Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/20/2024

  Type:Service or Repair 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.

  PLUMBER: He did an OK job on what he did but did not finish what he started. On arrival, he immediately identified two pinhole pipe leaks. He acknowledged my praise at his finding the second pinhole leak. However, he later changed his story to claim that the second leak was not a leak but only a significantly corroded pipe that was likely to leak in the future. He repaired one leak but only patched the second. He never did a permanent fix on the second leak and never explained why he left a rag under the patched pipe.Management/Customer Service: I requested a no-charge return visit with the Plumbing Supervisor to permanently fix the second leak. He seemingly agreed and we scheduled a revisit to do the work. However, the Manager/Co-Owner ****** did not approve and therefore caused two no-show appointments, without notifying me, by withholding his approval for a follow-up visit. Subsequently when I finally talked to him, ****** insisted on an additional payment before he would authorize a return visit to fix the second leak. He exhibited total disregard for my lost time because of the no-show appointments and insisted, per his plumber, that the second leak was not a leak. ****** explained how many customers they have and how many annual calls they make; i.e. he didnt care about fixing my leak or having me as a satisfied customer. PRICING: Nobody could or would explain their pricing. I asked two office attendants, the plumber, the plumbing supervisor and finally ******, the Manager/Co-Owner. The standard response was that everything is charged at a flat rate. No additional explanation was provided. The plumber on this job apparently charged me for 2 hours of labor and a small amount for materials. The problem is that he spent at least hour measuring and checking the existing plumbing to prepare a quotation to repipe the entire area. I was not supposed to be charged for the time spent preparing the quotation.

  Business Response

  Date: 08/15/2024

  Thank you for sending the feedback. At McKeown we complete more than 4200 service calls per year from 98% repeat customers or referrals from repeat customers. You noted that *****, a highly skilled and professional journeyman, did an excellent job on the recorded phone conversations.

  Based on the photographs documenting his work we agree the work was excellent. Our contract was to repair a single (one) leak and we completed that task as you noted in a professional manner. The technician noted and showed that the * class copper pipe had other corroded areas. The discussion was for McKeown to provide an estimate to replace all of the corroded pipe. There was one section that in particular you asked to have a temporary patch put on the pipe. That was done at no cost, for free.

  The tech noted that this was not a repair and you agreed as you did not want to spend additional money until an estimate to replace all of the corroded * class copper pipe was submitted. You called the office several times requesting that we perform a second repair at the location of the temporary patch for free. As a company, and personally, we do not expect nor would we request services for free from anyone. McKeown Plumbing offered you various discounts in order to avoid a bad review, however, we did not agree to perform additional work/repairs for free. Thank you for noting the excellent work completed by our journeyman.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/18/2024

  The McKeown Plumbing response was irrational.  It did not address the problem, denied the existence of a problem and misrepresented the facts and also my response.  I have no option other than to assume this vendor is untrustworthy and would therefore not recommend them to anyone.

  Regards,

  ***************************

  Business Response

  Date: 08/23/2024

     
    We arrived and repaired a leak (only a single leak was quoted and approved). We noted that there were many other corroded sections of the pipe that could be leaking or leak at any time. Customer agreed and acknowledged in the approved estimate that repair of one leak does not mean that all leaks or additional leaks or corroded sections are repaired   Our mutually approved estimate notes clearly that repairing one leak does not necessarily mean all of your leaks have been repaired.    If there was a second repair (during the initial visit or a subsequent visit) we would have provided a second estimate for the additional SOW and the price would have increased.   Leaks can be very complex. The customer agreed to accept the risk before we started work. 
  Customer was charged the exact amount quoted/approved for a single leak repair job.  We did not increase the invoice for the time to complete an estimate and the customer is aware of this fact.  The estimate to replace the pipe was done at no charge. After we left the job site the customer called and requested, we come back and do the additional repair(s) for free, We offered to come back and make the repair for less than cost in order to avoid getting a negative review.  The customer gave us a negative review because we did not do the repair for free.
  In our opinion it is unacceptable to get a negative review because we are not willing to do work for free. The no show appointments has to be a communication error ( we will try to be more clear). We use automation tools (software) to track and schedule estimates/jobs and  do not go to any customer site without prior electronic approval.
  During our recorded phone conversation, the customer noted the quality of our journeyman's work and the Journeyman's pleasant demeanor and clear explanation of the situation.   This feedback aligns with our values and the fact that we do thousands of service calls from 98% (plus) repeat customers or referrals from customers.