Poole's Plumbing, Inc.

Poole's charged us $895 for repair of Rinnai water heater. We feel technician was incompetent and not truthful.Our Rinnai tankless water heater that was originally installed by your company more than 6 years ago, stopped working last Saturday, October 5, 2015. I called for repair and on Monday a service technician came to repair the heater. He and a helper arrived around 10:40 am and he shown to the basement area where water heater is located. We assumed it would take an hour or less to diagnose and I expected another trip and a part may be necessary. One hour turned into 4 hours between smoke breaks and driving "around the corner" for a part. The technician advised me that he should "stay on the clock" as this "would cost me less" while he retrieved the part. He returned 46 minutes later. He was unable to fix the heater and needed to get yet another part and charged me $520 for 4 hours of labor! On Tuesday another technician arrived with the appropriate part and fixed the water heater for an additional $250 in labor and $125 for the part. On Monday afternoon, after being informed of the $520 charge for diagnosis we called Poole's to complain about the unexpected amount. The representative agreed that the amount was "unusual" for diagnosis and said she would talk to the service manager about it. Later that afternoon we were informed by Poole's that we would be credited $125 for the cost of the part. In the end the total bill was $770 for more than 6 hours of labor.Desired SettlementWhile we appreciate the gesture Poole's made to credit the cost of the part, we believe that the exorbitant amount of time diagnosis took at the rate of $125 should be further reduced to a total of 4 hours for the following reasons:On Monday the technician took several smoke breaks preventing him from working on our heater while on the clock at $125/hour. He also said that he was on hold with the manufacturer for long periods of time. I do not understand why we should be charged for this time. We also do not understand how it could have "cost us less" for the technician to leave the work site for almost an hour while no other work was being done. When the technician informed me that he needed to get a part, we expected that he would be done for the day and return the next day, but he insisted that he would be saving us money if he stayed on the clock. His terms were reluctantly agreed to as it was assumed that he had our best interest in mind. Business Response We regret the fact that the customer feels like she was overcharged for the service rendered but the services rendered took a while to accomplish for several reasons.First is that Rinnai tankless water heaters can be quite complicated at times to diagnose. In some cases you are required to fix one item before you can diagnose another problem with the water heater. That is the reason for two trips on the original day and a third trip on the following day. After speaking with tech support, we realized a part was needed to be obtained. The customer states that she was told that it would save her money, in actuality the driving factor behind leaving to obtain the part was that she wanted hot water that day. We do charge for obtaining parts. Our technicians get paid whether they are repairing items or obtaining parts for the repair. The reason for calling tech support is that there are repairs that are not an everyday repairs. No one technician is going to know everything about these types water heaters. The service tech that was completing the repairs that day is a level 3 Rinnai certified technician, which is the highest level that a technnician can obtain from Rinnai. He has gone to school specifically for repairing these water heaters. But nevertheless he needed to call tech support and that time is billable to the customer. Calling tech support is a standard practice when diagnosing these water heaters. He could not get cell signal in the basement so he went to the back of the truck to speak with tech support. While on hold with tech support he smoked two cigarettes. He then went and got the part for the water heater and returned to fix it because the customer wanted hot water that day. He came back installed the part and then ran a test on the water heater which exposed an additional repair that was required to fix the water heater. He called the supply house to find out if they had the part that was needed and they did not. He informed the customer that we would need to come back the next day to complete the repair once we have located the part. So we came back the next day and completed the repair.The customer called and was upset regarding the amount of the bill. We decided to give her a $125 credit to clear up any discrepancy about the time that it took to do the repair. The ride to get the part was a 45 minute trip. And it takes about 15 minutes for the tech to smoke two cigarettes. We credited the customer one hour to clear up that discrepancy. Now three months later there is a complaint that we have not done enough to satisfy this customer. Though we do regret having any unsatisfied customers, there will be no further credits applied to this repair.Consumer Response Unfortunately, I continue to be very disappointed with [redacted]'s Plumbing as a company.It seems to me that the owner and president of [redacted]'s Plumbing disregards the concerns of his customers, instead listens solely to his employees "story". I say "story" as it does seem the technician who came to our house, told his boss whatever was necessary to remain is his good favor. When we first tried to talk to the owner about our concerns we had to wait over a week because he was out of town. When he finally called my husband back, he had already made up his mind that no adjustments would be made for hours of labor. We were disappointed