Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/22/2023

  Type:Product 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.

  I'm not exactly sure how we contacted this plumbing company - we have a floor drain that backs up periodically and needs to be cleared annually. When the floor drain was starting to slow in clearing, my husband let me know he called "**** ******" and they were coming out on Friday afternoon. My husband is not a native English speaker and may have called them by accident when looking up **** ****** - regardless, they indicated that they would come to our house to fix the floor drain on Friday 3/17/23 between 1-4p. They called from a ************ and indicated that they were on their way at 3:02 pm. When they got to our home, it was BL Plumbing but I thought they were maybe a third party contractor from **** ******. They were not able to clear the drain, said we could NOT use the water over the weekend, and would have to come back Monday morning with a "high pressured machine". It was a struggle to not use the water, of course - by 2pm they had not returned on Monday. I phoned and he had to confirm with the crew as he knew nothing about them returning. They did return about 3p and were still unable to fix the drain - first they were going to charge $150 (on Friday) then said $400 on Monday, then asked for $250, which we paid (no receipt was given). The crew indicated we would need to have them dig out the yard and replace the pipes for $6-$10k. The next day we called ** ****** who came out in a few hours and cleared the clog in about 20 minutes with their machine. Not using water for 4 days (having to leave our house to use the bathroom!), not returning promptly on Monday (I took the day off work), not fixing the problem, having inconsistent pricing, and telling us we needed an expensive service we did not need was very frustrating. I called and let them know another company fixed it immediately and asked for a refund - they declined. I asked for 50% refund they declined again.

  Business Response

  Date: 05/03/2023

  The customer requested a refund because she claims my
  technicians did not do the work to properly clean the sewer line and that we
  were misleading in our attempt to provide an estimate to excavate and repair
  the line. To clarify the technicians spent 2 hours snaking the sewer line and pulled
  out roots multiple times during. After fighting the clog and finding a mass of
  roots on the end of the snake, the technicians followed our typical policy of
  informing the home owner of a likely break in the line and offer to either
  continue snaking at an hourly rate with no guarantee of success or providing an
  estimate to locate the break in the pipe to repair it in hopes of fully solving
  what will become a reoccurring issue if not fully addressed. We’ve had
  customers we’ve done this for in the past and they have always said how much
  they wished we’d start with an estimate to repair the line rather than have to
  continue to service it multiple times a year, so we try to start with a
  permanent solution  Ultimately I told the customer I can not refund her for the
  work that my technicians did properly do as evidenced by the balls of roots
  they retrieved. Had the customer followed up with me I could have had our
  technicians out a possibly reduced rate but was not given that chance. I
  understand the customers frustration that the clog has been temporarily fixed
  by a different plumber but think it’s fair to add their quick success was after
  our two hours of work and not a permanent solution. I’ve also attempted to
  contact the customer to see where we can agree but have not had any response.    BL Plumbing llc.