Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/07/2024

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  My water wasn't working properly so I went to home hardware to see if they knew any plumber in the area. They gave me a list and I called one who said he was in the area and he was here 10 minutes later. At first he Said my tank was broken. He left to joke hardware and got a new one. That didn't solve the water problem. Then he said the pump was broken and he left again to home hardware and installed a new pump. That still didn't fix the problem with water. He said he would come back the next day with a coworker because it was a difficult job.
  Next day he had me hire someone to dig up my well . I suggested he look at the foot valve. And that was the problem. He wasn't very knowledgeable of hi job
  He gave me a quote of $2000 dollars. I had $1500 in cash for him and had to leave to go to a graduation. My son came home and I gave him my check book to give him a check for the balance . He gave a invoice to my son for an extra $1500 . My son said he wasn't paying him this because he told me $2000 for everything. When my son asked him for receipts from home hardware he told him that's not job plumbers work. My sin felt like I was being scammed so he took a video of his company truck . I asked him for a detailed invoice since the one he gave me looked fake and now he's charging me almost $4000 for a job he quoted at $2000.
  Please help me I'm a senior citizen and believe I'm being elderly scammed by a ******* plumber

  Business Response

  Date: 08/07/2024

  We were called by *** to fix a water issue he said he had attempted to fix the entire previous day himself. When we got there the pressure tank wasn’t filling properly but *** told us that both the pump and pressure tank were only two years old. After further inspection I noticed the pressure tank was actually 12 years old. Since his well was buried and we were unable to check his injector that particular visit, we replaced pressure tank to then find the problem persisted. After looking into the manufacturer manual for his pump we found that it was a 1/2HP JET PUMP installed in a two pipe system. *** explained that his well is 80-90’ deep and the particular pump he had installed is only certified to pump 60’. We then replaced the pump to find that the problem continued to persist. I explained to *** that we will now need to pull his injector and he would need to hire or get someone to dig the well casing up so that we could return to do that part of the job. I temporarily set the pump up in a way so that they would have water for the evening but stressed to try and not use it as we have not completed the work yet and it is still not working properly. I called him in the morning theto ask if he had found anyone yet as I wanted to get back to complete the job ASAP due to the water issues they were having and the pump not being properly set up yet. *** said the guy he had would be there at lunch time. I made sure to be back at our shop for noon and called *** again but the operator was still not on site. Eventually *** phoned and let me know he was there so we immediately drove to location to continue working on fixing the problem. We spent an hour uncovering the casing even after the machine had dug the hole to expose the work area. Once we pulled the injector we found that the entire unit looked like a big barnacle. Upon further inspection I found that the incorrect injector only certified for 60’ depth was installed. I had picked up a new foot valve that day on the way to add to the new injector that came with the new 3/4HP pump that we supplied. We used brass fittings and adapters which last longer than galvanized and plastic which you cannot even source from the local hardware store. Once the new hardware was added we dropped the injector back in the well and began priming the lines. *** had explained it has previously taken 3 large water jugs like we were using to fill the lines. After the third and my thinking that the new foot valve must not be holding we went back out and re-cut the lines to find that the brand new foot valve I bought THAT day was defective. By this time it was 5:30pm and the hardware store is closed. I miraculously found another 1-1/4” foot valve out of my van and added it to the assembly. This time we primed the lines outside before connecting back to the system to ensure that the foot valve was holding(which it now was). 
  primed the remainder of the line from inside and then turned it on and wallah we had the system up and running properly finally! After 11.5 painstaking hours of working on this system, being bit constantly by deer/horse flies and the days were over 20 degrees C.both days. We literally were running across the road filling water from his neighbors to prime his pump line to try and make the job as speedy as possible and we stayed until 7:00pm the finally day to ensure that the water was working for them. I tried to phone *** as he was at a graduation celebration and was not present at his house when we had finished. He did not answer or I could not be connected the few times I tried to call and explain. I did not have my proper invoice book with me on location when we finished so I wrote a rough total on a piece of paper to give the customer an idea of the cost. I explained that they would get a proper invoice from me once I had a chance to get home to write it out for them. I explained that if *** would like to phone me to discuss the cost and explanation of the job that evening or in the morning. I got home at 7:30pm and received a phone call at 8:30pm of the entire family reaming me out saying I am trying to screw them over. We were 100% transparent throughout the entire job and explained why we had done every step. It is not my fault if the customer can not comprehend the repairs that we are doing I am assuming that is why we are called in the beginning. This is the first time I have EVER had to waste my time dealing with a scenario like this and 99% of our customers are extremely grateful and pleasant to deal with. I have been paid $1500 out of $3595.64 from *** which doesn’t even cover the expenses that were incurred by buying him a new pressure tank/pump and spending 11.5hours working at his house with an apprentice I also have to pay. We literally couldn’t have done a better job for him if we went back and tried again.