Complaints

This profile includes complaints for A-1 Sewer & Drain Service's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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  A-1 Sewer & Drain Service

  4500 Paseo del Norte NE Ste A Albuquerque, NM 87113-1810

  
• 

  A-1 Sewer & Drain Service

  PO Box 10595 Albuquerque, NM 87184-0595

  

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:01/22/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore 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.

  On October 27, 2022 two A-1 plumbing and Drain Service technicians came to our house to assess and perhaps fix a plumbing issue with our kitchen sink and plumbing through the basement. They said we needed a specialist, who was not available to do an assessment until November 07, 2022. On Nov. 7, the specialist with A-1 Plumbing and Drain Service came to our house and wrote up a "Quote Only" that included language indicating the costs were adjustable: "If unforeseen issues arise customer will be notified of additional costs." We did not sign the "Quote Only." We were informed that the job would take two technicians for approximately eight hours and would be $1993.38, including tax. We constructively accepted by allowing entry and work to progress on Nov 11, 2022, two weeks after our initial call. The job was complete in under two and a half hours and with much less demolition than we expected; I noted on the "Quote" that they were at our home only from 9:00 - 11:30 a.m. So, we expected the job total would be adjusted. It was not. We have indicated that we will pay, even the whole amount, if A-1 Plumbing and Drain Service will give us an itemized bill explaining the charges. I have emailed them with offers of payment and a request for an itemized invoice five times since Nov 17, 2022 - the most recent being January 16, 2023. They have now threatened to place a lien on our property if we do not pay the full amount and stop asking for details as to what we are paying for. We are willing to pay them the going rate for a service call, hourly for the three technicians for 2.5 hours, and materials, plus appropriate taxes. We simply want an accounting of WHAT we are paying for. These should not be emergency rates (we waited two weeks!) and if the amount can be adjusted up for their benefit with any additional costs, it should equally be adjusted down for our benefit with an easier than anticipated job.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/13/2023

  A-1 Plumbing and Drain
  Complaint # ********
  Customer **** ** **** ********
  
  Response:
  When our plumber originally presented the quote to the husband of this couple he was very pleased
  with the price. The customer had recently hired another plumbing company and according to the
  husband our price was more reasonable. Our quote was actually originally figured for the job to take
  approximately 4 to 6 hours and as is customary we planned for the later number. The customer never
  asked for a breakdown prior to approving the quote nor did they ask for a discount if the work was
  finished quickly. Work for this job began at 8am on the morning of Nov. 11, when the technicians loaded
  their van with the needed equipment and acquired job supplies. The van arrived at the customer’s
  residence at 9am and worked until 11:22 am. The customer seemed pleased with the work and the
  technicians returned to our shop at 11:58 am to reload their van for the next job. From start to finish
  this job took about 4 hours to complete. When this customer demanded that we explain our charges/
  discount their price on a job that we finished satisfactorily, but too quickly for their standards, we were
  honestly dumbfounded. We did originally refuse to take the time and effort to research a completed job
  with a written and agreed to quote. However at this point we have realized that this is not something
  that our customers usually do. The majority of our clients are repeat customers who happily pay the
  agreed upon price for a job they are satisfied with. Customers who refuse to pay are not only rare but in
  this case an anomaly. In over 25 years in business they are the first to refuse to pay for a satisfactorily
  completed job, finished too quickly. So even though legally we could press them to pay what they
  agreed to, in the end we realize it would be best to focus on the positive and do what is needed to make
  this customer happy enough to pay at least a portion of their bill.
  
  So here is a breakdown of the minimum costs incurred by the client:
  
  Total time 4 hours x 2 technicians with skillsets needed for this job at $145 per hour each: $1160
   
  Supplies/ purchase time and approx. cost: $100
  
  total: $1260 + 97.65 tax = 1357.65
  
  Please note that we did not add in costs incurred to originally quote this job or for the initial visit.
  
  We will settle for this amount if paid in full within the next 7 days.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/15/2023

  Better Business Bureau®:
  
  
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is minimally acceptable to me in that it contains multiple inaccuracies. We tried to pay a bill from completion of the job and have evidence of such correspondence in which we repeatedly requested an invoice from which to make payment. The business did not want to admit what they finally stated below: they overcharged for hours, charged hourly for drive time, and never broke the charges down for us. An estimate is just that and when the offeror includes terms to allow for adjustment, most courts would apply those adjustments for the benefit of either party. With this admission and the lesser total. We accept and will make payment against this offer.
  
