ComplaintsforPaul's Plumbing and Heating, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  09/03/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My ***** water heater failed, and ***** agreed to replacement. I followed the instructions on their website and chose one of the recommended contractors. The contractor I found was out of my service area, but agreed to come out if I paid mileage. That charge was $119, and I am totally okay with that. The water heater was covered like for like. I made the arrangements on Monday for them to come out on Thursday between 8 and 10. on Thursday morning I received an email-when the techs were already at my house-stating INSTALLATION would cost over $1000. That's not the extra charge for drive time. I emailed back that I was not in agreement with this, and the receptionist blocked my email. I called them and stated that I didn't agree with this. She said she could give me a discount, bringing the installation charges down to $775. I said that was still too high. I was charged $1000 for this anyway. Both charges are predatory. As per reviews, he company appears to have a history of doing this.

  

  Business response

  09/14/2021

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

  Our dispatcher spoke to ****** ***************, the customer located at *** ***** **** ******* ****** ****** ** *****
  regarding her water heater that had failed prior to 8/30/2021. When she called on 8/30/2021, she mentioned she lived in ******** *******, and she could not find someone who would come up to replace her warranty water heater as it was up in the mountains out of range for most companies. I advised her we would have to charge an out-of-range trip charge and also our time to install the water heater. She said she is willing to pay the extra trip charge and also the extra time to install. She mentioned she is currently under contract with the sale of this house and is needing this done. 
  I let her know I would have to check with my ***** dealer to make sure I could get her a like for like replacement as this was a warranty water heater replacement. I reached out to my ***** dealer and found a like for like replacement for this customer. 
  Knowing that she needed this done ASAP, I moved my whole schedule around to accommodate my techs to arrive on 9/2/2021 to replace the warranty water heater. 
  The morning of the appointment, the technician came to me and asked if we sent her pricing. I advised the technician that she did acknowledge that there would be an out-of-range trip charge as well as the charge to install the water heater. I went ahead and emailed ****** the warranty water heater installation price with the out-of-range trip charge at 7:39AM the morning of 9/2/2021. I then sent my techs up knowing we already discussed what was going to be charged over the phone and she agreed to all of the charges. On a matter like this, it is really hard to give an exact price over the phone as there are so many variables that can play into this kind of matter. I.e. Venting, re-piping, expansion tank fails. I then received a call at 9:01 AM from ****** stating that she was confused to why she is paying anything other than the trip fee when it is covered under warranty. I explained to her what we spoke about during our conversation on 8/30/2021. I advised her ***** will not cover the labor to replace the warranty water heater. She told me that our company is being shady. I told her I would involve my boss on this matter as I do not have the authority to reduce the price of something in our Pricebook. I spoke with my boss, and he said for this customer we will drop our warranty water heater replacement from $965.75 to $722.33 plus the out-of-range trip charge of $119.00 to get this customer taken care of. After I presented this price to ******, she still was not satisfied with this situation. I then told ****** that I was going to cancel my techs from this job as there is a disagreement in the price that we gave her vs. the price she thought she would have to pay.  She told me not to call them off and that she needed this done. She told me that she wanted me to continue to send them and get this warranty water heater replaced. I proceeded to tell my techs to go forward with replacing the warranty water heater. 
  When my technicians arrived onsite, they found that not only the water heater needed to be replaced but also the expansion tank had failed and needed to be replaced. They presented the new price of $1,135.13 for the scope of work to the homeowner onsite which was ******'s husband. He signed before my techs proceeded that he agreed to the price of the trip charge, warranty water heater replacement, as well as the expansion tank that had failed. Once my technicians were completed with the job, they received a signature from the same homeowner as before stating he was satisfied with the work that was performed. 
  I do have the recorded phone calls between ****** and our company for your review if you would like me to send them over to you. I also can send you the invoice showing the signatures from the husband of ****** who we worked with on 9/02/2021.
  Please let me know if you have any further questions regarding this matter. 
  I look forward to your prompt response on this matter.
  Thank you,
  Karrissa S*******
  Office Manager of 
  Paul's Plumbing and Heating, Inc. 
  ************

  Customer response

  09/14/2021

  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  The labor costs were not disclosed in a timely manner and greatly exceed the local rate for labor when installing a water tank. I had no choice but to accept them due to our timeline. If I had been told this a day earlier, I could have made other arrangements.

  I acknowledge and am totally fine with the milleage/out of area charge. I have no dispute with that. It's the labor cost and letting me know about such an expensive charge 25 minutes before the appointment. Moreover, they would not directly answer questions about why their labor charges are so much more expensive than the local rate. 

  Please do listen to the voicemails.
  
  Regards,
  
  ****** ***************

  

  Business response

  09/15/2021

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

  Please find the attached phone call from ****** on 8/30/2021.
  
  I also have attached the invoice that was signed by the husband of ****** ******* ********
  
  Please let me know if you need anything else regarding this matter.
  
  Thank you,
  
  Karrissa S*******
  Dispatcher/ Admin Assistant
  Paul’s Anytime Plumbing and Heating
  335 8th Street SE
  Loveland, CO 80537
  ************

  

  Business response

  09/15/2021

  from: Karrissa <[email protected]>
  to: Marcy Sharf <[email protected]>
  date: Sep 15, 2021, 10:56 AM
  subject: RE: Case # ********

  Marcy,
  
  We as a company gave ****** ****** ********* multiple chances to cancel this appointment before arriving onsite. She made it very clear in her phone conversation with our dispatcher on 8/30/2021 that she acknowledged the extra trip fee and time to install the water heater would be ok to charge to get this completed for her. When I called her back to discuss what my boss would do, she told me she did not agree but to continue to send the tech up to this job. We feel as a company if she did not agree to this price, she should have called off the technician as we offered. And then continue her search to find someone who she feels is in the labor cost she expected. We as a professional company charge for our knowledge of our technicians as well as the ability to get onsite within a timely manner. We gave the customer onsite upfront pricing and received a signature before we proceeded with the scope of work which was signed by her husband during this appointment. We also received a signature from the husband acknowledging the satisfaction of our service on that day. After letting my boss know about this rejection from the customer, he said the only thing he will do for this customer to drop this issue is credit back the expansion tank price of $358.80 that was found to have failed when my tech arrived onsite. If we deduct this amount, the multi discount will also go away so leaving the final about of this invoice at $841.33. Please let our company know if this will resolve the issue with this customer.
  
  Thank you,
  
  Karrissa S*******
  Dispatcher/ Admin Assistant
  Paul’s Anytime Plumbing and Heating
  335 8th Street SE
  Loveland, CO 80537
  
  ************

  Customer response

  09/20/2021

  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  

  1. I want to make sure we are all clear about me being appreciative and very okay with the cost of the company going out of their normal geographic area to help us. There is no dispute from us about that charge and never has been. It keeps being brought up by the business as if it is a point of contention. It is not.

  2. My problem is the cost of the labor for a two hour job. In my opinion, a 2 hour job should be something like $150-$200/hr x 2 hrs=$300 -$400. The labor quoted for this job was outrageous. Even the ***** person was shocked when I called and disclosed how much I was charged. As was our realtor. The labor for installing the customer supplied water heater was $722 for 2 hours of labor. 

  3. The expansion tank: it's unclear to me why that was installed. We didn't have one on the last water heater. Additionally, the $358 quote makes it unclear which part of that charge was materials and which part was labor. 

  4. The business states I was given multiple opportunities to change my mind. I was not informed of the above price until less than an hour before the scheduled appointment. I didn't even see the email until the techs were at my house. So, I feel like this misrepresents the situation a bit. Yes, I was given multiple opportunities within the space of one phone conversation and without any real notice. Additionally, the business blocked my email after the call, so I had no way of contacting them. My email was appropriate, and I still don't understand why it was blocked.

  I feel as though this business ambushed us with an outrageous price that is outside of industry norm. Based on reviews I have read, this appears to be a pattern of behavior. I would like:

  1. For the business to provide greater clarity regarding the expansion tank charge: what was materials cost and what was labor charge

  2. To be charged in accordance with more industry-standard labor costs on a per hour basis ($400 labor total seems appropriate)

  3. For the business to provide more notice (24hrs?) regarding charges in advance of nonemergency, scheduled jobs, to provide greater transparency for parts vs. labor costs, and to provide labor charges that are inline with industry standard on a per hour basis.

  Thank you,

  ****** 

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