Dishonest Plumber

[Waxman]

Used a new plumber recently. He was very responsive and did a decent job but I had issue with his bill; namely some charges that didn't seem right.

First charge was an extra $75 added onto the bill for 'tool cleaning'. He had used an electric snake for clearing a clogged drain at my apartment building. The second charge was $125 for travel time on a big job at my car wash (over $1000). I have never been charged travel time by any other plumber, electrician, contractor, etc and his shop is 3 miles from the wash.

The last thing that bothered me happened when my production boiler began leaking. He was not willing to investigate the leak but instead asked if he could quote me on a new system. Mine is 9 years old and a nice Raypak I got from Fred at Huron Valley sales.

I ordered a gasket kit, as the unit was leaking at the manifold. It is repaired and no longer leaking. The gasket kit was $20 + shipping.

Rant done.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Reminds me of the lawyer who called the plumber and was quoted $75.00 for the first 15 minutes and $50.00 for every 15 minutes thereafter plus time and a half for it being after 4:30pm.

Lawyer says: "I am a lawyer and I don't bill that much!" Plumber says: "Neither did I when I was a lawyer."

 

[Randy]

I’d never use the guy again. When you pay the bill attach a sticky to the front of the check that say’s “I will never recommend you to any of my friends or to anyone for that matter, because you are nothing more than a common criminal”. Learn how to these things for yourself. My mother in law had plugged up main side sewer a month or so ago. I called a couple of drain cleaner guy’s and then rented a power snake and did the job myself for $45.00. I had gotten quotes of $350 - $450.

 

[mjwalsh]

Waxman & others,

I had one of the bigger local mechanical contractors send a service technician to us when we got behind & time was of the essence in terms of not having heat in our bays during below zero weather & weekend coming on. There was absolutely no applicable material used on his part (100% labor only) & on the bill it showed that the outfit added full state & local sales tax. Since I was very familiar with the fact that our state did not require it to be collected on labor ... I made them take off that portion of the bill. I did not care that much about the specific additional amount ... it was more the principle & precedent at stake & their "couldn't care less attitude" about having the opportunity to charge their customers the lesser amount in labor only situations.

That is the kind of attitude from fellow business people that makes it extra difficult for those of us who have made & who potentially will make presentations about what is clearly more in favor of the common good when it comes to extra unneeded taxes, fees & other expenses etc.

mike walsh www.kingkoin.com

 

[MEP001]

I have a friend who has taken her van to two different mechanics for a hesitation problem, the first one of which ran codes and said it had a lean condition on cylinder 3, and they were going to charge her $700 to replace just the plugs and wires. She took it to another mechanic and told them what it was doing and what the codes were, and they told her "Oh, we can fix it, but you've been driving it like that for a while and might have cracked the rings." Obviously setting her up for some BS non-existent problem for when they tell her she needs another engine which they were already quoting her. Seems like it's easier to find crooked professionals than honest ones.

 

[mac]

Forgot to mention about plumbers. Never, I repeat, never use Culligan or Kinetico. You are guaranteed to get screwed.

 

[Earl Weiss]

The real issue is lack of disclosure. Service people need to disclose up front what charges are / will be and / or people need to ask. My car failed the emissions test and they gave me the code. went on the internet and found it was a sensor. Took it to a locla shop and said they should replace the sensor. They told me to take it to the dealer because of issues where the sensor was replaced and the code remained and the car would fail. Took it to the dealer and showed them the code and they tell me that there will be a $95.00 diagnostic charge. I said why? It's already been diagnosed. At that point I had the choice to leave or elect to pay it.

 

[soapy]

Earl, I had the same diagnostic charge thrown at me for my car. The original key would not unlock the remote doors. MFG has had a recall on these for years. I just wanted to be able to use new key that had been in my safe since I bought the car new to work. After telling me I had a $85 diagnostic charge they told me I would need to buy 2 new $162 key fobs, pay for programming on each of $52 and pay for everything up front before they would order the keys. For $500 I could get a key that would work. I ended up reprogramming the keys myself by checking the internet instructions at no cost. I did tell the dealership that since I had bought 3 new vehicles with them in the last year it would be the last money they ever saw of mine. I had one plumber charge me $275 to make 2 crimps on a copper water line fitting. I can buy the complete tool for $500 and it took them less than 5 minutes to do the job only 5 minutes from their shop. I don't call them anymore either.

 

[getnbusy]

The heck with plumbers, how about crooked carwash distrubutors. I had a distributor in North Carolina STEAL , thats right STEAL, OEM software from me and replace it with some bootleg BS. It was the owner of the company who did this, not his employee. Im going to stop now before I get so dang mad it ruins my whole day again. Buyer beware in NC.

Please note... this was not my factory distributor, but a wannabe who represents a similar machine.

 

[mjwalsh]

Just so we don't dwell on the negative too much ... I had a very positive experience when my car stalled this Monday ... about a block from one of our smaller automotive tune up repair shops here in Bismarck. They pushed it into their garage ... did some tests the next day & concluded that it was probably just a "one time vapor lock occurrence". I asked them what I owed them for checking it out & lo & behold they said nothing ... zip ... no charge". It really made my day. Of course we will see if I am singing the same tune if & when it happens again on some rural road out of cell phone range at the worse possible time. Either way ... I really do see the value of not having been charged a likely few hundred dollars ... if I would have made a "knee jerk like choice" & had it towed to the closest mega Ford dealership.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

mike walsh http://kingkoin.com/USA_Deficit_Reduction.html