(UPDATED JULY 2022) I called Oscar at New Millennium because of the positive reviews I read on…read moreyelp. He answered the phone, asked me a few questions, and said he'd come out later that same day. He didn't show. I called him, no answer. I texted, and he replied he was running late and he'd arrive here in an hour. He didn't show. I texted him and he replied he'd come the next day.
Oscar finally did show up the next day for what should've been a very simple job: installing a larger diameter draining pipe in my laundry room to accommodate the water flow from my new washing machine. He quickly cut open the wall, replaced the pipe, patched the wall. I wasn't thrilled with his messy patch job and I thought his fee was excessive (500.00 for an hour's work and a piece of plastic pipe) but I was glad the plumbing was fixed so I paid him and he left.
Later that night I turned on the washing machine and when it went into the spin cycle and began to drain, water bounced back out of the wall from the pipe Oscar had just installed and ran down the freshly patched wall and flooded my floor. I panicked, and shut off the washing machine. Then I saw that water was also leaking from inside the wall itself, oozing out from the baseboards. I called Oscar, no answer. I texted Oscar, he replied via text that he would come out the next day to fix it. Then as I was going around putting towels on the floor to soak up the water I discovered that when he'd cut into the wallboard in the laundry room to access the pipe he'd pushed the saw too far so the electric saw blade cut into my bathroom on the other side.
I immediately texted Oscar a photo and told him he would need to patch this when he returned to fix the leaking pipes. Oscar never came back. Instead, he sent someone in his place, I think his name was Lenny? He indicated that he didn't speak much English, he glanced at the damage, called Oscar and spoke with him extensively in Spanish and then left without telling me anything or fixing anything. He left and I called Oscar, no answer. I texted Oscar, no answer. I kept texting until he finally he replied that he'd "sent a guy to fix it and there was nothing more he could do". I replied that nothing had been fixed, the person he'd sent just looked at it and left, I still have an active leak and water all over the floor, a damaged wall, and no way to wash my clothes. Oscar never replied. Poof, just like that he was gone. I never heard from him again.
I checked with my bank, Oscar had cashed my check immediately. In desperation, I called around to find a different plumber to fix Oscar's mess. By the time I could find someone else to come out, the water coming out of my wall turned rust-colored which meant damage to the metal fittings inside my wall. This upset me more than you can imagine, because if Oscar had returned immediately to fix what he'd done then this all could've been avoided.
The new plumber who came out opened up the wall and discovered that Oscar had installed the pipe incorrectly AND that the pipe he used was too narrow for the job so he had to cut open the wall and COMPLETELY REDO Oscar's work, including replacing all of the parts Oscar had installed. He charged me 250.00 total. I asked him why he was charging me half of what Oscar had charged me for the exact same work and he replied "it's only a 250 job".
So, to recap, Oscar charged me TWICE the going rate for a repair, incorrectly installed a pipe that was the wrong size, cut through a wall he should not have, left me with a leak inside my wall, and then ghosted me instead of returning to fix the damage he'd done. As a result I had to pay a different plumber to redo his work.
Please see my photos of the water bouncing out of the pipe and running down the wall, the messy patch job Oscar did, the rusty water seeping out of the baseboard, and the saw blade mark where Oscar's saw came through the wall of the adjacent bathroom.
Icing on the cake is that when I first posted my yelp review, Oscar had the nerve to post a comment denying that he did the work at my home and questioning my "intentions". Just, wow. So after a yearlong search I've finally found my invoice (see attached screenshot, redacted for privacy reasons). And I've located my old phone with the text exchanges between us as well as a copy of the new plumber's invoice stating the work was a redo of Oscar's. I also had the new plumber remove and bag Oscar's incorrectly sized pipe (complete with Oscar's fingerprints), and I still have that, too.
As for my "intentions", they're simple: I'm hoping to spare anyone else the grief of having Oscar do to them what he did to me.
A note of caution, if you hire Oscar be sure to take before & after photos as well as a photo of him working (to prove he was there) and save your invoice just in case.
Integrity matters. Oscar, what you did to me was awful. OWN IT, and DO BETTER.
