This is a LONG review, but very detailed. Sit back & grab a cup of coffee....here we go…read more...
So after hurricane Helene, my step daughter called me about hearing a light hissing sound near the second/spare bathroom. She lives in one of our rental homes in NC & since Helene destroyed major roadways in TN & NC, our trip would be over 4.5+ hours one way, so we called Ultimate Plumbing. Ultimate mistake!!! 175.00 service call, no problem as that goes towards the bill. Knew it was a simple fix, couldn't be more than 300.00, maybe 350.00. Saves me 9 hours of driving, well worth it. Come on, it's CPVC...parts are cheap, easy to replace, fast repair...house had a decent size crawl space. water wasn't pouring out from under the house...wasn't that bad of a leak then. Tech was there, smelled of weed (per my family there), & they called me to so the tech could speak with me. I will say he was a polite kid. He said "went from side to side under the house & didn't find any leaks" but ONLY heard it when my step daughter pointed it out. Permission was given by me to cut the insulation near the bathroom the leak was suspected. Not even 5 minutes later my wife got a text with a $1200.00 estimate to repair that & a toilet fill valve (12.00 part, 10 minutes tops). No way he got back under, opened up the insulation of the trailer & got back to his company with estimated parts/time.
Being retired GC & have BUILT/Rebuilt some homes in my time, as well as an owner of multiple houses in Hickory NC, and TN...we declined the estimate knowing we were being gouged. October 8th, 2024 was the day of estimate for reference. Got up at 6AM, Drove out there to inspect & repair on the 9th. Got to the house, went under to see that NOTHING was disturbed under the house. Black plastic ground barrier material was undisturbed (covered in dirt), cobwebs everywhere, totally undisturbed. I've learned...TAKE PICTURES & VIDEO. so i did....fighting the charge now, with evidence in hand. Crawled under, clearing cobwebs, and a mummified rat carcass and saw the sagging insulation liner that was noticeably DRIPPING, in the far back corner, unable to seen from access door as it was behind the cinder block supports.
Mind you, i am 51, 6'1" and 260lbs and got under this "hard to get into" area they put in the estimate, without issue. Yes, it was dirty under there. its a double wide ON dirt. Again, estimate even stated they didn't cut the liner, so they couldn't see the actual piece(s) that was leaking, & they didn't disturb the "very dirty" plastic lining on the ground. So they even unknowingly ADMITTED they didn't go under or know the parts needed to repair. How do you estimate repairs if you didn't actually SEE the pipes?
Go to Home Depot, got some fittings. Under 60.00 for everything possibly needed with extra couplings, 90s & even SharkBite fittings, just incase. had a few 10' sticks of 1/2" CPVC line & glue there from sink feed repairs in the master bathroom in January. I knew how basic and easy these repairs are.
Damage: 1 Cracked Tee fitting. $1.05 at Home Depot. Used my multi tool, cut the lines at the Tee and had it glued within 15 minutes (see picture of the Tee removed) with a short extension & coupling used for the lost section of pipe inside the original Tee.
Called Mary Jane (i know, right?) at the company, asked what i paid for since the tech never went under the house to actually see it was a simple $1.05 part & easy fast repair. He could have sat in driveway w/ same results, but come up with a $1200.00 estimate..(knowing we were about 9-10 hours (round trip) away because we had mentioned the bridges & roads to Hickory were destroyed through Asheville and TN RT26). she said that she had to call her tech to find out information. As i was asking if she could call us back at...CLICK....she just hung up on me?? never even said goodbye. Never called back either. Customer service?? My credit card company will be receiving the videos, resending digital pictures & copy of my Home Depot receipt (all via email this time) showing the cost of the parts bought to fix & dated the next day while the state was recovering from a natural disaster.
Pictures tell a thousand words. no one was under there in a long time.
This is about principal of good business practices, calling out companies that are paid to do a service call & actually have to do what they were paid to do. If the tech went under, found the leak & DID do what they claimed, that i would be ok with paying for the service call. If the estimate was anywhere near sane and reasonable, i would have had them do the work to save the drive. Instead, they didnt get any work, a long truthful review, possibly lost more revenue & should lose the credit card dispute. If i lose the dispute, they still LOST A LOT MORE...& i would be ok with their decision. I can sleep at night. Do they?
Thank you for taking the time, hope you enjoyed your coffee & this review.
Regards
Ron