that he came to this decision without talking to us first. So, we wrote him a letter. He responded via letter and I reference some of his statements in my note below. Still his letter made no adjustments or apologies, therefore we filed with the Revdex.com.In the following paragraphs I will lay out the events of October 5, 2015 to the best of my ability. The technician arrived with his helper at 10:40 am. I showed them the location of the water heater and he had me sign the service agreement showing the hourly rate of $125/hour. It was 10:44 am at that time as I remember saying, "let's get to work!" while looking at my watch and left to watch my 3 year old son. Twenty minutes later I came inside from playing with my son to find neither the technician nor his helper in the basement and found them smoking by the van in the front of the house. At this point I was still assuming they were here to serve my best interests.Just before noon the technician informs me that he has to get a part. He said that he was getting a new flame rod because when he cleaned the old one, the original error code 12 changed to 11. Supposedly, the owner of [redacted]'s Plumping says, "that the gasket for the flame rod needed to be replaced due to a crack in the gasket that sometimes happens when removing an older flame rod." The technician had removed the flame rod to clean it. I had immediately assumed he would come back tomorrow with the part but he said, "Ma'am, it will cost you less if I get this part now." I asked him, "Are you sure?" and he replied, "Yes." Then I asked him where he needs to go to get the part and he mentions a place that I did not recognize and I asked if it was close. He replied, "Its right around the corner". I was very surprised that he was going to get the part that day and I did not really comprehend how it would save me money but he was insistent. It then took him 46 minutes to return with the part. I would like to reference the letter that the owner wrote us after we unsuccessfully tried to communicate with him over the phone. He went through the steps that he said the technician would have had to follow to get to the conclusion that he should replace the flame rod."...we then fired up the water heater and the unit flashed a code 11. This is what was done for the original diagnosis. There is no way some can do this in less than 2 hours."Upon reading this I thought to myself, "Wow!", this technician must be absolutely amazing as he informed me of his need to leave a new flame rod just before noon. It only took him one hour and ten minutes to do this, not 2 hours or more. It seems to me the owner was trying to confuse me, his customer with plumbing details and inflated procedure times.Over the next hour and 40 minutes I went down into the basement 3 times to see how things were going and 2 out of the three times, they were not in the basement. In the letter from the owner's response through the Revdex.com, he says, "the technician could not get cell signal in the basement, so he went to the back of the truck to speak to tech support". Giving an excuse to smoke again. Well, I heard the technician on speaker phone with the Rinnai representative while he was in the basement next to my water heater. The call was clear. Over the next few minutes I could clearly hear the representative walking the technician through inspecting a tray to see if it was dusty, to check the fan and make sure that it was unplugged otherwise it could short. The call was very clear and there did not seem to be any reception issues.When the technician got off the phone, I asked him if that was the manufacturer, and he said "yes". He said that the manufacturer makes them call if the part is still under warranty because they want to walk them through step by step procedures. I asked him if our heater was still under warranty and he replied, "I don't know". I said it is probably isn't as it is 6 years old. I had already told him how old the water heater was. This was his excuse for calling Rinnai and it did not make any sense.After changing the flame rod, the technician said that he was still getting error code 11. Finally, at 2:20 pm the technician comes up and tells me that he has to order another part and Rinnai will over night the part for free, the technician said that he convinced Rinnai to do this for us. He then said he needed to write up the ticket to stop the clock. He came back in at 2:30 pm to have me sign it, I did point out that it was only 2:30 and not 2:40 so it had not been 4 hours (what the charge is for), he then says to me, "close enough". He said he couldn't leave without my payment so called in with my credit card.My after thoughts:I contacted my husband about the time and fee and he said that he was told over the phone that the visit would cost $125 for diagnostics and then additional cost for parts and labor to fix. The dispatcher offered to contact the service manager when I mentioned this and she said the high fee for diagnosis was "a little unusual". The dispatcher called me back a little later and said that the manager could not reduce the labor charge but could offer $100 discount for materials that would be needed for installation of new part. I said "ok, thanks", but my husband and I had not discussed the matter yet. I felt taken advantage of by the technician in my blind trustfulness of him. I still can't rationalize how it would cost me less if he leaves for 46 minutes on the clock to get a part, or why he wasn't working in the basement very much over the 4 hours of labor time taking multiple smoke breaks. I also felt that he did not really know what was going on with the heater or how to diagnose it. I believe he only ended up with the gas valve needing replacing because Rinnai decided this for him. I was told that a new technician, their "best guy", would be coming out the next day. From what my husband observed, he beat the part to my house by 20 minutes or so, and in that time, had completely taken the heater apart and confirmed that the gas valve needed to be replaced. Once the valve arrived at the house, he quickly removed and replaced the old gas valve, encountered a wiring error, contacted Rinnai to help trouble shoot and was completely done in 2 hours with no breaks of any kind. I can only speculate, but I believe this technician could have come to the gas valve diagnosis within an hour. Because our heater is obviously not under warranty, there should be no requirement to follow blind step by step procedures from the manufacturer if there are faster ways to diagnose a heater as the technician was seemingly able to do.I would like [redacted]'s Plumbing to reduce the diagnosis time to an hour. I have no problem paying for the part that needed to be replaced and have no issue with the 2 hours of labor required to remove and replace the part. I feel that this is fair and what should have occurred in the first place.Final Business Response Once again I will answer this complaint point by point. After reading the last complaint I'm convinced that she believes that just because I do not agree with her, means that I don't care about her or the job. The reason I do not agree with her is because she has no expertise in Rinnai repair that she is drawing a conclusion that it should be a one-hour diagnostic. Included in that one-hour diagnostic that she claims to be entitled to is a 30-minute drive time to her house. There is absolutely no way that a technician can drive 30 minutes to the house and then complete a diagnostic on a tankless water heater in an hour. That would give him only 30 minutes to complete the diagnostic. We never tell any customer that the diagnostic fee is a flat rate of $125. We tell them that it is $125 per hour and the customer also signed a work order that explains the diagnostic charges are $125 per hour. As far as her concern about my employee being a liar, [redacted] has been employed here for 5 years without incident. I am not simply just believing an employee's story without going and checking up on it. As far as Rinnai, we call Rinnai on every repair and not just those under warranty. They are very complicated systems and it is just proper procedure. And yes, the customer is responsible for paying for that time. The customer reiterated about the time and concerns she has regarding the smoking of the cigarette and the trip that it took to get the part. That time has been credited as we have already given her a $125 part to cover that cost. She also complains about the fact she had to wait a week to speak to the owner because he was out of town. I was on vacation. When I got back I looked into all the issues regarding this complaint, I didn't just take someone's word for it. And I made my decision based on that. I made no adjustments or apologies because no adjustments or apologies are warranted in this situation beyond the $125 part I gave her to satisfy the situation with the ride time and cigarettes that were smoked at the back of the truck, while waiting online with customer support. The customer reiterates that the overwhelming emphasis being put on the service call was to be as inexpensive as possible, but our service manager was on the phone with [redacted], the technician, and he heard a conversation between the homeowner and [redacted] that the overwhelming concern was to get hot water back on that day. The customer is also saying that she thinks I'm trying to confuse her with inflated procedure times when I told her that checking the flame rod would take two hours. With ride time, getting to the house and checking the flame rod and making the determination about the flame rod, took right at two hours even by her own account of time. She says the technician showed up at 10:40, which means that with about 30 minutes of ride time puts the call starting at about 10:10, and by her own account it was right at noon when he made the determination which is right at 2 hours and exactly what I told her. The company phone could not get signal in the basement, so he ended up using his personal phone which did have signal and that is what the customer heard when she heard the technician talking to tech support. Regarding the dispatcher saying the diagnostic fee being higher is a little unusual, our dispatchers have no clue how long it takes for a tankless water heater to be diagnosed, nor do I believe that it was exactly what the dispatcher said. We addressed the 4 hours of labor for the diagnosis by giving her a $125 part bringing that down to 3 hours. The fact that she "felt" that he did not know what he was doing, and "believed" that he ended up replacing the gas valve because Rinnai told him to has no relevance because feelings and beliefs are not fact. This customer is not an expert on Rinnai water heaters nor does she have any knowledge about the level of expertise that the technician that was on the job that day posesses. If this technician did not know what he was doing, we would not have him out doing these repairs. She references our "best guy" coming out the next day. That technicians name is [redacted]. This morning I asked [redacted] how long it would have taken him to diagnose a flame rod, and his answer to that was 2-3 hours. And yes he is our best technician on Rinnai's with [redacted] being a very close second. Regarding [redacted] having the tankless fixed and done in 2 hours, keep in mind by the [redacted] already had the diagnosis and all he needed to do was perform the repair. Again the client "believes" and speculates that this technician could have done the diagnosis in an hour, but by his own account he says 2-3 hours. As far as the customer's desire to have the diagnosis time cut to one hour, that is not something I am prepared to do. This is the last time I will address this issue. The fact that I do not agree with the client does not mean I do not care about the clients concerns nor does it mean that I simply swallowed the technicians account. I have spent over 2-1/2 hours questioning Rinnai service people and even my own staff in regards to this complaint. If I felt like additional time needed to be taken off this job was warranted, then I would have done so. This client has no idea how long it takes to diagnose or repair one of these water heaters. I have done my best to explain this situation.Sincerely,[redacted]

Complaint45 minutes late! Small leak first floor toilet w/crawl space access phone estimate $230.00. On premises estimate $525.00 or pay $125.00 diagnostic. Called [redacted] (Poole's Sales) on 8/27/14 because of the exorbitant plumbing repair charge I was billed for on 8/26/14. [redacted] had to check with the owner [redacted], and said, he would advise me of [redacted]'s decision with a follow up phone call. I checked with [redacted] on Thursday evening and he said [redacted] had already started his holiday weekend and he would contact me on Tuesday (9/2/14). I had to call [redacted] back this evening (9/2/14) to find out that [redacted] would do nothing regarding dropping the price I paid. The day of the work (8/26/14) the plumber ([redacted]) was on premises one and a half hours and charged $525.00 to pull a toilet, supposedly replace a flange and glue the flange down. It was stated that the original flange, which looked perfect to me, was not glued down on the initial install. When I balked at the on premises quote compared to the phone quote of $230.00 [redacted] stated, "we offer the best plumbing prices in town guaranteed." So, at his word after the work was done I called [redacted] Garner, NC and they quoted $150.00 - $300.00 for the same job and stated, "because of the crawl space access it would be on the lower end of their estimate." I passed all this information onto [redacted]/sales...The plumber [redacted] was 45 minutes late after already waiting for four hours for him to show; their initial phone repair quote vs. their on premises quote; their "Best Plumbing Prices in Town Guaranteed," which [redacted]/plumber stated in my driveway when I had the dilemma to either pay a $125.00 diagnostic charge, or pay a $525.00 bill. I decided to get the repair done and hold them at their best price guarantee word, which is stated on their trucks and website. Obviously this is not a reputable firm, which trades on fraudulent advertising...therefore I will not do business with them again. It is my hope that I help future consumers avoid a very bad (expensive) learning experience.Desired SettlementA $225.00 settlement I think would be appropriate. Being that I paid $525.00 and received a [redacted] Plumbing estimate of $300.00 even though [redacted] stated, "their estimate would probably be on the low side of the $150.00 - $300.00 estimate.Business Response /[redacted]/First off to address the claim of "Best Price In Town". Our technician ([redacted]) never mentioned that to the customer. It is extremely clear what our "Best Price in Town" guarantee is. This is clearly stated on our trucks and our website. The best price in town guarantee is solely for water heater installs and NOT for any service. Obviously he is mistaken and did not read what the actual policy regarding that is.http://www.poolesplumbing.com/On an additional note, Mr. [redacted] explained to my staff over the phone after we told him we would not be refunding any money to him that his life mission will be to "destroying the reputation of our company."Now to address the service call. The initial call came in as a "leak in the crawl". It is very hard to diagnose plumbing problems via "site unseen". The reason is, and as in this case, the problem being relayed to our office staff is not always what the problem is. This is why we let all customers know that we can give them a price based on what we are told over the phone however once we are onsite that price may change based on what the actual price is. In this case a pipe leaking in the crawl is a $230.00 repair. But in actuality the problem was that his toilet flange was leaking which is a whole different price. Sometimes this can be easy and sometimes difficult depending the situation of the toilet. We do charge a diagnostic fee of $125.00 for us to come out and diagnose the problem. If the repair is made we do not charge that fee. This is standard in the service industry and certainly not uncommon. All of this is also explained to the customer prior to us putting the call on schedule. After we diagnosed the problem at this service call, we wrote up the proposal for the amount we charged ($525.00) and Mr. [redacted] signed it, agreed to, and authorized the repair and charge. We made the repairs and charged him the very amount of the proposal. As far as Mr. [redacted] thinking that we "trade on fraudulent advertising" we cannot speak to that and are sorry he feels that way. Certainly it is not common to order the steak at a restaurant, eat the meal, pay for the meal, and then later demand a partial refund because another restaurant we found was cheaper. We are not sure what to say to this. We have done a lot of research in the market when we determined our pricing for our services and we know we are not the cheapest but we also know we are not the most expensive. We pride ourselves on providing the very best service for a competitive price. We will not be refunding any money to Mr. [redacted] for this service call. I would be happy to provide the signed copy of the proposal that he signed prior to us providing the repair. We also hope Mr. [redacted] is enjoying his toilet that now does not leak into his crawl.

Contacted [redacted]'s Plumbing to repair kitchen leak and told that total service call cost would be $260. Result: Charged $255 for trip charge only. On Saturday 2/14/15, I contacted [redacted]'s Plumbing 24 hour emergency service to request repair of a kitchen leak and the service technician [redacted] who took the call, communicated that the total cost for a kitchen leak repair was $260. During his visit, [redacted] indicated that he wasn't certain what the source of the leak was but that he thinks it maybe the water heater and that I should keep the water shutoff until Monday 2/16/15, when he can gather more information. He then explained that the cost was $255 for the trip charge and $5 for the labor cost. When I contacted the manager on Monday 2/16/15 (2 days later) to file a complaint, the manager indicated that the technician [redacted] is not a good communicator and that the actual charge was for the trip and diagnosing of the problem. My decision to use Poole's Plumbing for this service call was predicated on the promise made by the Technician [redacted] that I would be charged a cost of $260 to repair the water leak. Since no repair or clear diagnostics were provided, then I should not be charged $255 for this service call. This is clearly a case of service not being provided as advertised.Desired SettlementI would like a full reimbursement of the $255 charged on my credit card since the technician, [redacted] did not provide the repair promised or clear diagnosis of the problem. Poole's Plumbing owner has to understand that the company is ultimately responsible for the mistakes made by their technicians. Clearly both myself and the company's manager [redacted] agree that the technician did not accurately communicate the cost of the service call. The service was not provided as advertised by the technician. I should not have to pay for the mistakes of the technician.Business Response /[redacted]/When the Landlord of the home, Mr. [redacted] contacted us his client told him that the leak was coming from the kitchen sink. We explained to him over the phone that in order to come out after hours the charge would be $125.00 per hour plus materials to fix the leak plus an after hours fee of $130.00. Total to come out and diagnose the issue would be $255.00. However, we told him that if indeed it was a leak at the kitchen sink and needed a supply replaced that the part for that would be $5.00 and that the total charge would be $260.00. But we would confirm that when we arrive. He agreed and so we booked the call.When we arrived, our technician diagnosed the issue as not a leak from the kitchen sink but a leak from a 20 gallon water heater under the sink. The diagnosis here was that the water heater needed to be replaced. A 20 gallon water heater is a non stock item in which we needed to wait until Monday to get. Our Technician shut the water off and told the tenant that it needed to be replaced and that it would be best if she kept it turned off until Monday when we could go ahead and replace it.The final charge for that call fell under the initial price given to the landlord, Mr. [redacted], in which he agreed to. This is why we do not give firm, blanket prices over the phone because in most cases, until we actually put our eyes on the job all we have to go by is what the, in this case, the landlord is telling us, which he didn't even see the problem either. In most cases since they are not plumbing professionals they wrongly diagnose the issue.In the end we charged him our standard minimum charge for diagnostic of $125.00 plus our after hours charge of $130.00 which he agreed to for a total of $255.00. We performed our diagnostic perfectly and communicated to him exactly what the problem was. It was a diagnosis done right the first time.We would have come back out on Monday but the landlord bought a water heater from Lowe's and installed it himself. Because of our diagnosis he was able to go ahead and do that, which is fine too however that does not get him out of paying for our services which were performed exactly to our procedures. As a side note, We do not buy our water heaters from retail hardware stores. We use our own supply houses and this is standard practice in our industry for a company our size.Thank You.Consumer Response /[redacted]/The response presented by Poole's Plumbing is not completely accurate. The complaint filed has to do with the failure of the employee on call to accurately communicate their policy regarding pricing for after hour service and diagnostic. I am requesting that Poole's Plumbing waive the diagnostic charge since the technician failed to communicate the diagnostic procedure involved. I believe that this is a fair and reasonable resolution to this issue, given the misunderstanding on both sides. Sincerely [redacted]Final Consumer Response /[redacted]/(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)Once again, the owner refuses to accept the fact that his employee did not communicate his pricing policy correctly prior to the service call. When I called the following Monday, the manager had agreed with me that the technician on call had not effectively communicate the pricing policy. I do not agree with the owner's resolution.Final Business Response /[redacted]/Clear diagnostics were communicated for the price we told the Landlord we would charge which he accepted before we went to the house. We get the fact that the Landlord, Mr. [redacted], did not clearly understand the charges that were articulated to him however that does not mean the charge was unfair or that he was taken advantage of. He paid exactly what anyone else would pay for the same service at the same after hours time. We apologize for any misunderstanding on our part, if any, but we see no reason to refund any part of this charge. Poole's Plumbing followed its' pricing policy perfectly.Had we not communicated the proper diagnosis, Mr. [redacted] would not have known the leak was coming from the water heater, in which he replaced himself on Monday. This proves our diagnosis was communicated to him. What Mr. [redacted] did not understand, or misunderstood, was that coming out to his home to either fix the originally misdiagnosed repair from him, or to accurately diagnose the issue and go from there, the charge for this was $255.00, again which he agreed to and what was charged.

Unethical sales practicesOn 3/21/15, I contacted Pooles Plumbing to request a service call at one of my rental properties. I advised the plumber that there was a leak in the crawl space and the tenant had shut off the water supply until the problem could be resolved. I further advised the plumber to call me once he realized the issue. However, I did not receive a return call so I called him to investigate the problem. The plumber indicated that the hot water heater was causing the leak and needed to be replaced. He also said he capped the lines until a replacement could be made. I asked why he did not replace the water heater and he responded by saying he didn't think I would have wanted to pay $350 extra for him to install it on that Saturday. In addition, he stated they did not install 30 gallon water heaters so a permit may be needed to upgrade to a 40 or 50 gallon heater. He stated the office would call me that Monday morning at 8:00am. Again, I did not receive a return call but I noticed that my credit card had been charged $320 without my permission. Hence, I called them to investigate and was informed that this was the charges for the service call and capping the lines. I advised that the issue was not resolved and the plumber was not given permission to cap the lines. The office then suggested that I would need to call the owner to discuss further. I called the owner and explained that his company policy states that the service call fees should be reduced from the actual work done that was necessary for the repair. However, in this case, the plumber did not complete the necessary work to resolve the problem. The owner was extremely defensive and unreasonable. He stated that you can not purchase a 30 gallon hot water heater anywhere and a permit would be necessary to upgrade to a 40 or 50 gallon tank. He then stated, "The charge is $320. Do what you need to do" and then hung up on me. I tried to call back but he would not answer. I must say I am extremely disappointed in the owner's behavior. This is simply not an honest and ethical way to do business. Knowing the urgency of resolving this plumbing issue, I called [redacted] and purchased a 30 gallon hot water heater and had it installed. I was misled about the availability of 30 gallon water heaters and the company charged my credit card for work without my permission. I believe this company has some very serious ethical issues they need to address.Desired SettlementA refund in the amount of $320 is the appropriate settlement in this case since the plumber did not complete the job necessary for the repair.Business Response /[redacted]/At 12:00 pm Saturday afternoon on the 21'st of March, the complainant called our emergency hot line to schedule an emergency call. Our Technician answered the call, the complainant stated that he had a leak in the crawlspace at his tenants house and that the tenant was elderly and he had no idea where the leak was coming from. He also stated that he would be unavailable all day and to go out and fix the issue. The technician gave pricing on repairs to a poly or pex line in the crawlspace of $190.00 plus an emergency call out fee of $130.00 and that the total price for a leak on the water distribution system would be $320.00. The complainant also stated that he was a bill from office customer indicating that he had a credit account set up with us. The technician called the supervisor on duty and found out that that was untrue and that he would be a COD call. We have a standing policy that if someone does not have a credit account with us that before the technician can go out, the customer must provide a credit card number to us with approval before we go. The technician called the complainant back immediately and explained the policy to him and the complainant gave him the credit card number, the technician went over again the charges that he can expect which was $190.00 for the leak repair and $130.00 for the emergency call out fee. The complainant agreed to the charges but was complaining of the charges. He stated that he thought he deserved a discount because he is a return customer. The technician explained to him that that would be up to the owner to decide on Monday, however, for now he would have to agree to pay those charges in order for the technician to go out. The complainant agreed and the technician went out to the job.Upon arriving and looking in the crawlspace, the technician found that the 30 gallon water heater was leaking. The technician explained to the tenant that the