Blue Mountain Plumbing, Heating & Cooling

Additional Notes

Complaint: My wife was home alone and noticed the hot water heater was leaking. Unable to help my wife over the phone, I contacted this company to try and fix the problem. The owner, Clark Brule, sent someone to our house within an hour after shifting other work. I was told of the $39 dispatch fee. The technician spent 15 minutes assessing the problem. During his assessment, he fixed the leak by tightening a nut. AFTER the work was completed, my wife was charged $169.23($39 dispatch fee + flat rate fee of $150.23 for tightening the nut - $20 coupon). She questioned the price with the technician, wrote a check for the work, and then she was asked to sign the invoice. She signed without reading the fine print and later realized she signed authorization for the technician to complete a job, which was supposed to be signed and agreed upon BEFORE starting the work. The invoice states I hereby authorize you to proceed with the above work at the upfront fee of $169.23. She was NOT first given an estimate of the work and the technician did NOT tell her the problem until after it was fixed. She would have declined the additional service and paid the $39 dispatch fee if given an upfront price. She called the owner to voice her frustration. Things started nicely, but he would not consider the idea that she was being treated unfairly even though she was NOT first given an "UPFRONT PRICE" of the work to be completed. The owner verified with the technician that an estimate was NOT provided before fixing the problem. The owner became livid when she stated she did not agree with the charge and that she would put this experience on Facebook. After that, he said at least one swear word, said that if she put mean comments about his business on Facebook, he could say worse things about her in return. Lastly, he said he has more money than her and that he could do a whole lot more damage to her than she could do to him. I do not appreciate that the owner threatened my wife, cursed on the phone, and yelled at her.

Desired Settlement: I honestly do not believe we should have been charged the minimal adjustment fee of $150.23 for tightening a nut, as this price was NOT presented to us BEFORE the work was completed. However, I appreciate Blue Mountain coming in such a timely manner and am willing to pay $30 in addition to the dispatch fee of $39. This will be a total of $69 for their time and services.

Business Response: Response to BBB - ******* I am in receipt of your written notification of BBB case number ******* for which I submit the following response. Blue Mountain is a customer focused company and as such we take any customer concern with our services (from whatever the source) very seriously.     I am familiar with the matter referenced above and the facts are as follows:     • On February 7, 2013, the customer called our office late in the afternoon requesting service for a leaking water heater. The customer indicated it was urgent that they get service immediately as their house was for sale and they had a showing scheduled.     • In an effort to meet the customer's needs we contacted a previously scheduled customer to move their service call to another day creating an opening in the schedule. A Service Tech was dispatched to the customer's home immediately.     • At the customer's home the Service Tech identified the problem, made the repair, completed the necessary paperwork, the customer paid their invoice and the Service Tech left the customer's home.      Attached is a copy of the customer's invoice where it clearly shows the customer authorized the work, as indicated by their signature in the "Work Authorization", approved of the work completed, as indicated by the signature in the "Acceptance of Work Performed", and paid the amount due as indicated in the payment shown. The customer also used an on-line coupon we have available on our website. The customer was completely aware of the work being done and the costs.     • After the technician had left the customer's home, the customer called our office wanting to pay a lower price. The customer indicated:      There was no problem what so ever with the technician or any of the work performed      The work performed by the technician resolved their problem      And they were relieved the technician was able to fix the problem without having to replace the water heater.     PAGE 02     • We explained to the customer that the technician only charged them for a minimum adjustment fee and there wasn't any amount less available for the technician to charge for making the repair.     • The customer became agitated and clearly stated that if we did not give them a discount they would do whatever they could to cause disruption to our business. It is assumed this complaint is their latest attempt to follow through on that claim.     The customer has spent an inordinate amount of time and energy on a very modest invoice to get an unreasonable discount for the timely, professional and experienced service they received which completely resolved the problem for which they requested service.     Due to these facts, Blue Mountain is unable to further assist this customer in any way.   Clark Brule General Manager          

Consumer Response: ·         We are not happy with the response from the general manager and do not find our complaint to be resolved. ·         We would first like to state that we were very appreciative of Blue Mountain for switching around their appointments and coming to our house in such a timely manner.  Our initial experiences with them were positive.  The technician was nice and did find and fix the problem associated with our hot water heater.  What we were not happy with was the pricing of the work and the way the general manager treated my wife when she called to discuss the matter with him.  Yes, after the general manager explained their upfront pricing, she did say she did not agree with the payment, that she would not recommend their services to her friends, and she might put her experience on Facebook.  The general manager reacted very unprofessionally after my wife mentioned this, and he ended up raising his voice, cursing over the phone, and threatening my wife.  When I called to confront him about the way he treated my wife, he said it was a “character issue.” ·         I would like to respond to the general manager’s comment, “The customer was completely aware of the work being done and the costs.”… As mentioned in the original complaint, my wife and I were aware of the dispatch fee of $39 and agreed to this charge.  However, the technician DID NOT discuss with my wife the work that needed to be done and how much it would cost BEFORE the work was completed.  (Had she known that only a nut had to be tightened, she would have done it herself or had a friend come to the house to help her as I was out of town.)  Yes, my wife did sign the “Work Authorization,” but this was AFTER she already wrote the technician a check of $169.23 (with that included the $20 coupon) for TIGHTENING A NUT on our hot water heater.  My wife did question the charge with the technician.  It would have been nice if he had mentioned that if she did not agree with the charge, then she could have refused to sign the “Work Authorization.”  Regardless, we have learned a valuable lesson through this experience to not sign paper work without reading the fine print and to not sign paperwork if you do not agree with a charge.  ·         When both my wife and myself called the general manager to discuss what we thought was a ridiculous charge to tighten a nut on our hot water heater, he stated that Blue Mountain has upfront pricing and their “Minimum Adjustment Fee” is $150.  Therefore, without a coupon, Blue Mountain’s minimum charge to complete a job is $189.23.  This was NEVER mentioned to my wife or me BEFORE work on our heater was begun.  We would have not chosen their services had we been aware of this pricing.  We have since learned we have friends who have recently had more extensive work done by plumbers for a lower cost.  I would not recommend services from Blue Mountain of Fishersville because of their high pricing and the unprofessionalism of the general manager. Regards, ****** ******  

