My water lines froze under the house, dec 25th when I got back from Christmas dinner at my families, I had no water, the next morning I went under the house and ran the salamander for hours, with no luck, took a break to warm up and went back out there and ran the salamander for hours moving it to different places, about 330 I decided to locate a plumber to help me, after the third company I finally reached a talking person, Nick the owner of this company Phillips Plumbing Service, I told him what the problem was and I needed someone to help me to get the pipes unfrozen, and he said he would come out but needed a credit card over the phone to charge me $150.00 before he comes, I told him I wasn't doing that, I would give him a business check after, he was on the way here, I went to start the salamander back up like he asked me to do, and when I got under the house and moved the salamander again pointing it at the pipe that came out of the ground he called me again, and Iran another cord because he said he would start his up too and run them both so I ran a cord for him first, when he called me again he got pissed when I told him what I did and pointing it at the pipe out of the ground, and said " forget it I'm not coming, this is what im talking about, people calling the plumber and then trying to fix it themselves", and I said " are u kidding me ? Why would u get pissed at me trying to get the water working?" he wanted my credit card info again, and I told him no, this guy takes advantage of people, and evidently has been getting away with it,
He pulled up, and got his salamander out, then without hooking it up went under the house, back and forth, and then said" I need to cut the line, and I said why, and he said because we need to see where its frozen, and I said , as long as u put it back the way it was because I'm not going to pay for you to make it worse, and he cut the line without answering me, once at the back of the house and one at the front, a complete sever, he said its frozen here . and showed me, and me , and I said ok..? how much to fix it and get water and he told me $700.00. And I said "$700.00 ?" and he said yes, and I said "well are you going to fix what you did,, cutting those lines ?" he said I" you need $700.00 for me to run a new line." I sad "wait a minute, you are going to get under there and cut good lines and charge me $700.00 to repair what you did ? He told me yes, I need it, but never said anything about getting water, I told him no I was not going to pay him that for screwing up my water line. then got out from under the house and after he took a short break to have me write him a check ( and I did, he charged me $200.00, because I didn't need this guy causing me a problem with just me and children at the house.
HE started telling me how to fix it, what I needed to do, and was packing up his stuff, and I looked at him dumbfounded, and said, "um, aren't u going to fix what u just did ?" and he said "no" I will sell u the parts and this is what you have to do, and he saw I was getting very highly angry, and he kept repeating himself, and then he said he would give me the pieces, because by this time I was voicing what I thought of what he did and how ignorant it was, that he took a single problem and tripled it, because he cut my heat tape too. He told me again he would give me the parts , and he started packing up his stuff, and I said "wait a minute, aren't u going to give me the parts ?" and he laughed and said " I cant just give u the parts, they are expensive, and I don't even have them on me," then I asked how much the parts were and he said about 35.00, so this guy was going to charge $665,00 labor on $35.00 parts.
I then read him the riot act, and let him have it and packed up my stuff and went in the house and slammed the door.
Now this guy is your normal RIP OFF guy, and I feel sorry for the elderly people that he will be called to, because he takes advantage of the situation totally and I want something done with these type of people, and in the winter, what kind of plumber doesn't carry PEX LINE water lines with him and parts?
The following day I had to pay another person to come out and repair those lines he cut. read more
