After studying all the reviews on two or three companies, I opted to give this newer company a chance, since they has only 4 reviews (positive) and since there were complaints from all the others about price gouging, etc. The secretary was fabulous on the phone, you could tell it wasn't a chop shop with a bunch of telemarketers taking calls. That was good. I THOUGHT. Smaller company, new, needing to build reviews and customers. I explained I had a lot of rental properties and WOULD give a review. Maybe the first clue I didn't recognize was they COULD COME the very next morning at 9am when all the others said about a week. As I am not an early riser, getting up for this cost me a night of sleep, but after a week of my son shutting off and on the water at the main, I was pretty desperate. My son waited at his house for them. I got a call at 9:30 to say he would BE THERE in 20 minutes. So that's an hour later than they said. Oh well, not a big deal. The plumber sounded nice on the phone. The entire house is 600 sq ft, so no one is floating in big chunks of cash here! He got there and just to REPAIR/REBUILD the stem for the tub and snake the bathroom sink, he called back to say $395. It's a free estimate, luckily. I had spent two plus hours the day before deciding on this company. Online I noticed the national average to REPLACE THE ENTIRE UNIT, not just put a couple new washers, pins in an old cartridge, averaged $100-$250. Replacing an old cartridge, as found on YouTube doesn't take many tools, nor much time. There are several videos that show how easy it is to replace, but since I'm in another city from my son's house, I was willing to pay for a plumber to deal with it, rather than do it myself. I'm highly disappointed in a bid that demonstrates the reason why plumbers and plumbing companies have such bad reputations, why it is so hard to find one without really bad reviews. I'm certain the plumber, who said he was a journeyman, could have pulled out the cartridge and "rebuilt" it, meaning putting in new washers and maybe a pin, within less than an hour, maybe 15 minutes? BUT REALLY? And their office is very nearby, so it's not about the "TRIP" cost. It seems to me people are going to wise up and realize MOST plumbing problems can be much more simple than they think, don't require "plumbers tools", and can be done for a fraction of a cost, and then plumbers will lose out in the end, due to the incredible greed of the industry. I am on my way, an hour plus away, to repair the leaking tub spout. It's a day out of my life I didn't want to give up. I would have paid $250, the max end of the national average for REPLACING THE ENTIRE UNIT, even though he was only going to put in a couple washers and pins to an old existing cartridge and snake the sink (replace the trap with plastic one). The fact that I am looking for a plumber for my rental properties had zero weight, apparently. They LOST TONS OF MONEY by overbidding this job. They lost a positive review. I could be done with this problem and been able to do what I had planned for today, but...And so I thought it right to take the time to share this experience. I have learned that smaller plumbing projects are doable by anyone who can follow directions. I should have checked on YouTube first, that's the bottom line. read more
