So to overview, I wouldn't give them a grade of "A" but rather a "D+" for the overall experience. While the work was done properly and to code, the people there were quite unprofessional. For many reasons and at a variety of times I felt like I was being lied to. The one thing I require more than any other from people is the truth. When dealing with A-OK, I repeatedly felt like I was being lied to. Because of that, I wish I could give ZERO stars. So while we have a plumbing problem probably once a month on average for one of our properties, we have not found a replacement for our previous plumber who retired.
So story time...We were in a bind when we discovered at one of our rental properties there was a leak under the sink where the dishwasher supply line was connected to the hot water line. It started leaking because of the poor job done by a previous handyman but that's a different story. We got matched to A-OK through a website and gave them a call. As in baseball, three strikes and you're out in my book, lets see how many they can rack up.
Strike 1(being late): We talked to a dispatch lady around 3:30 who said the plumber could be out in 30-45 minutes. So we waited for the plumber to come. At the 35 minute mark we called back only to find out that some traffic problem had materialized because of an accident and the plumber was only half way there. We said we hid a key at the property and said "let yourself in." We asked how much it would be to fix the supply line leak to the dishwasher due to a bad valve. We were quoted $100.
Strike 2(no show): So when we got home, I checked on Google traffic and there were no accidents anywhere in Aurora. So the 'accident' seemed like a fib to me. We got a call from the plumber himself at 6:00pm who said he was at the property but was scared to get out of his truck because someone looked at him funny. WHAT!? Someone looked at you funny and so you drive off the job? Well at this point, all other plumbers have stopped working for the day so our leak continued to drip and damage the kitchen cabinet. So we scheduled him to come back at 9:00am the next morning.
Strike 3 (the owner hangs up on us): We got in contact with the owner of the company to talk about the situation. In the background we heard kids playing so he was probably at home. We talked about the situation and how we were frustrated with the plumber being late and then refusing to do the job. Halfway through, the phone goes dead. Call back. Start explaining again, phone goes dead. He calls back and says his phone keeps dropping the call. Keep explaining our point of view, it seems like he's listening until the phone goes dead again. Look, I understand if you're driving and have spotty reception, or if you're in an unfamiliar place and aren't sure about cell reception, but Everyone knows where in their own home, the cell reception is good and where it's not so good. Since he was probably at home since I heard his kids in the background, I'm sure he was just hanging up on us when he didn't care any more and lying to cover it up.
Strike 4 (stupidity): The plumber go to the house and looked under the sink and called us to receive consent to start working on "fixing the leak". Plumber said it would be $100 to clean P-trap and snake the drain under the kitchen sink. WHAT!? I told you yesterday it was a leak because of the bad valve at the supply line to the dishwasher. There was no talk about cleaning a P-trap and snaking the drain.
Strike 5 (grossly inflated prices): Plumber then looks at the valve and gives an estimate of $250 to replace the valve, like we told them the day before. "What kind of a discount do I get for you not showing up yesterday?" "No discount" he replies, then after 3 seconds he comes back with "I already gave you a discount at the $250, my book says it should be $289 for the fix but I'll honor the $250 price I said." Yeah, right. Seems like another lie to me. I told him that the water shutoff is in the crawlspace, or if he wanted to, go ahead and shut it off at the street. "There's an extra charge for going in the crawlspace or shutting the water off at the street. But I can shut the water off at the water heater." Absurd! We have never in our many years as property managers heard of an extra charge for shutting the water off.
So there's the story, bottom line, we won't be calling them back for our own home or for our property management company. read more