  
  
  Regards,
  
  
  **** *** **** ********

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/29/2022

  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.

  A-1 Plumbing and Drain Service visited our home on the evening of 11/14/2022 for an after-hours call on a clogged branch line. The plumber worked for 3 hours and our final invoice was $1099.05.
  
  The plumber was able to get the water to go down, and packed up to leave. When the plumber left he didn't mention to us that his work had no warranty, or that the drain might require additional attention in the future - he said that it was clear, and we believed him.
  
  While the water did go down, he obviously didn't clear the obstruction. It began having trouble again a week later (or at least, it took us a week to notice, because we found out later that it takes nearly 15gal of water before the showers start to backfill). With all water-efficient fixtures, there has to be a real confluence of water usage to cause a noticeable backup.
  
  I called A-1 to ask if there was anything we could do, in the way of reimbursing part of our bill or continuing to work on the problem at a reduced hourly rate. The manager refused to return my call, and instead instructed a company dispatcher to call and tell me, "nothing we can do, no warranty, too bad."
  
  We are now required to hire a second party to do the work that A-1 was already paid to do.
  
  A-1 charged us to temporarily repair a situation that they declared totally fixed but was not, and are taking no responsibility for inadequate work. The plumber indicated there were signs of the clog being old - no reasonable, experienced professional would have assumed the obstruction was clear when the items retrieved from the drain were clearly insufficient to have caused a total water stoppage.
  
  The plumber, at the very least, bore a professional responsibility to discuss the terms of his work with us (ie: the lack of a warranty), and inform us if the drain was going to require additional work. Instead, the warranty information was provided as a footnote to the receipt - after we had paid, and with no explanation of why that was the case.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/13/2023

  A-1 Plumbing and Drain
  Complaint # ********
  Customer ***** *******
  
  Response:
  This was an afterhour’s job in Stanley NM. This customer was charged extra for the distance of the job
  and for the work completed outside of our regular hours. This was far from a standard clearing of a
  drain. The technician had to access the obstruction through three different access points, before finally
  reaching it. When the obstruction was pulled back it included a piece of snake cable left behind by
  another company who obviously must have had a difficult time as well and it was bad enough to cause
  their snake cable to break in the line. Everything the technician experienced clearing this drain pointed
  to issues beyond a regular clog. When we run into issues such as this, history tells us that there is a
  bigger problem and the line is going to back up again soon. For this reason we do not warranty the job.
  Instead we usually have our technicians clear the line the best they can, given the situation and then
  send someone out to assess what needs to be done to permanently fix the issue during regular business
  hours. Since the customer was paying extra at the time for after-hours, I would assume that this would
  have been the conclusion the tech presented. It is also clear that the tech did in fact state that the job
  was not under warranty because this was written on the customer’s invoice. (please see invoice
  provided by the customer). When the customer asked to speak to a manager about this he referred to
  the “no warranty” stated on the invoice and asked one of our office staff to explain this to the customer.
  When the customer still was not happy the Manager offered to send someone out to assess the
  situation at no charge. The customer refused this offer. The technician was at the customer’s house for
  3 hours and cleared a line that needed more extensive repairs to continue to work properly. That is
  exactly what they were charged for. It is not standard company practice to refuse to complete extra
  repairs or to say “too bad” to a customer. We will definitely be reminding our staff of this and if this did
  indeed happen we sincerely apologize. However we stand behind the price we charged for the
  afterhours/ long distance service we provided. We also stand behind refusing to warranty drain clearing
  on what we deem to be faulty plumbing. Especially if the customer is informed of this in writing. We see
  that the customer stated that someone else came out to clear her line. We are curious what was
  involved in the final resolution.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/13/2023

  Complaint: ********
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  
  

  I was not offered the opportunity for somebody to come "assess the situation at no charge." If I was, I absolutely would have accepted, because thats exactly the reason I called an attempted to speak with a manager. The issue here is not the lack of a work warranty, the issue is that the technician told us, both verbally and in writing, that "the drain is clear." which turned out not to be the case. This was a deliberate misrepresentation on the part of an agent of the company which cost us extra money, and the need to hire another contractor because - as I said - A-1 offered us no assistance in the matter at all. 

  
  
  
  
  
  Regards,
  
  
  
  ***** *******
  

   

  
  

  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, the consumer must give a reason why they are rejecting the response. If the consumer does not provide a reason the complaint will be closed Answered]