First off, this is the second experience I've had with Haas Heating; the first was about a year ago when our (stellar) plumber recommended him to us to come out and run a to-code air intake on our newer gas furnace that was installed by the prior owner. In both instances, I admit that the quality of the work performed was above average and the first experience led us to re-hire him for this project. Where he garners low marks, in my opinion, is failure to communicate and his utter lack of professionalism.
To start with, he quoted $500 to install the insert and said he would come out with a friend to do the install. The first "red flag" was that it took him several attempts to actually make it out, and he kept rescheduling (though all the rescheduling and communication regarding the scheduling was prompted by me...I gave him the benefit of the doubt as it was around the holidays and a busy contractor generally is a better contractor...or so I thought). When installation day finally arrived, he sent out his brother-in-law and another guy instead. Not a big deal, at least at first.
Although I had communicated to him that we needed both the gas line ran and the fireplace installed, he called me after his guys arrived and stated that his quote was only for the fireplace, not the gas line. Again, benefit of the doubt, and I asked him for an updated quote. He told me that he'd have to wait to hear from his guys on the cost of the materials they had to go pick up. All told, there were a couple of valves, some short lengths of pipe/fittings and about 30 feet of flexible gas line involved.
His guys spent about 5-6 hours doing the work, which again was above average and they were generally tidy. However, when they were finished, they asked my wife for a check for $1200 (she was working from home; I was at work). She called me to see if that sounded right. Because he had initially sent her the $500 quote in a text, and I didn't recall exactly the quote off the top of my head, I called Scott. He confirmed that that was the price and that in increase was due to the material costs and additional labor. It wasn't until I got home that evening and had a chance to sit down with my wife that we realized how much of a jump the price was. I immediately texted him to say that we were happy with the work but that the cost jump was unexpectedly high. What followed ultimately led to this negative review.
He called me about 20 minutes after receiving my text and spent about 15 minutes on the phone. He spent the bulk of the conversation making excuses, whining about "only making $300 on this job" when he usually tries to make about $500 a day using his brother-in-law and other subs and telling me that the cost of materials was a few hundred dollars (this, after I pointed out that I could have purchased 75 feet of the flex line from Home Depot for $175). He also complained the cost of "wear and tear" on the van, having to put gas in it, etc. At one point, he asked me if I wanted the "$300 [he] made today" back. I was flabbergasted by his complete lack of professionalism during the conversation and it wasn't until the end when I finally told him that I honestly understand what it takes to run a small business (I run one myself) but that wasn't my point in saying something to him. My point was that the cost was over 100% higher than what he originally quoted and that he did a poor job at communicating why this was. He finally apologized for his failure to communicate and I finished the conversation by saying I wasn't going to cancel the check but that I would like a detailed invoice, with labor and material break downs and copies of the receipts for materials his guys had to pick up to do the job.
After several weeks of sending him follow up texts (did I mention that the phone number I have for him is a cell phone without a voice mailbox set up and so the only way to leaving him a message was via text?) and several more broken commitments ("I'll get it to you tomorrow" followed by "Oops, I'll do it tonight" followed by "I'll sent it right when I get to the office, what's your email address") he finally dropped in our mailbox a month after I first asked for it. No receipts, no breakdown. Just a "installed gas line and fire place" with absolutely no detail whatsoever. I texted him (again). No response.
Again, the work that Haas Heating performed was well done, when it was finally done. But I wouldn't hire him again for any future projects based on my project and have already contacted a few people whom I had previously referred to him for work to let them know about my recent experience. read more