was having in my master bath. So what should have been a 5 minute conversation turned in to another half hour after he insisted on checking my shower pan for leaks. Did I mention that he liked to talk, but had to stop working while he talked? Anyway, I just marked the whole thing off to experience & to get a set price up front before I let a serviceman perform any work.

Being that it was the guest bath, I didn't realize there was a problem until about a week later when my wife alerted me that the toilet was rocking worse than it was before. Not only was it still rocking, now it would turn left & right.

I immediately sent a message via internet to [redacted] that I was unhappy with the service & the price I was charged. I made mention that the toilet had been reset 12 years early by the tile man that set the tile & never had a problem. And I found it hard to believe that a licensed plumber couldn't get the job done. I did not request a refund, just that I wanted the job I'd booked & paid them to do done correctly. I also requested he send someone else to complete this task as I didn't have faith in the plumber he first sent. I added that maybe he might have his workers might clean their drop cloths more often, as I had to sweep & mop the floor after he left. It wasn't a rude note just direct & to the point, voicing my feelings about the workmanship.

Apparently, [redacted] felt differently about my complaint. After about a week of not hearing from this company, I started "trying" to call them, but got nothing but a busy signal . . . for hours. So I sent an email to [redacted], stating that I'd been trying to call for several days & would he contact me so we could resolve this issue. Again, not being rude or aggressive, more pleading with him to work with me to resolve the problem. I had to go out of state for 10 days & had not heard from them, so I started trying to call them again, this time getting the fax machine.

I sent them a 3rd email 11/7/13 stating that if I didn't hear from them by the end of the day 11/8 that I would "proceed with whatever means needed to resolve this problem. I'm pretty sure the easiest thing for both of us, would be for HEB Plumbing to do the job I paid you to do to start with & we could put this matter behind us."

I feel I've been more than patient with this company to resolve this problem & have giving them plenty of to respond.