Winstead Plumbing was recommended by Pickins Services LLC (contractor) - both owners are friends - to repair a broken gas line on the owner side of the gas meter. Repair of the gas line was uneventful but there was a leak detected during a pressure check. Approximately 7 different Winstead Plumbing employees on 3-4 different crews worked on the leak over the next 1.5 days climbing throughout the attic. In doing so, one worker stepped completely through the den ceiling making a hole about the size of a basketball but did not mention it to me until I discovered it. While I was not worried about it getting repaired, they did not apologize or even acknowledge it (non English speaking workers). Pickins Services later repaired the ceiling. Approximately 3 weeks later we attempted to turn on our furnaces to heat the house and one furnace would not produce any heat, so we called our furnace company. They discovered that when Winstead was attempting to isolate the gas leak by isolating and capping the gas lines to my two furnaces, two water heaters and two fireplaces, they failed to reconnect one of the gas lines back to a furnace. The furnace company indicated it would be an additional charge to blow the lines out and reconnect the gas line, and recommended I call the plumber back instead, which I did. Winstead came out two days later to reconnected the gas line to the furnace. Approximately two weeks later, a week prior to Xmas, we attempted to turn on the gas logs in our fireplace without success, nor could I smell any gas emanating from either fireplace. I again called Winstead but it took them a week to come out as they stated they were busy repairing all the frozen water lines from other residences that ruptured during the below zero weather we were experiencing. This time the owner came out and discovered that neither of my two fireplaces had been reconnected back to the gas line either and he repaired both without incident. When I mentioned the issues I had encountered, he indicated that, while he was aware of the previous furnace issue, he was not aware of the ceiling issue. He offered that this was an atypical service for some of his workers who were better in other plumbing related areas. As a result, I was without use of our fireplaces during Xmas when I had 15 family members staying for the holidays.
My concern is the lack of any quality check that should have been conducted after disconnecting and capping the gas lines, that workers who were not experienced in gas line repairs (by the owner's own admission) may have performed some of the work, and the fact that no apology for the delays, the repeated trips to complete the reconnects, nor for the incident with the ceiling occurred. Furthermore, no offer was made, albeit not requested, for any partial refund or credit for future service work.
I would be hesitant to call Winstead Plumbing again for any future plumbing services. read more