Payless Plumbing

They were very responsive to completing the service. We were pleased with their service and we have not had any additional trouble at this time. The workers were nice and polite to work with.

I would really like to say that the installation of the water softener (which I had purchased on my own and was already set up in the proper place in my garage) went perfectly, but it did not. Not from Day One, when I got the estimate. As I recall, Fred didn't show up when he was supposed to (just to give me an estimate), so I called the office to see if he was on his way, and I was told he was running late from a prior appointment, and could probably get there in another hour or so. I told the girl in the office (Veronica or Nancy, the names of the girls working in the office) that he would have to come back the next day because I had a doctor appointment at the time when she said he could come. She apologized and scheduled Fred to come the next day. When Fred came the next day, he seemed to be knowledgeable, and gave me a fair price compared to another estimate I had already received from another Angie's List contractor. On his estimate, Fred broke down the estimate using PEX pipe, and then he wrote down another amount if I decided to use standard CPVC. After getting another estimate for the installation of the water softener, I called Payless Plumbing to ask for a breakdown on the estimate using CPVC, because I didn't want to use PEX piping. It took over a week, with several reminder phone calls, just to get the breakdown estimate for the CPVC installation. Because price was a major concern, I decided to use Payless Plumbing, as they were the lowest. And because they did receive one good rating on Angie's List, out of a total of one. The next problem was, Fred was double-booked on the day he was supposed to do the work. He was supposed to be at my home around 9:00 a.m. on Monday. After an hour or so of waiting for him, I called the office--no answer. I called Fred on his cell phone--he said he was still working on a job from the night before, and he acted like he didn't even know anything about my appointment. A little while later, the office called back. That was when I found out the person who scheduled my appointment made an error and double-booked Fred. She scheduled me without and quot;putting it on the board,and quot; which was why Fred didn't know anything about my appointment. I was not happy, to say the least. That week I was staying at my daughter's house (about 7 miles away) watching her dogs while she and my son-in-law were on vacation. So I had made a special trip to meet Fred at my house for the installation. No one ever told me how long the job would take--I went by the time listed on the estimate, which said about 4 hours. Had I known it was going to take as long as it did, I would have rescheduled for the next week, when I would be home. The office then scheduled me for the next day (Tuesday), and told me they would give me a $100 discount for the mistake. I told the girl that I will expect to see Fred at my house, ready to start work, on Tuesday between 9 and 9:30 a.m. She said okay. So the next morning I drove back to my house to meet Fred between 9 and 9:30, but no show. I waited almost an hour for him to come, then called Fred directly to see where he was. He said he was working another job, but his helper would be there soon, after he stops at the supply place to pick up what they needed. I was not happy again--because they were late again, and because Fred was supposed to be the one doing the work, not a helper. I told him I thought he was doing the work, and Fred said he would be there around noon! His helper didn't arrive until approximately 11:30, then Fred arrived shortly thereafter. This was a bad start to the day. So about 3:00 or so, when they were still working, I told them they would have to leave for a while because I had to go back to my daughter's house to let the dogs out (they cannot be left outside--they are Greyhounds). I told them to come back after an hour or so. When I returned, they were back and continued working (I think it was just Fred at this point). A few hours later, I asked if he would be finished soon, and he said no, he wouldn't be finished till later in the evening. I said he would have to come back in the morning, because I had to go back to my daughter's house to take care of the dogs. I think he said he would have to come back after noon because he had another job in the morning. Long story short, it took about 3 days to complete the job that I thought was going to take about 4 hours. I ended up driving over 70 miles going back and forth between my daughter's house and my house so I could be there when they were working. And then, when I thought Fred was finished on Friday, I tested the water with a hard water test kit that I had purchased earlier, and the water was still just as hard as it was before the work even started. Again, I was not happy. The water pressure was also noticeably lower than it was before. I called Payless Plumbing AGAIN and told them about the hardness and water pressure. She said Fred would have to come back the next Monday. I decided to look into it myself, and got the instruction manual out that I had given Fred to use, and realized that he hadn't set the meter on the softener correctly, and the softener needed to be and quot;regenerated.and quot; So I found in the manual how to set up the meter and how to do a and quot;manual regeneration.and quot; When it finished setting the meter and regenerating, I tested the water again and it was considerably softer. I was amazed that Fred didn't tell me that he would have to come back to do the rest of the work, and that I had to call the office and ask him to come back out. The kicker was after Fred came back the following Monday to check the softness (which was already good because I did it myself) and water pressure (which he said he could do nothing about after checking all of the faucets and cleaning out a few that had bits in them from the pipe work), the office called a couple hours later asking for payment. I told Veronica I wanted to receive the invoice first. Just a few minutes later, Veronica called back and asked if I could pay before 5:00 p.m., when she would be leaving the office. I told her I hadn't even had a chance to look at the invoice yet, as I was working myself. Just a few minutes later, Nancy called, telling me I needed to pay right away in order to avoid problems scheduling the League City inspection. I could not figure out what that had to do with payment. This caused me concern--it sounded as though they wanted me to pay immediately, in case the inspection didn't get approved. So after hours I had a chance to look over the invoice that Veronica had e-mailed me, and listed on there as part of the work was the Inspection by League City. I immediately e-mailed a response back to Veronica, stating that since the Inspection had not been completed yet, and it was part of the work description, I would not pay until that happened AND the work got the approval from League City. The next day Nancy called and told me she scheduled the Inspection for Wednesday. So I waited all day Wednesday for the Inspection, with no one coming from League City. Nancy called later in the afternoon and told me the Inspection was rescheduled for Thursday. I asked if someone would call first before coming, just to give me a heads up, because I did not want to waste another day waiting. But no one called--they just showed up. Luckily, the work passed League City Inspection. Before the Inspection was even complete, Nancy called and left a message. When the Inspectors left, I called Nancy back, told her the work was approved, and I made payment over the phone. This was one major fiasco. I doubt I would use them again, unless they have to come back and do warranty work (which I hope does not have to happen). The $100.00 discount was not nearly enough to make up for all of their unpunctuality and the stress it caused me because of it, and considering I had to finish the work myself.

They were prompt, courteous and reasonably priced. They replaced the frozen pipes. They were very efficient and when everyone in the area had frozen pipes in our area, we thought it would be expensive, but it wasn't. They didn't take advantage of the situation. They replaced the pipes, insulated it and gave some pointers. He was a great guy. I will use them again in the future.