Hutch's Hi-Country Plumbing & Heating

It did NOT go well. We live in a very old house (we don't own it) and some of the sinks do not have water valves under them. We looked and looked and could not figure out how to shut the water off to the house. We figured a plumber would know how, especially since there are a lot of very old homes in this area. And, of course, we had more than one of Hutch's guys out to the house before. When the plumber arrived, we told him about the two issues, asking that the kitchen be fixed first since the problem was worse there and more important. He looked at both and decided to fix the downstairs bathroom sink first because "it will only take a few minutes" (it took twenty), then he came up to check out the kitchen faucet. A few minutes later, the technician was standing over the sink, water surging from a hole where the cold tap handle used to be, using both hands to try to unsuccessfully direct the water into the sink. After discovering there were no valves under the sink, he tried calling his boss for some help (while still trying to hold back the flood of water). When I came into the kitchen, he calmly asked me if we could please turn the water off. I told him no, we didn't know how, that it was the one of the reasons we called a plumber in the first place! That's when he asked me to take over trying to direct the flow of water while he went to look for a way to turn the water off. He did locate the shut-off in the basement. By that time, though, he was soaked, I was soaked, and my kitchen was flooded. There was water all over the counter, under the coffee makers, dishwasher, refridgerator. The husband was not happy. The poor guy felt so bad (I felt sorry for him myself) and he did spend time cleaning up his mess (using a stack of my towels, I might add), He told us he was not going to charge us for the service call. We thanked him and agreed that was fair. (After all, everybody makes mistakes.) Unfortunately, his boss apparently did not agree. When we received the bill (we expected to pay only for parts), it included labor plus $85 for the cheapest kitchen faucet they had (we asked for the least expensive one). Seeking mediation, my husband filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau to contest the bill. The response received from the company (through the BBB) was both unprofessional and filled with non-truths. We were both stunned. Because of how poorly this incident was handled, we would not recommend this company.