Saturday, November 14, 2009

Plumbing and carpet nightmares...

I had 6 valves replaced… and 5 hoses because mine were all rusty and gross in my condo. I called one of the only 2 companies that know how to work with our boiler system, and I asked for the plumber my neighbor recommended… But he wasn’t what I got.
I got another fellow from the company… and he took a whole hour and a half longer then I was quoted (they are paid hourly)… and then I had to argue with him to actually do the job I was paying him to do!
He didn’t connect any of the new hoses to the sink faucets and was going to leave me without running water (and I wouldn’t be able to check to make sure he did the work correctly if they weren’t hooked up)… he hooked up the bathroom without much fuss, but argued for over 20 minutes that he was worried he’d damage the old hose so he couldn’t attach the new one… but I was paying for him to attach the new one and toss the old one so I’d have hot and cold running water. He wanted to leave the new cold hose unattached so If someone accidentally turned on the cold water, it would shoot out from under my sink…
It was a nightmare that I’d rather not get into detail about. But I’m very tired of being looked at like a 23 year old that doesn’t know what’s going on.
Then my sick neighbor came up as he was banging around trying to put the washing machine back… and she had to help him because he couldn’t do it— Once he pulled it out I decided not to replace those hoses because he was already at 3.0 hours and they looked fine to me (but changing those was in my time estimate BTW).
He also left tools in my place that I had to walk out to the car to give him… which just angered me more.
So I got billed for $490.01--- paid with my credit card and once he left… called the company to complain. The receptionist was appalled by his behavior (did I mention the cell phone calls he answered that were not from his office?). She was shocked that he would do that and apologized for her error in sending the wrong plumber (she wasn’t under the impression that I wanted Mark specifically, she thought that I heard he was great so I was calling the company based on my neighbors referral—apparently Mark is booked until December).
The owner/manager should be calling me before they run my card to reduce the charges since he charged me to argue the whole time, make personal calls, and for his unbecoming conduct. They are a small company and want my business back… that’s for sure.
They haven’t called me back yet to negotiate the price and talk to me about my dissatisfaction, but they also haven’t run my card either. I’m calling them on Monday if I haven’t heard back from them yet.
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Ya, and the carpet/floor company tried to cancel my appointment last week when they were already ten minutes late. I had to call her to ask where she was and she told me she was going elsewhere because her boss told her to skip my appointment (and not call me to reschedule?!?!?)
So I told her flat out that she was rude and that if The Tile Company didn’t want my money because it wasn’t good enough for them then they could shove it and I’d call the other company I was considering. She “defied” her boss and came to my place and I ordered my carpet and tile from them only because they were the only company who agreed to rip out all the old tile and put in just the entrance way, bathroom, and laundry room on one day (leaving the kitchen and dining room to finish after my cabinets are installed in Dec) and come back the next day for the carpet.
I hate that people see me as a girl and think they can walk all over me! I’m smarter and more savvy than half their clients and if they were smart reps, they would be really good to me so I can refer all my friends in a year or two when they need their places done!

1 comment:

  1. I hear you...contractors, plumbers, electricians, a/c guys, builders, carpet installers - all think that they know better than I do. And in some cases they are right. But that was four properties ago. So maybe I know more than they do now. And they shouldn't treat me like a girl. Or tell me to "ask my boyfriend" what he thinks about it. Um, no. Good luck! Don't back down!

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