Sewer Detectives

Description of Work: Major plugged up kitchen sink

Description of Work: Water was pooling in a crawl space window well, and getting into my crawl space. Fearing a clogged storm/footing drain was causing the water issue, I called Sewer Detectives, thinking that I'd probably need to have the line scoped with a camera, but that maybe they would have other ideas. The owner, JP, came to my house give me an estimate. Without spending much time to discuss the issue, which I feared needed to be dug up, he said he could take care of the problem with his camera and jetter. He quoted $450 for two hours of work and that it would take care of the problem, although he said it was possible the worst case was that he'd need to install a catch basin at a cost of maybe another $1,000-$1,500. Simply jetting the lines sounded almost too good to be true, but I figured if worst came to worst, I'd just pay the $1,000 to $1,500 on his worst-case scenario. I questioned him about the camera and jetting, and he assured me that a camera scope was a necessity as a first step (which I agreed with, and still agree with) and that he would be able to provide me with a DVD of the scope. I told him that I would be surprised if a jetter could do anything if tree roots had gotten into the line, and JP said that his jetter had cutters that would take care of the roots. | |When his crew came out, they scoped the line and couldn't see anything after about ten feet (by the way, they did not record anything, as their battery on the camera was dying). They tried jetting the line and couldn't move past the blockage. All in all, they were at my house for less than an hour and left a bill for the full two hours of $450. The only value I received was confirming that I had a blockage. | |JP contacted me to tell me could repipe my line and install a catch basin for an additional $2,550. Since this was much more than he had initially set as the worst case scenario, I tried to negotiate the price down and he said he was willing to drop it another $500. I told him I need to get some other quotes and he asked for payment of the $450 for the camera and scope. I told him that since his guys were only here for an hour and didn't accomplish anything, that I thought it was only fair that they were paid for an hour. That was when his emails became very unprofessional. When I responded that it felt like a bait and switch sales job, he said he would lower the price to $250, which I paid, then hired another company to do the job.

Description of Work: I have used Sewer Detectives to find and stop a sewer leak. It was coming from underground and he had to find out where the leak was and fix it. There were two broken pipes and they fixed it. They had a lot of things to do.