Dishonest, Belligerent & Does not double check or stand behind their work. I would give ZERO stars if that were an option.
In April 2018, the owner, Bob, sent his son Brandon to replace some bathroom faucet parts that were supplied to me by Kohler. Brandon stayed late to finish and did a good job. He was there for 4.5 hours and charged me for 4.5 hours @ $110/hr. which was the rate his father Bob had quoted me. I also tipped Brandon generously. After he left, I realized that he left me with all of the trash (which was not a problem) but he took all of the scrap parts and the unused new parts that were sent to me by Kohler. I called Bob and asked that he return both the new parts and the old parts that were replaced. The next day, Brandon dropped off only the new Kohler parts, keeping the old parts for scrap metal.
This month, I called Bob to replace 2 hot and 2 cold assembly kits in the double sink in my master bathroom and to replace complete toilet tank parts in one of my toilets. Again, all parts were supplied by me through Kohler. Bob sent Brandon again, who arrived at 9:10am. When he arrived, I showed him what needed to be done, showed him the parts I had and Brandon confirmed that no additional parts were needed. Again, he was to be paid by the hour at the same rate of $110/hr. Brandon finished working at 11:15am. When he was finished, he handed me bag of trash that did not include the brass & copper parts that he replaced in the sinks. I asked him to leave me all of the old parts from the sinks and he resisted, saying he had cut the feed lines from them. I told him that I understood, but that I still wanted him to leave the parts. He again resisted and I became firm in explaining that I wanted him to leave the old parts. He started banging his tools and was aggressive when giving me the parts. He was clearly angry at this point.
He went to the truck (which by the way he parked all the way at the end of my 260' driveway, blocking anyone from getting in or out. When I asked him to move the truck so my friend could get out, he got mad, even though he was getting paid for the time he spent walking up and down the driveway to his truck every time he took one of his half dozen smoke breaks).
When he came back and handed me a bill for $330 plus $36 in parts., plus tax. There was no description of the work performed, no hourly rate and no hours worked noted on the bill. The only 3 entries were "$330", and "Parts" for "$36". I politely asked Brandon to write a description of the work performed, the hourly rate and how many hours he worked. I then inquired about the parts charge and he said he needed to use some of his own parts, but he couldn't tell me what for. When I reminded him that he had confirmed that he did not need any additional parts when he first arrived and looked everything over, he kept insisting that he used some of his own parts, but couldn't say what for. He then handed the bill back to me, adding 3 hours @ $110/hr. on my yellow copy and still had the parts charge on the bill. I explained to him that he arrived after 9:10 and finished at 11:15 am, but would still pay him for 2.5 hours, even though he worked 2 hours and 5 minutes. He then told me that the extra charge was for "travel". I told him that not only did his father not inform of me any travel charge and that it wasn't a charge on the bill the last time he was there, but that it was also ridiculous.
His anger was elevating and he kept insisting that I pay him the $366 plus tax. I then called his father, Bob, which seemed to anger Brandon even more. Bob told me that the charge was, and I quote, "A Pain in the Ass charge" because of some difficulty with some aspect of the repair. When I tried to point out how absurd that was, he then proceeded to tell me that "other plumbers don't even charge by the hour". Again, I explained that what other plumbers do wasn't any concern of mine. Bob became more and more belligerent, absurd and condescending while Brandon stood in my home getting loud and angry to the point where I had to threaten that he leave if he didn't calm down. I then explained to both that I would pay them for 2.5 hours plus tax, and rounded the $295 up to $300 and paid Brandon cash.
Shame on me for not double checking his work because I later found that 2 of the 4 faucets that Brandon worked on, had very little water pressure. When I called Bob to ask him to return to fix the issue he preached to me again about how other plumbers charge. After I agreed to pay him his hourly rate of $160/hr. if the issue was defective hardware as opposed to workmanship (for which there would be no charge if that were the case) he got upset when I asked him not to continue to preach to me about business ethics and he then told me to get someone else to fix the water pressure issue and hung up on me. read more
