7/3/16 - UPDATE - Changed to 4 stars. About a week ago, out of the blue, I was contacted by Dutton and said they wanted to reimburse me for the $250 for the camera work. I didn't even ask for it. They didn't want me to feel in any way that I had been a victim of a shake down. THAT IS IMPRESSIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE NO MATTER HOW YOU LOOK AT IT. Now I will consider doing business with them again. BRAVO DUTTON!
6/15/16 - I am giving this company a 3 star review because in very many ways they are very professional and I like that. The crew that came out were friendly. clean cut, professionally dressed and knew what they were doing. When they were in my home they treated it with respect and were very neat and clean. The email communication is excellent and the calls about when someone was arriving ahead of schedule was great. All very professional and the employees are very well trained.
The reason I don't give them 5 stars is because I believe, had I in anyway been a "pushover" or unsuspecting customer, I would be out a lot of money for no reason, at this point.
THE PROBLEM: I accidentally let a corn husk go into my garbage disposal and when it chews it up, it doesn't disintegrate, it tangles up like and ball of yarn and plugged my drain. Up until this point, I had no problems with my drain whatsoever.
The first technician came to my house, really nice guy, put in the snake and was not able to unplug the drain. To be honest, I didn't think that he really gave it that much effort and asked him to do it again, but he suggested if I had real problems, he would be making them worse by forcing the issue. He said we needed to get the camera guy out there to take a look at what the problem is for $250. I had a plugged drain, I agreed.
The camera guy came out, also a really nice guy, and they pushed the camera into the plugged hole and said that my 60 year old galvanized drain pipe was bad and it needed replacing - to the tune of $12,000. I said thank you for your help, paid the $250 for the camera work, and let them know I would be getting competitive bids for the project.
I called a local competitor to get a bid for the project. I told him the problem and he said "Ma'am, I hear what you are saying, but I think it would be best if I figure out if you really have a problem first." I said ok and agreed to let him snake my drain.
He brought in his snake and in less than 2 minutes - yes... two minutes my drain was unplugged. Now I was pissed about what I considered was a complete shake down. I paid him $150 and said thank you. Better than $12,000.
I stewed for a couple of days and then decided that I would like to give Dutton the opportunity to prove to me that it wasn't a shake down. The fact that they said the pipe was bad was eating at me and I wanted to know the truth. I wanted to give them the opportunity to right what I felt was a wrong. I wrote a scathing email to them and asked them to come back out here and run the camera again, at no charge to me, to really let me know if I had a bad pipe. Two weeks went by, I heard nothing. I went out of town, didn't follow up and let it drop.
Then I an email that said, please give us a review of our service, which honestly I thought was great because they are looking for honest feedback. I sent them a reply and said, "I don't think you want me giving you a review at this point. You would not be at all happy with what I have to say." I told them about the email I sent and the fact I was pissed and then even more unhappy that they never responded to it.
I heard from them the very next morning saying they were sorry and that it fell through the cracks, which, being a business owner myself, can understand happening. They scheduled the camera guy to come out again the next day, which he did for no charge. Once again, very professional, they showed up right as planned, neat and clean, offered no excuses, which I liked and went to work.
Yes, the pipe is old and flaking, but it hasn't failed or collapsed at this point. It could be 1 month or 10 years, we don't know. What I do know from them coming back out is that I have a ticking time bomb under my house and now I have to make a decision what I want to do about it. I was still angry that I had to pay another company $150 to come out and open my drain, which I honestly believe they could have done in the first place, but I am not the plumber.
So, the fact that they readily (with a second nudge) came out, at their expense to make sure that I was satisfied with them as a company is the reason they have 3 stars from me. What they told me originally is correct. I will need to put in a new pipe under my slab - EVENTUALLY. However, the perspective of what I will do and when I will do it is much different while my sink was clogged and I am doing dishes in the bath tub as opposed to having a free draining sink and the ability to explore my options... and they know that... go figure. read more