Halverson Brothers Plumbing

Review: I contacted Halverson Brothers in regards to my toiled leaking. The plumber came to our home at 11:15 a.m., messed around with a few things, wandered around outside, came in and replaced 30 feet of tubing because it was frozen. Instead of letting us know that our pipes in our one bathroom were frozen, he decided to let us know 3 1/2 hours into the job. He could have let us know in the beginning and in that case, we would have had him leave as soon as he was done replacing the tubing. The plumber went outside and talked on his phone and then came back inside and told my husband and myself that he, "Never left a job unfinished." He left our home with the toilet still not working. We called the owner and he was very rude and told me that he can have the plumber come back out but, "Of course I am going to charge you." They charged us $87/ hour and were at our home for 4 hours to replace 1 thing and to tell me pipes were froze. I received a bill stating the hourly charges and that the plumber replaced 40 feet of tubing when he told us directly that he replaced 30 feet.Desired Settlement: I feel that we are responsible for paying for the hour that it took for the plumber to fix 30 feet of tubing and the tubing itself; but not the additional 3 hours that we were charged for them not even fixing anything else.

Business

Response:

On January 23 we were asked to do a service call because the kitchen drain was plugged. When we

arrived the owner (he) had the toilet pulled and said he attempted to snake out the toitet but only got

about 8' and couldn't get any further.

We then had to go outside and pull the snow and skirting out from around the trailer to gain access,

crawled underneath the trailer and determined the sewer line was frozen. Mr. [redacted] was then told of

the hourly rate of $87/hr and also told it looked like the majority of the drain line was frozen and it

cou ld take quite a while to thaw. He was asked jf he wanted us to continue because it could take

awhile. He said it needed to get done and "thanks for being honest".

Our service technician went back under and the trailer and decided it would be quicker and less

expensive to the owner to cut out the frozen section of drain line and replace it with new vs. trying to

thaw the line out. When the work was done he went to check his work and verify that it was in

operating condition by turning on the water and letting the water run to make sure we had replaced all

of the frozen section. This is when we found there was no water to that bathroom (which we were not

told prior to us doing any other work). Our service technician asked Mr. [redacted] if he was aware his

water line was frozen and he said he was but hadn't previously mentioned anything to us.

We then asked him to turn on his kitchen sink faucet (to gauge a starting point in determining where to

start thawing the water line). As we crawled back under the trailer for this new problem we discovered

that the water line to the toilet was leaking at a connection and there was also about 8-10' of excess

water line coi led up which is an easy target for freezing. We repaired the leak and removed the excess

water line and found the water line was still frozen further up the line. We went back at it with a heat

gun and attempted to thaw at which time it was nearing 3:30 (overtime rate starts at 4pm).

Our service technician told Mr. [redacted] that we could stay and attempt to keep thawing the water line

with our heat gun or, in order to save him money, he noticed the water lines run on top of the ductwork

and that Mr. [redacted] could try turning up the heat to the furnace, leave the faucet open and it may thaw

out on its own. Mr. [redacted] thought it was a good idea to try this route instead of paying us to continue

to try thawing the water lines. Mr. [redacted] again thanked us for "being honest with him".

Our service man told Mr. [redacted] if it didn't work to call right away in the morning and we would have

someone there right away. As our service technician was getting ready to leave he asked Mr. [redacted] if

he would like us to reset his toilet for him. Mr. [redacted] declined but asked if we could tell him how to do

it and leave him the parts to do it in order to save some money, which we did.

Our service technician was barely back to the office when [redacted] (owner) received a phone call

about the service from Mrs. [redacted] (whom no one dealt with previously). [redacted] said he would have to

speak with the service technician and get the details and would call back. Once [redacted] spoke with the

service technician he called back to the number we had (which was Mr. [redacted]) and Mr. [redacted] handed

the phone over to Mrs. [redacted]. She was upset by the fact that we left (as agreed upon with Mr.

[redacted]) with the water line still frozen. We offered to come back to thaw it out but was told that it

takes time to thaw out drain and water lines and that she would still be charged for the extra work.

Mrs. [redacted] was upset that there would still be a charge to do so and that is when she threatened to

put her side of the story on Facebook and other social media outlets. Our service technician and [redacted]

were both present when speaking with Mrs. [redacted] on the phone and at no time was there any hint of

rudeness. Unfortunately when informed of something you may not want to hear, some people may

perceive that as being rude, which we can do nothing about.

According to our service technician Mr. [redacted] was made aware of and ok'd everthing we did. Not once

was Mrs. [redacted] involved while we were on the service call. I find it funny that only after we left (not

while we were on site) that she called to complain and that she wasn't even involved in the decisions or

the process of communication while we were on site.

If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

Halverson Brothers,

Consumer

Response: