4-H Plumbing & Heating

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We've used Ray in the past, and he did good work, so we thought we would call him again. We bought a water softener (not from them) a month ago and needed it installed. We couldn't afford to have the work done at that time so I asked for an appointment for the first week in January. This was noted by his secretary. Ray called a few days later and left a message on my machine saying that was fine, we were penciled in. I didn't hear from him again so I called on the 29th and he said not to worry, we were penciled in, and that he could schedule my appt either between Christmas and New Years or call and schedule between the 5th and 9th. He was out of the office at the time and needed to check his schedule. I said between the 5th and the 9th is what I originally wanted. I called on the 5th and told his secretary to verify and it might be a good idea for him to come by and see what all needed to be done. She agreed and said she would have Ray call me. No call. Every time I talked to anyone or left a message on their machine that I wanted to schedule far enough in advance that I was not caught behind someone with a big job, or weather related or other emergencies. Well, I called this morning, the last day of the first week in January, and it's "Oh no, he's not coming. He's out on a big emergency job" Excuse me?!?!? This is just the thing I wanted to avoid and they knew it. Now, anytime is a good time for an appointment like this for us, we are both retired so we don't have a limited schedule to work with here and someone is always home. Living in this area for 8 years, we are all too familiar with nobody calling back or even showing up, especially around the holidays, but this is ridiculous! I called a MONTH in advance! My husband told me to just go ahead and cancel. The secretary didn't say she'd try and call Ray or reschedule or anything. It was more like a cheery "OK, have a nice day". Just horrible, horrible customer service, we will talk 4H Plumbing down whenever someone asks about a good plumber to do work for them. We only had 90 days to return the softener if we didn't like it, and now 30 of them are wasted on these clowns! What is your problem?

Ray is very busy but we gave him enough warning that he was able to do the installation on schedule. His service is excellent and his workmanship is superb. We told him what we were looking for and he was able to get what we wanted.

Ray and his crew are a busy group of guys, so it sometimes takes a while for them to get back to you if it's not an emergency. They do good work, though. They show up when they say they will (usually at an appointed time instead of a time range) and don't immediately try to sell you the most expensive service. For example, when our water heater went out, Ray tried to fix it instead of immediately recommending a new one. When it just wouldn't stay lit, he gave us honest estimates of the price to replace parts versus the price of a new one. When we decided on a new one, there were no hidden, padded costs on the bill. 4-H also did the plumbing for a bathroom remodel and they had to fix a lot of screwy DIY stuff from the house's previous owners. It wasn't cheap, but it wasn't exorbitant either for the amount of work done. 4-H strikes me as fair and honest. When they had to fix a tub fixture that was placed in the wrong spot, they came back and made the adjustments quickly, without charging tons extra.