Business ProfileforArt Douglas Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning

I am writing on behalf of my 94 year old uncle, Donald *******, who has dementia. He discovered his heater would not come on and called Art Douglas. Two workers made a service call which costs $120.00 They checked the unit and said it needed a new thermostat. They installed a simple non-programmable unit on the wall. For this they charged my uncle $200. Thus, the total bill was $320. Simple wall heater thermostats are available for less than $25 at home improvement stores. I contacted the business and was told that they had given him a senior discount, implying he should be thankful for that. They also said there are industry standards for how much to charge for various jobs and they had followed the standard. I had never heard of this before, aside from car repairs. If true, the standards are ridiculous. My feeling is that $200 to replace a simple thermostat, on top of the service call fee, is excessive. I asked for a partial refund of $120 and it was declined. Had my uncle not been suffering from impaired judgment, he never would have agreed to pay this price. My uncle was also duped into getting solar by a door to door salesman a few years ago even though he lives alone and uses very little electricity. I am getting fed up with the manner in which old people such as my uncle are being treated these days.