J & S Plumbing

setting up the appointment was quick and easy. person who came out to give me an estimate was friendly and thorough. same person suggested i ask for him to do the actual service, as he will know exactly what needs to be done. i was left an invoice of the details with a cost of $225/hr, with an estimate of 3 hours. estimate cost $98, this will be applied toward actual work done. went ahead and scheduled for service to be done without getting a second opinion. asked for same person who did estimate. appointment made for 9am on 4/15. received call from office, plumbers on their way, would arrive by 9:30. actual arrive time 10:10am two plumbers arrived. Licensed plumber and apprentice. licensed plumber was person who did my estimate. he directed apprentice to complete simple tasks initially and then gave him the job to replace guts in guest room toilet and unclog bathroom sink, address leak. actual time spent working: 1.5 hours. licensed plumber stated he didn't have invoices with him and both plumbers went down to their truck to compute my charge and possibly locate an invoice (???) and apprentice was sent back up to my apartment to tell me the total cost and collect the $. I was told the total cost would be $770! When i questioned this cost with the apprentice, I was told "I'm only the messenger" and that due to there being "2 plumbers, the cost is $225/hr x 2 for 2 hours or a total of 4 hours at $225/hr plus $65 in parts less the $98 I already paid." I was flabbergasted. I was told I could call the office to discuss as I could not understand how or why I would be paying $225/hr for an apprentice, in addition to the main plumber. I called the office to discuss and was told that because the office manager did not have the actual invoice in front of him it would be hard for him to discuss the $770 I was charged. I was told by the office manager that the $225/hr rate includes the cost of $150 for licensed plumber and $75 for the apprentice. I paid the $770 and the plumbers left. Within 30 minutes of the plumbers leaving my home, I discovered that the bathroom sink was leaking. I contacted the office and they sent the plumbers back to my place. The main plumber came in and tended to the leak. He took care in fixing what was wrong and voiced that the apprentice was careless in not having tightened the pipes thoroughly and for not having noticed the dried out chalk that was adding to the leak in the sink area. The main plumber was thorough, which I appreciated. He also went on a tirade about the "debt clock" and how much worse the economy is since Obama took office etc . . etc. I listened. Not sure why. Honestly, he probably spent an hour going on and on and on. I was not charged for the plumbers error and need to return to fix the leak. I was pleased with the job done . . . . until about an hour later when I used the guest toilet and discovered that the flusher needed to be held down for what felt like a considerable amount of time before the flush would take hold. Also, both the guest and main toilets now seemed to take an exorbitant amount of time to refill. It sounds like drip, drip, drip of water being added to the tank. After letting things sink in and getting a handle on what had just happened, I let the weekend pass and contacted the office on the following Monday morning and told the office manager that I didn't care to know why this overcharge happened, I just needed him to fix it and gave him 24 hours to make things right. End of story. I received an email the following day outlining the work and costs. I was now going to be charged for 2.5 hours because that's what the GPS system said as to the amount of time spent at my place. I guess the amount of time the guys sat in the truck doing whatever they were doing, was on my dime. After initially wanting to challenge the notion of being charged for 2.5 hours, I surrendered. I was now only being charged $225/hr for 2.5 hours. Not double for 2 people as the savvy licensed plumber tried to insinuate. The new charge was $564 or $466 after the $98 I already paid. Adjustments made to my credit card. I addressed the guest toilet issue and was told they would send a plumber out to adjust the toilet at my convenience. Today I scheduled this adjustment/repair for Sunday and also mentioned the main toilet needing an adjustment as well. What should have been an easy exchange of work for payment -- turned into several additional hours of time by me both in questioning the cost and reasoning I was originally given, the amount of time I spent on the phone and in email exchanges with the office in fixing the problems of both cost and remaining plumbing issues, and also being available for them to come back twice to fix what should have been fixed correctly the first time. I feel taken advantage of for being a woman. For living in a nice condo. I felt the apprentice, who mentioned his father was some bigwig in the company, had an attitude of not really caring. He mentioned that he normally works on "bigger job" and maybe was dismissive of having to do a simple job such as mine. The main plumber was coy and savvy I guess. He complained a lot about having to work with chemicals and not being paid enough by his company. I guess the answer to this was to overcharge me, the customer. A company is only as good as its representatives. The representatives sent to do the work I needed, give a bad name to this company. I will never use them again. Others may have a different experience.

They were very professional and very courteous. The price was great. Overall they were great and the work went perfect. They seemed to honest and they provided great service including the follow up call after the work.