Steve's Plumbing, Inc.

Review: I contacted [redacted]'s Plumbing company on a weekend, after I noticed a small water leak at my wellpump in my house. [redacted], came out, inpsected the water leak, and said the repair may be difficult (he estimated the amount to be $420), depending on what he finds when he disassembles all the fittings. I understood that to include a service call charge of $125. When he finished replacing a fitting two hours later, he charged me $570. I had no other option but to pay him; he claimed that was the cost for all the work performed. When I checked his work later to see what was replaced, it was only a large nut and pipe, and it took him about two hours to do this work. I checked around later the next week and found that the going rate for plumbers was in the range of $65-$85 dollars/hr.

I called a number of times to his establishment, to ask [redacted] why the bill was so high. He was never there, and though I left my name and number, he never called me back. I think he over-charged me on the labor rate, as well as the time to repair the job, but he may have over-estimated the time. Since he never attempted to contact me, I have no other options to try to successfully resolve the situation. I think we could come to a mutaully-agreeable solution, but he has refused so far to try to contact me. [redacted] was a very nice person, and I would sincerely want to mainatin our relationship, as I expect to do more system improvements and upgrades in the future.Desired Settlement: Using the highest repair rate in the area of $85/hr, I figure he is owed $170 plus his weekend service charge of $125, even though his work probably only took less than an hour. So I think a fair refund for both of us would be $570-($170 + $125) = $275.00

Business

Response:

Dear Bradley Colmerauer,

I recently received a letter from you regarding [redacted] ID #[redacted]. I apologize but I did not get the first letter you sent or I would have responded immediately.

At Steve’s Plumbing, we do things a bit differently. When [redacted] called he was told that we will send a technician in a fully stocked truck to do the work right away. There is a service fee to send out that technician, which is $129 after hours or on the weekend. He was also told that once we arrived, we would give him the additional price to do the work BEFORE we begin any work, that way he would know exactly what it would cost and what would be done. He was also told that we do collect upon completion of the job.

I have included for your review, the paperwork from the day of the job, as well as the paperwork from Mr. [redacted]’s credit card company. He has disputed the charges to his credit card company. The page I have marked #1, is the first paperwork I received on his complaint. As you can see there, the amount charged to his account was $542, he told the credit card company that we only should have charged him $100; the credit card company then deducted $442 from our checking account and asked us to correct it or provide them with the details and paperwork. I have enclosed the invoice from the day of service marked #2 for your review. As you can see, there is the $129 service fee which he was informed of when making the appointment, and there is the $413 price he was given once the technician looked at the job and determined what needed to be done. These amounts add up to $542, which it what was charged to him. He signed the paperwork, indicating that the work was performed to his satisfaction right next to the total. The page marked #3 is our response to the credit card company. We received more paperwork (#4) from the credit card company this time stating we should have billed him $299 instead of the $100 which he initially claimed. These amounts were NEVER discussed with the customer by our technician. We can see in #5 that the customer only FEELS like this is what he should be charged based on what other plumbers told him. I know there is no plumber in the area which will charge $65-$85 per hour plus parts (which is never mentioned in his $299

pricing) to go out on the weekend. The technician was at the property from 9:30-12:40, (not the 2 hours the customer claimed) we don’t charge by the hour but we do want to clear up the facts. You will find our response to the letter marked #6. That being said, what other plumbers charge for their service is none of our business. We know our cost of doing business unlike many who are in business for themselves. We need to charge the prices that we do to stay in business. We are upfront about all of the costs involved from the first phone call explaining the service fee, and how the technician will give a price before he begins any work. And again, when the technician arrives he goes through the service fee and explains to the customer that when he thoroughly examines the problem, he will then give a price before making the repair. We can’t be anymore fair than giving a price upfront. His claim of what has been owed has changed through the entire process as you can see documented in his statements to the credit card company.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Steve’s Plumbing Inc.

Consumer

Response: