Cooks Plumbing & Hvac

On a professional recommendation from my leasing agent, Cooks Plumbing was paid $65 on 6/19/12 to repair an existing inoperable garbage disposal that my existing tenant reported, on 6/16/12, had not been working since her move in during March of 2012. After the job was completed I spoke with the business owner, Brad, who performed the repair, and he indicated that long periods of non-use frequently resulted in problems (I?d never heard of that before but OK), so he suggested purchasing a brand new one at a later date because it wouldn?t be significantly more than the labor cost of a repair. I told him I?d think about it and get back to him. On 10/17/12 I paid Brad from Cooks Plumbing $142 to install what I thought was a ?brand new? garbage disposal. On 5/8/13 I received word indirectly from my new tenant, via my leasing agent, that the garbage disposal on the property was "frozen up" or not working. As a favor and since the property is directly across the street from his office, the leasing agent went to the property to investigate and attempt to start the garbage disposal, and he noticed the smell of burning rubber. The leasing agent indicated that it was his opinion that it was a symptom of a cheap motor "freezing up" after a couple of months of non-use. I immediately reached out to Brad from Cooks Plumbing and shared with him the leasing agent?s assessment of the problem and he instantly dismissed it as being a manufacturer problem and not his issue. He said the garbage disposal was easy to extract and suggested that I do it myself and take it back to Home Depot in exchange for a new one where he originally purchased it from. I was able to convince him that he should be the one extracting and returning it, since he did the install and had the receipt for the purchase, but also as a show of ?good will? because he was chosen for the work only because of a recommendation. He appeared to acquiesce and said he?d stop by the property to take a look at it, but he never did and subsequent to that turned off his business mobile phone from the period between our initial contact on 5/9/13 about this problem through 5/29/13, when I decided to hire another contractor. Frankly, he simply did not return the one follow-up voice message I left for him during that period and my leasing agent also left him a voice mail message during that period, which was also not returned. So, on 5/29/13 my leasing agent met with the new contractor at the property to assess the problem with the garbage disposal. The new contractor unlocked the garbage disposal and it made a horrible noise as if there were something metal in the drain. The contractor?s worker reached in the drain for an examination and determined that the cutting blade was broken and that was the reason it was faltering and making a horrible noise. The leasing agent asked if this problem could have been caused by misuse of the disposal and he indicated "yes, it could have been that something was put in the drain that should not have been there." He also suggested, based on the low price that I paid to Cooks Plumbing for the disposal, that it may not have been new, since the new contractor thought the price that I paid ($77 for a "new" garbage disposal and $65 in labor for the install) was too low. The new contractor stated that the garbage disposal needed replacement, that it was a 1/3 HP Badger, and that he only used a 1/2 HP version of the same disposal because the 1/3 HP Badger often got stuck and was not strong enough for typical household use. Further research online by the leasing agent revealed that Home Depot only sells the 1/2 HP version and not the 1/3 HP type that Brad Cook had installed, refuting his assertion that he purchased it from Home Depot.ondominium