complainant stated that he would be unavailable all day and that all he could do would be to cap the lines to the water heater so that she would at least have water to flush, drink and to cook with. He capped the water lines and turned the water back on to the unit. Even the tenant knew that there was an emergency call out fee of $130.00 because there was a conversation between the tenant and the complainant prior to the technician's arrival. The reason why capping off lines is the same price as repairing a leak in the crawlspace is because both require two fittings and the time involved in performing such a repair is the same.The reason we did not change the water heater was because a 30 gallon water heater is not a part that we have available to us on a Saturday after 12:00pm. Also the customer previously stated that he would be unavailable all day therefore we couldn't even receive authorization to change the water heater even if we had the part. The reason why we do not buy water heaters from [redacted] or [redacted] is because we are not an authorized service provided for those brands of water heaters. We could not upgrade it to a 40 gallon water heater, one we had in stock, because it would have required a permit and we also did not have that authorization from the complainant to do such a repair.The complainant called at approximately 5:00pm and the technician went over with him what he had done and again the charges that would be associated with that. The technician informed him that a 30 gallon water heater was a special order item and that we would have to check on that item on Monday. The complainant once again complained about the pricing and stated that he would not use us in the future if we charged him for the repair and the emergency call out fee which was previously explained to him quite a few times throughout the conversations.Monday morning the complainant called the owner of the plumbing company and was very upset over the charges that he had to pay both the repair fee and the emergency fee. The owner explained to the complainant that the same amount of time and materials was used to cap the lines that would have been used to repair a leaking pipe. The complainant did not agree with the owner and continued to become more upset regarding the charges. The owner contacted the technician to hear how the call went and then called the complainant back and explained to him that he had been told on multiple occasions that the charges were going to total to $320.00 and that the owner could not understand how expected anything other than those charges. He continued to be upset and called back the owner multiple times but there were no other discussions to be had as the charges were correct and the technician performed his job according to company policy and procedures.The above complaint states that the complainant told the technician to contact him when he diagnosed the issue which stands in direct contrast to the fact that he was going to be unavailable all day. He also admitted to the owner that indeed he told the technician that he would be unavailable all day. So this statement is not true at all. The complainant also alleges that the technician told him that to change the water heater out on Saturday would be $350.00 extra when in essence it is actually $400.00 extra. He also alleges that we told him that we do not install 30 gallon water heaters when what we told him was that it would just be a special order item. He also states that his credit card was charged $320.00 without his permission which is also untrue because without prior authorization we would not have gone to the job. The complainant states in his complained that it is a company policy of ours that we should reduce the service call fee from the actual work performed and we are not really sure where he is getting that information from. That is not our company policy. He also states in his complaint that the owner told him that you cannot purchase a 30 gallon water heater anywhere when in actuality the owner told him that we could not purchase a 30 gallon water heater on the weekend. Because we do not purchase water heaters from [redacted] or [redacted]The complainant states that we were not honest or ethical in our business practices but the fact is that since he was unable to dissuade the owner to reduce the charges the complainant was continuing to become unreasonable and thus there was no other reason to communicate with him. He kept saying that he was going to contact the Revdex.com as well as make all kinds of threats about writing bad reviews on the internet. At that point there was no other reason to continue the conversation.The complainant's desired resolution on the complaint is a refund in the amount of $320.00. So essentially the complainant feels that the proper charge to him for us to put an emergency technician in a truck on a weekend, who is paid triple time by the company, to complete an emergency repair for his elderly tenant so she could have running water and be able to drink water should be $0.00. This desired resolution should be proof to the Revdex.com just how unreasonable this complainant really is.The minimum for simply diagnosing the issue would have been a total of $255.00. This would be a $130.00 emergency fee plus a $125.00 diagnosis fee. The added cost for disconnecting the line in light of those charges was only $65.00. In other words if we would have gone out and done