BEWARE of his false claims about the unit he installs being "worth" a certain amount, its a complete and total lie. Retail prices from the manufacturer are typically on the higher end of the spectrum for cost, but Rich feels he needs to exceed that by 60% to "make a profit".
My story...
I asked Rich to give me a quote on changing out my irrigation controller. He told me the 7 valves also needed replaced...so for a really nice commercial timer with wifi that I could control with my phone worth $300, and the valves, it would be a total of $900.
I proceeded to check the local home improvement stores and the internet for pricing so I could make an educated decision on whether to DIY it, or pay to have it done. I didn't know what timer he was wanting to put in, but there are some really nice ones out there for $300, plus he said it was a commercial one, so I wasn't concerned about whether or not it would fill my needs. The valves and everything I would need to replace those would cost me about $200. I watched YouTube videos on how to replace them. It's not difficult to do, or too terribly time consuming, but with my work schedule time isn't on my side. I decided that although it was more than I wanted to spend, paying about $400 for their labor was worth having it done right the first time. On Friday, about a week after the quote, I contacted Rich and asked him to do the work, which he actually had done the same day.
When I got off work I found the manual at my front door, but it was too dark to see the work done. Saturday morning I went out back and it looked great, a huge improvement from what I had before. But...as I was reading the manual, it said I needed a wifi module to make wifi work. The unit didn't have one in it. I went online and entered that model to see if it came standard with it, or what, and found that the "$300 commercial unit" was NOT what I got. The RainBird ESP-TM2 8-station timer retails for $172.52 on the RainBird website, and is currently on sale for $110.41. The wifi module retails for $139.13 and is currently on sale for $89.04. When I added up the unit and wifi module at retail value it comes to about $300, so I figured Rich's employee forgot to leave the module.
I texted Rich on Monday morning to ask for it, but was rudely told he can't make money unless he marks up the prices WAAAAAY over retail. He said I need to get my own wifi module. I tried to plead my case that $300 retail includes a module, and wifi is irrelevant without it, but he said under no uncertain terms that he can charge whatever he wants. And yes, that is true, but don't tell me a product is valued at $300 when the manufacturer feels its only worth close to half that at $172...and I can buy it today from the manufacturer for $110!!!!! read more