UPDATE: After filing a complaint with the Wisconsin BBB, Neibuhr did only the bare minimum to satisfy me -- they made sure that I didn't have a collection agency hounding me for late penalties. I paid my bill in full, and asked that Neibuhr refund half of it. They refused. I'm done with them and now have to recommend looking elsewhere for plumbers in the La Crosse area.
I've recommended Niebuhr to friends in the past -- they are a professional outfit that does top-notch work. But recently, I had some plumbing done in my home, and although they again did a top-notch job, when the bill came, it included both a "trip charge" (accounting for transit time between the previous job and mine) and several replacement sink drains that I don't believe needed to be replaced (the old ones were basically brand new).
So, I paid the bill, except for those charges, and included a letter detailing why I wasn't paying for the trip charge and for the drain inserts. After about 4 months, and no follow-up from Niebuhr, I received several notices that the outstanding part of my bill was to be sent to a collection agency. I finally called them (thinking that it was really their responsibility to respond to my dispute of the charges), and was simply told that I was entitled to my opinion, but they charge $17.50 per trip, on top of any parts and labor ($76/hr). The explanation was that, without the trip charge, the plumbers couldn't get an 8-hour day.
Huh? I pay a $76/hr labor rate to Niebuhr (the business) and they use that $76/hr to pay their employees some lesser amount for their day's work, which should begin when they clock in in the morning and end when they clock out in the evening. What's left over pays for overhead and (in theory) profit.
Am I to believe these are independent contractors and not Niebuhr employees, and that they are off the clock when driving their Niebuhr truck from one job to another? What if the distance between one job and the next is 1 mile vs. 25 miles? How is a flat trip charge appropriate in any way? I don't pay trip charges and I don't pay fuel surcharges, which are just tricky ways of inflating bills without being honest with the customer up-front. I do pay higher labor rates (if they are necessary to cover higher costs of doing business).
Anyway, to make a very long story only slightly too long, the owner of Niebuhr basically told me to take a hike and said that he'd send the unpaid portion of my bill to a collection agency.
Now, I'll still say that they do excellent work, but that (in this case), I feel like I've been both nickle-and-dimed on a ridiculous trip charge, and then also billed for some replacement parts that were totally not necessary.
Too bad, since I really liked them. I've heard very good things about Buchner Plumbing though... I'll just make sure to ask next time about "trip charges". What a load of garbage! read more