nothing except diagnose the issue it would have been $255.00.Had the complainant not told the technician that he would not be available all day, we would have diagnosed it and called the complainant back and told him the diagnosis and gave him the option to either repair it and get the water up and running for the elderly tenant or simply leave and come back on Monday to replace the water heater, in which case would have been $255.00.It our desire to always communicate to our customers the charges that they could expect but the fact the he was unavailable this could not take place.Consumer Response /[redacted]/This response is filled with inaccuracies and untruths. Please note the following:1) The plumber was advised to call me when he arrived at the location but he did not;2) The plumber was not given permission to cap the lines;3) I never advised the plumber that I had a credit account with them;4) After questioning the owner why the plumber did not replace the hot water heater, he stated "We can not get 30 gallon water heaters anymore because they are hard to find and you will need to upgrade to a 40 gallon heater which will require a permit." This has since been proven to be false since Lowes and Home Depot both carry them in stock. It was never said that this was a "special order item."5) When I called the plumber back that afternoon to inquire why I never received a call from him, he stated that the hot water heater needed to be replaced and he capped the lines. I questioned him why he did not replace the hot water heater since that was what needed to be repaired. I advised him that a hot water heater replacement is a necessity and should be installed the same day. 6) I did not call the owner "multiple times" - only once after he hung up on me and I left a message that I hope he would provide me the courtesy to call me back. I never received a call back.7) I did not tell the owner or the plumber that I would "unavailable" the day of the repair. I was very clear that the plumber was to call me when he arrived at the location. 8) The technician stated that if he were to replace the hot water heater, the cost would have been $350 extra, not $400. 9) I did not provide the plumber permission to charge my credit card $320. 10) The owner states that he doesn't know where I am getting that his policy is to apply the diagnosis fee toward the necessary repair. First, the plumber told me this is the policy which is why I was charged $150 in a previous repair (within the past 2 weeks). In this instance, the company indicated the diagnosis fee is $125 which was applied toward the repair of $150. Secondly, the owner responded in a separate Revdex.com complaint on 10/7/14 from another customer stating the following:"We do charge a diagnostic fee of $125.00 for us to come out and diagnose the problem. If the repair is made we do not charge that fee. This is standard in the service industry and certainly not uncommon."11) I did not make threats to the owner that I intend to write bad reviews on the internet. It's interesting that he also alleges the same allegations against another dissatisfied customer in his response to the Revdex.com complaint made on 10/7/14. He stated the following: "On an additional note, Mr. [redacted] explained to my staff over the phone after we told him we would not be refunding any money to him that his life mission will be to "destroying the reputation of our company."It is obvious that the owner of this company has some real ethical issues with being dishonest and fraudulently charging credit cards without the customers' permission. This is clearly evidenced by the verbiage in previous Revdex.com complaints. In his own words in a response to a prior Revdex.com complaint, he admits that the diagnosis fee is not charged if the repair is made. He further admits "This is standard in the service industry and certainly not uncommon." If the company made the repair and credited the diagnosis fee as offered, then this dispute would not be taking place. Instead the owner continues to deceive customers with unethical sales practices. Ultimately, I contracted [redacted] replace the water heater and expect a full refund of $320. It should also be noted, I just received a call from one of my other tenants where I had recently hired this company to do a plumbing repair and the faucet is not working again. I now have to call someone else to fix their mess due to poor workmanship. I have some very serious concerns with the ethics and deceptive sales practices with this company.Final Consumer Response /[redacted]/(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)The company did not offer a viable and fair response, nor an acceptable resolution. It is evident that the owner is not taking this complaint seriously and has been proven in my rebuttal to be dishonest. The company fraudulently and maliciously charged my credit card without my permission. Final Business Response /[redacted]/We do not agree and we have already addressed these issues. Simply stated he is mistaken and is wrong.There is no more for us to discuss.

Great experience! I purchased a tankless water heater from Poole's. They did a great job of explaining my options, and had the new system in within two days of our first contact. They've done an excellent job of follow through for inspections and shown up on time, every time. All staff members have been extremely professional and helpful. I highly recommend them!