ComplaintsforBrown Plumbing, Heating, & Air

• Initial Complaint

  02/25/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Hello,Please see a detailed summary, of the events in this case.1) On 8/29/2022 I called Brown Plumbing to assist with a clogged drain at a rental property I own located at **** **************, ********, ** *****. They said it would be a $120.00 fee to send a technician out to assess the problem. They also said I would have to fill out and sign a credit card authorization form prior to a technician being sent out to the property. I agreed.2) On 8/31/22, they finally emailed me a credit card authorization form and I filled it out and emailed it back to them. I only printed my name and digitally signed. Brown Plumbing is who put, "Not to Exceed "1800.00-2200.00" Please note that at this point, I have only agreed to paying the $120.00 for the technician to come to the property. At approximately 11:45am Brown Plumbing arrived and I received a call from their technician *************************** shortly after. He explained to me to correct the issue that he would have to snake a blade into the sewer line coming from the house and cut roots that have grown into the pipe and push the roots into the main sewer line towards the street in front of the house. I then asked him how much it would cost. ***** explained it would be $180.00 an hour and the job would take 4-5 hours. I agreed for him to proceed, calculating that it would be roughly $1,000.00 to complete the job. ***** completed the job and departed from the property at approximately 3:45pm. This imputes 4 hours of work on *****'s part, plus the call out fee. Totaling $840.00 which I expected to be charged. I had a phone conversation with ***** later that afternoon around 5:00pm when I called him on his cell phone. He said he was already home and said the job went smoothly and to add a root killer in the drain coming from the house to prevent roots from growing into the pipe. I asked him what the total was for the job and he said he couldn't give me a number and that the people in his office would have to total everything up and send me a bill.3) Between 8/31/22-9/21/22 there was zero communication between Brown Plumbing and myself. I still had not received an invoice from Brown Plumbing.4) On 9/23/22 I noticed a charge from 9/21/22 on my ***** Fargo card ending in **** from Brown Plumbing for the amount of $2,200.00. I emailed Brown Plumbing for an itemized invoice of the charges and never received a response.5) On 9/24/22 I called Brown Plumbing and spoke with *************************. I asked him to email me an itemized invoice (which he never did) and questions to why the charges on my card were much higher than the amount *************************** had explained to me the day of the job. ***** replied that he would have to call me back once ***** arrived at the office so we could have a phone conference and ***** would be able to better explain. Later that afternoon ***** and ***** called me back and ***** explained that the hourly rate was $180.00 an hour PER man on the job and that there were two of them. ***** never once mentioned there would be two people on the job. He continued to state that there was a camera fee of X amount of hundreds of dollars, a hydro jet fee of X amount of hundreds of dollars, and X amount of other fees for other equipment. All this was the first time I was hearing of these extra fees for other technicians and equipment. I explained to ***** that he never mentioned all the above fees over the phone when I agreed to proceeding to the job and he denied that. I asked why they don't have a process to electronically send an estimate to a customer to have them sign prior to the job to avoid situations like this. He could not give me a response. Both ***** and ***** began to get aggressive over the phone when I continued to question their billing procedures. At the end of the conversation, I again asked them to immediately email me their itemized invoice so I can see exactly what they were charging me for and to this day I have yet to receive an email from Brown Plumbing. On 9/27/22 I opened a dispute through ***** Fargo for $1,340.00. Brown plumbing is well entitles to the $840.00 that I calculated I should have been charged.On 10/5/22 I finally received an invoice from Brown Plumbing via **** for $3,346.66 and noticed it was mailed 10/1/22. Please note this invoice was mailed out over a month from the day of the job on 8/31/22 and nearly two weeks after having already been charged $2,200.00 on 9/21/22. Please also note that exhibit 2A from the documents that were sent to ***** Fargo by Brown Plumbing was the only thing mailed to me by Brown Plumbing.On or around 10/22/22 I received notification from ***** Fargo that the investigation was completed and my claim was denied. I called ***** Fargo to understand why and I was told by a representative that the documents sent to **************** showed my signature authorizing Brown Plumbing's charges. I asked the representative to please email me the documents that were sent to ***** Fargo from Brown Plumbing. Please note that I was 234 miles away from ********, ** on the day of the job. I was in ********, ** on 8/31/22.On 1/25/22 I received the documents via email from ***** Fargo showing what Brown Plumbing had sent. Please see my findings below....A) This is my first time I saw the receipt of $2,200.00 being charged to my card. Brown Plumbing never sent this to me.B) Exhibit 2A I did receive. It is not itemized and only shows, "Sewer line stoppage," in the amount of $3,346.66. It is dated incorrectly. The job was started and completed on 8/31/22, not 8/30/22. ****** and *********************** are the tenants who rent the property. They have zero power of attorney, consent, or privilege to sign on my behalf. When questioning ****** and ***** as to why they signed, they stated that the technician told them that's the only way he would be able to begin the job. ****** and ****** also stated that there were not any amounts on any paperwork they signed from the technician. This makes sense that the amounts were placed after ****** and ***** signed since *************************** could not give me the total amount for the job when I spoke with him on the day of the job after it was completed. Remember, he told me the people in his office would have to total everything up before sending me an invoice. How could the documents ****** and ****** signed have amounts on them already if ***** didn't know the total of the job.C) Exhibit 2B - This is my first time seeing this. Brown Plumbing never sent this to me.D) Exhibit 2C - This is my first time seeing this. Brown Plumbing never sent this to me. Again, *********************** has zero power of attorney, consent, or privilege to sign on my behalf. This document must have been sent to me prior to the job being started for my approval.E) Exhibit 2D - This is my first time seeing this. Brown Plumbing never sent this to me.F) Exhibit 3 - This is my first time seeing this. Brown Plumbing never sent this to me. Again, *********************** has zero power of attorney, consent, or privilege to sign on my behalf. This document must have been sent to me prior to the job being started for my approval.G) Exhibit 4 - This is my first time seeing this. Brown Plumbing never sent this to me.H) I did sign this credit card authorization form, but I signed this for the $120.00 call out fee.I have no problem paying Brown Plumbing for the services and pricing that were explained to me. However, they are charging me for extra workers and equipment that were never once explained to me. $3,346.66 is a lot of money for four hours of work.Regards,--************************* *************

  Business response

  03/14/2023

  Please the attached.

  Business response

  03/14/2023

  

  Customer response

  03/14/2023

  I am rejecting this response because: Brown Plumbing is requesting exhibits from the complaint from The BBB, not me.
  

  Business response

  03/27/2023

  Please see the attached.

  Customer response

  03/31/2023

  I am rejecting this response because:
  

  
  

  My counter to your offer of a 30% "discount" of the original invoice balance would be to accept the charges of $2,200.00 already charged to my credit card and pay nothing further to Brown Plumbing. If you accept, please respond with your acceptance of terms and I will accept once received and BBB will drop all investigations. From one business person to another, going forward, I plead that you and your team members have estimates approved and signed for solely by the property owner and no one else. Also, please do not wait 30 days to send an invoice to a customer. In addition, please do not charge a customer a portion of their bill two weeks after the job and two weeks before the customer ever received an invoice. All this put together will avoid any issues like this in the future. Thank you.

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