Very unprofessional and irresponsible!
We used Stover's to replace two of our old hydrants. Afterwards, we noticed water leaking from the underground pipe to the hydrant in our barn, so we asked Stover's to come take a look. Ryan came by to see the leak. He asked if the barn used electricity, and we replied that there was electricity. He said that he would have to contact the utility company to get markers for the underground electrical lines.
About a week later, he arrived with equipment to dig up the area around the leak. While they were digging, they hit the conduit containing the electrical lines for the barn. The pipe was broken. Ryan insisted that we would have to pay for the cost of fixing the broken conduit. We spoke to the owner and pointed out that Stover's was supposed to get markers for the electrical lines from the utility company before digging. His response was that the utility company only had information on the lines from the street to the house. The line to the barn was a private line which is supposed to be the homeowner's responsibility. We asked why they had not told us this before digging. They knew that the barn had electricity, but did not tell us they needed markers before digging.
The owner agreed to cover the cost of fixing the broken conduit. Then, I received an invoice while Stover's was still working. We had not been given a quote in advance, so I was surprised that the invoice was $1500. For context, the first job to replace two hydrants cost $400. This job was to fix one leaky pipe but was almost four times the cost. The Stover's office called me and told me to pay the invoice while we were waiting for an electrician to come fix the conduit. I asked the office why the price was so high, and she replied that this was a bigger job. That didn't make any sense. I also couldn't pay the full invoice because the job wasn't done yet. She insisted that I needed to pay the full invoice now and that this was the way things were done. I kept asking for an explanation on why the invoice was this high and she said Ryan would call me back.
After the job was finished, Ryan called me. He said that it costs this much to fix a leaky pipe. Right after that, he said I only had three options: I could pay the full payment, they could dig up the pipe and disconnect it, or they could call the police. He kept repeating this when I asked to speak to the manager. I had to insist that I had a right to speak to the manager and finally got connected to Cindy. She said that this was a big job because they were at our farm for three quarters of the day. I said that they spent a lot of time here because they broke the conduit. She said that it was my fault because I didn't tell them that there was an electrical line there. At this point, I was frustrated and done with this company.
Furthermore, the leaking pipe was caused by the pipe detaching from the connector. This happened right after they replaced the hydrant the first time. I'm displeased with the quality of work, but I'm very disappointed by Stover's way of handling the broken conduit. Mistakes happen, but it was upsetting when they kept trying to blame the homeowner. It was also incredibly dangerous how they started digging without checking the location of the electrical lines. Someone could have gotten hurt. Overall, I'm disappointed in the unprofessional and irresponsible way that Stover's handled this job. read more