Richard H Austin Plumbing & Heating

All work was completed with excellent results.

good

I called Richard Austin Plumbing to get a price to install a kitchen faucet. It's the plain, old, regular type of kitchen faucet, no sprayer, one handle, and one base plate, which is exactly what was already there. I spoke with Tim Austin who had promptly returned my call. I told him it was a very simple procedure as it was an even replacement and there were no issues with the plumbing pipes. He quoted me $75 an hour. I asked if there were any other charges and he said there were not. The reason I asked him about additional charges is because I wanted to make sure there were no travel charges. Tim said there were no other charges, just a straight $75 an hour. I thought it was a fair price so we made an appointment for 8:00 AM the following Thursday. He asked if that was too early and I said it was not. He arrived at 9:00 AM with no explanation or apology for the delay, though I did tell him he was an hour late. (His time is more valuable than mine.) I had the sink cabinet totally cleared out, and the new faucet ready to go. He took off the old faucet and replaced it without incident. The new faucet was installed and working within about 18 minutes. It was, indeed, very simple. He looked at the clock, puttered around for a few more minutes, went to his car with his gear, came back with his invoices, and wrote me a bill for $75. I said, and quot;It's $75 for an hour but it's only 9:25.and quot; and quot;OK, then we'll just call it three-quarters-of-an-hour,and quot; he said. and quot;No. We'll call it what it is ..... a half hour,and quot; I said, to which he replied, and quot;OK,and quot; and promptly wrote the invoice for $37.50. (His money is more important than mine.) I wonder what he would have said if he had worked 1.5 hours and I said, and quot; We'll just call it an hour, ok?and quot; I found it difficult to rate this company because although the work was done well and the price was good, this is not a good company. There is an obvious lack of respect for a customer's time and money when a serviceman arrives an hour late without explanation or apology, and then blatantly attempts to overcharge. It is dishonest. And he knew it was dishonest when he promptly agreed to accept payment for the half hour's work he did, but thought maybe he could get away with charging for the entire hour. Had he insisted on the $75, I would have insisted he stay the additional 35 minutes and vacuum. Shame on him.

The drain is fine and I haven't had any problems with it since then. The man that came out was professional and he got the job done quickly.