Sampson's Plumbing & Heating

The plumber was fantastic and very respectful and friendly when he came out yesterday. I called today for an unrelated plumbing emergency this morning which required me to shut off the water to the whole house. The receptionist was outright rude, dismissive and questioned why I had called another plumber 6 months prior. As if it matters why a plumber from Pullman was called. Maybe you were rude and dismissive then too? Maybe you just couldn't come out when I needed service? Maybe I was listening to the advice I got from neighbors when I first moved in to not use your service??? She also stated that they could not come out because she was worried about COVID-19 after I confided that my day was awful already as my 7 year old had vomited that morning. I stated that I would remove my daughter from the house during the service call and even offered to have her tested (even though she had gorged herself on candy at school yesterday) if she would send someone out because I had to shut off the water to prevent flooding the bathroom. She then made up a COVID-19 testing protocol based on her own second-hand knowledge and stated one test wouldn't be enough and she would have to be tested twice (which is even more than what it takes to have someone go back to school or work). I'm a viral immunologist. I study respiratory viruses for a living. And I was still willing to negotiate with this woman and her off-the-cuff ideas about relative risk of exposure, prodromal periods, and testing schedules because I needed water in the house like every other mom and wife and human being. If that's your policy, that's fine. But don't make up things on the spot based on your limited understanding of how viruses work and how we test for them. The bottom line is that plumbing is a vital, essential service that we all need. There's a safe way to provide service in all cases using masks, wide social distance measures including the client leaving the house if needed, hand washing and cleaning surfaces prior to working. Just charge extra for your time and hassle. But do the job. Provide the service. Be a decent human being to another human being. Like the rest of us have to right now. We all have jobs to do and somehow we're doing them. The problem is that the receptionist is the owner's wife so nothing will change. There's no incentive to be customer-oriented when there are no consequences for poor behavior and you're the only plumber in town. My advice? Find another plumber until the ownership changes or this receptionist retires. Maybe someone who doesn't lecture you on things they clearly don't really understand. Or find someone who will try to make it work. We might be all in this together, but clearly Sampson's Plumbing is unapologetically and rudely not.

We were very pleased with the work and thought the price was fair. Relatives also called them after a bid they received from another plumbing service was ridiculously high. They too were very happy.

The original bill was over $900, which we felt was ridiculous for what they did. We went to the Better Business Bureau to try to arbitrate the bill and I ended up paying them $500. I was very unhappy with them...the bill was way out of the ballpark for what he actually did. The job itself was okay, though I thought he used some kind of "iffy" materials. When we questioned things on the original bill, he actually added more things and sent me another bill even higher. At the end he told me not to call him for plumbing anymore, and I told him that certainly wouldn't be a problem.