I was referred to Plumbers Headquarters by the Home Depot, and based on my experience I'm going to start shopping at Lowe's.
To make a long, painful story short; I bought a new house that had sewer issues not disclosed by the seller and not discovered during the home inspection. So, after spending all my savings to purchase a home, I inherited a problem 60 years in the making. I requested numerous quotes reaching upwards of 20K. I couldn't afford 20K, so I resolved to do almost everything myself hoping to save as much as possible. I bought a chainsaw and removed a mature olive tree, including the roots (one day of labor). I dug a trench nearly 100 feet long (two days of labor), and I dug a hole down to the city sewer.
I'm semi competent with building and plumbing and wouldn't have hired a plumber, but the city demanded it because of the potential health risk and because their main line was involved.
Plumbers Headquarters employee, Dan came out and quoted me $5,800. I said I had done all the labor and merely needed him to connect pipes together. He lowered his quote to 4K. I said I believed that was too high. He left, wished me well, and called me a little later with another reduced rate. He called me one more time before I caved. We settled on $2,000. He showed up around 10 AM in no rush to help me and my family use our toilets. He took me to the plumbing supply store where I purchased $450 worth of materials, and he took me to city hall where I pulled my own permits. He even put me to work grinding the clay fitting that tied into the city main (arguable the most technical part of the entire process). I spent hours in the hole grinding the fitting.
So what did I pay $2K for?! He watched me work, looked at my trench and even offered me a side job! I did everything but glue pipes together. My 7 year old son could have glue ABS pipe together. I literally paid him 2K because of his certifications. Had the city not know about my issue, I would have saved 2K and done it myself.
This isn't what bothered me most. I understand sometimes you have to pay for certifications. What bothers me most is Plumbing HQ completely severed our relationship the second they were paid. I called them numerous times without a return call. I even tried using different numbers. My insurance company agreed to pay me the cost to dig and refill the trench, knowing full well I did the work. They only required an estimate from a plumber on how much they would have charged for the same labor. Dan knew better than any plumber the scope of the work I performed. It would have been simple for them to put down a number in writing. They refused saying they couldn't estimate the cost of work already performed. What!?! How can that be? Estimates are made before the work is performed, without knowing what challenges will be faced along the way! Their estimate of cost would have been after all the challenges were known. They knew about the size and depth of the trench. The size and depth of the tree, the size and depth of every root! It would have been simple for Dan to say they would have charged me X for the labor!
I can only attempt to justify their lack of willingness to help me with my insurance company. Maybe they thought I was trying to commit insurance fraud by reporting I had paid for a service that was never rendered? But I made it clear from the start that my insurance company was aware that I had performed the work, and was entertaining the idea of reimbursing me for my labor. I still have no quote. Plumbers HQ still will not return my calls, even though I paid them $2K for approximately 2 hours' worth of gluing pipe together, at a comfortable, relaxing pace.
Oh... we missed the deadline to be inspected that evening too. Maybe because Dan showed up at 10 and had zero sense of urgency. I had to wait another three days to be inspected. Dan did not come to the inspection. He didn't have to because he didn't pull the permit... I did. Plumbers HQ cares about one thing: Their bottom line. They do not have any empathy, and they are not interested in helping you with an issue not invoiced.
If you want a good plumber that will treat you like a human, and not an ATM, call Chris from CML Plumbing (619) 635-2121. He worked hard for me because he felt sorry for what I was going through, not because he saw dollar signs.
It will be worth my time if this review steers even one person in another direction. read more