Business Response: From original information we have a signed work order with the price listed, a signed acceptance of the work and a check where work was paid for.  Company does not understand where the confusion is.  The orignal response stands.

Consumer Response: Though the owner has a piece of paper with our signature, we weren’t asked to sign anything until AFTER the work was completed and a check for the work was written.  The technician started and completed the work BEFORE any pricing information was communicated to us, and the owner was made aware of this by both my wife and the technician. We acknowledge that the piece of paper we signed states otherwise and looking back  we should have written our check and refused to sign the paperwork.  $189 to tighten a nut is ridiculous! Regardless, what’s done is done.  However, we do not appreciate the way the owner talked to my wife and raised his voice towards her during their discussion over his pricing scheme.  This discussion left her in tears, and that is no way for a man to treat a woman.  We had the furthest thing from an A+ experience during this process...which was his BBB rating at the time.  I strongly encourage anyone reading this to seek services elsewhere before having to interact with the owner of this company. Regards,****** ******  

BBB's Final Determination: After reviewing the position of all parties, BBB determined that the business made a reasonable effort to address the complaint. However the consumer remains dissatisfied.

Additional Notes

Complaint: I had a water leak in the main waterline to my modular home.The plumber came out and looked and said %397.00I asked for a price breakdown with parts and labor.He refused. I said that price sounds excessive.He gave me a $20.00 discountI saw what he replaced:(1) brass insert to water line(2) shutoff valveWork took 1 hourI went to ********** ******** ****** and found out the price of the parts, and they came to $25.00.For what this man did, $313.00 for 1 hour of labor is unrealistic and a ripoff.I called the office, and complained and the answers I received were not satisfactory.For one hour of work for a simple job like this is excessive.At the most, it is worth about a $100.00 (and that is still excessive).I had service from this company before and was satisfied with their service and pricing. This is predatory business dealings. They refused to give me parts and labor, and what I was charged is outrageous.Thank you,**** ********  ###-###-####

Desired Settlement: My desired settlement is to half the cost of this service.The Service call charge was %39.00-I will pay that.The parts are about $25.00The labor was $313.00. I am willing to pay 1/2 of that amount, which is still high, but more reasonable than what I was charged for very simple plumbing work.

Business Response:

We are a flat rate shop and provide the cost for our services to our customer's in advance of starting any work.  In this case, the *** ******** was given the price of $397.26 to complete his job which he approved in writting before any work was started.  If the customer thought the price was too high he should not have authorized us to do the work.  Attached is a copy of the customer's invoice which shows the customer's written approval to complete the work for $397.26.  At the bottom of the invoice it shows the coustomer's acceptance of the work performed as indicated by their signiture.

Upon learning of the customer's concerns, the Service tech assigned to the *** ********* job was called and asked to review the charges.  The tech did discover a clerical error which resulted in an overchrge of $39.81.  The technician called the customer and explained the error and offered to return to correct the invoice.  These corrections were entered on the invoice by the tech (in a less then clear manner) but listed none the less. 

As a flat rate company the price we give the customer is the total cost.  If the job would have taken several hours or a few minutes, the cost to the customer is the same.  As such we are unable to provide a breakdown of parts and labor on a project which is listed in our terms and conditions on the reverse of the customer's invoice under the heading of "Entire Agreement". 

I reject *** ******** offer to pay something different than agreed to after the work has already been completed.  After correcting for the error listed above and taking off a coupon the customer presented at the time invoiceing, *** ********* credit card will be charged $337.45.

I take offense to *** ********* describing our business practices as predatory.  We make sure our customer's know the total cost for their job before any work is started so there are no surprises. 

Consumer Response:

Better Business Bureau:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID*******, and find that this resolution would be "legally" satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved. I have learned a valuable lesson, I will never use Blue Mountain for any plumbing services again. I doubt seriously that my rate would have been the same if they had been here several hours, rather than the one hour they were here. $39.00 for service call is ok. $25.00 for parts is Ok . $270.00 +/- for one hour of work is not rational an definitely not OK. The only reason I accept this is that I did sign the agreement.

Their services are are guilty of over-charging customers. I am not withdrawing my complaint, merely accepting the inevitable. It is immoral to charge that much money for 1 hour of work. This is vulture capitalism.  

Remember, word of mouth works.

Regards,

**** ********

BBB's Final Determination: Consumer accepted resolution offered by the business.