Customer ReviewsforMartel Plumbing & Heating, Inc.

Martel was recommend to me by a friend. I used them twice and their plumbers are good. The reason I gave two stars is because their management is not very friendly and I was always billed more labor hour(they charge travel time and their office is around 10 mins away). The first time the plumber came and fixed our shower leak( it took him around 30 mins plus 10 mins travel time) but I was charged 1.5 hours for labor(I emailed them and they did admit that I shouldn't be charged for 1.5 hours so they took half an hour away). The second plumber spent around 1 hour to fix our toilet leak and I was bulled again for 2 hours labor. I emailed them to verify the hours(I don't mind paying for the labor hour plus the travel time, BUT I shouldn't be overcharged). They got back to me in a very rude way "they agreed to take half an hour off the bill but they are not interested in negotiating the bill every time and not interested in working for me". What kind of work ethics do they have? They got upset because I found out they overbilled the labor hours. Please be aware of this. Thanks for your time.

You were not overcharged labor. We have a minimum charge of 1 hour for service calls (it has always been this way), plus travel time outside of Dover, which has always been the case. Especially with gas prices being $5/gal., we could either continue to charge travel or increase our rates which we do not want to do. As far as the 2nd call that was 2 hours labor, the service tech. had explained to you before he left that there would be some residual water left from the original leak that was repaired. You called him after he left, and again he tried to explain to you that the water was residual and that the leak was repaired. You insisted that he return to check everything over, which he did, and there was no issue, all was as it had been explained to you initially. We hope this clears up the way our billing is completed. We have issued you a half hour credit as a courtesy.

As a new customer, this should have been explained the first time when I called to ask about the charge. I was only told that it's 120 per hour for labor and you didn't mention I would be charged for the travel time. The travel time was charged at the same rate 120 per hour which is far more than 5 dollars/ gallon gas you would use to travel from Dover to my house(10 mins drive by Google map). It only took less than half an hour the first time (extra half an hour would definitely be more than enough to cover 10 mins travel).. I was billed 1.5 hours instead of 1 hour the first time. The second time the total hours plus the travel time altogether is around 1.5 hours(plus the time I called him back to check the leak again). But the bill was 2 hours. Your team was straightly rude to customer by telling them that they were negotiating every invoice and you don't want to work for the customer. This is not acceptable customer service when you don't tell the customer that travel time would be charged and then the hours billed still don't look right even when you add the travel time. The travel time shouldn't be charged at the same rate as the service labor cost(120 per hour). Please work on your customer service.