So we had a leaky faucet and it wasn’t leaking on the bottom, but the top body of the faucet. Since our warranty ran out, we had to search for a Plumber to come out. I did use a trusted service to find the Plumbing company, it was at the time one of the top companies. There were reviews on it that were good and some that were ok with prices being high. So I did give them a try.
A man came over and was nice and personable. I told him about it and he took the hot water handle side out and turned it and said we had to replace it since its the body of the facet that’s leaking and you basically can’t fix it. He quickly turned and pulled out a catalog of the brand of faucet offered by his company because he said you get a deal because it’s that brand. It would have been $414 to install the highest model. I asked for a price to install one that we might buy ourselves since haven’t heard of that brand before. He said it would be $264 and that it’s a lower price for me.
At this point, a couple of things going through my mind. One he pulled out the catalog so quick that this is what they will do and it’s a scam or ok we have a bad leaky faucet that just can’t be fixed. The company did a follow call to see if I wanted to replace it. I told them we were thinking about it. We also had a timeframe to think about it. Too long and I would not get my service call amount back (I forgot to mention the $39 service call). So I started researching on the internet about that brand of faucets. First of all, I found the brand of faucet showed different pricing from $109 to about $169. I mean same style, same model. To get it from that company installed would have cost $150 basically. So during the time we were making our decision on which faucet to get, one day last week - I decided to take the faucet apart again. Oh and forgot to mentioned that after he left, the hot water side leaked not from the body, but from the faucet (where water should come out) - before it was only leaking when I mostly used the cold water side and leaked a little only from the body area. It was leaking so much after he came that I had to turn off the hot water from the bottom waterline thing. It was a pain and we had to turn it on to use the dish washer. At this point while I guess most people can make quick decisions about faucet, for us it’s got to be the right one. I mean it is kind of the focal point in the kitchen in some ways. Here’s the thing I’m glad we waited - I decided to take it apart again as he did it (which I’ve done before also, but not as deep) and then I turned this thing the shape that needs a wrench to turn. So I got the wrench and turned it tight and the leak literally stopped.
While I was glad the leak had stop since, I began to really feel VERY disappointed at this company. I’m not going to say more as to why, I’m sure if it was you going through it - you would know why also. I was already skeptical because of something that had happened in the past with another plumbing company. This was through a home warranty company. They were out to our other house before we had moved because there was a leak on the roof of the garage. The guy came out and of course seem nice. He made a huge hole on the garage ceiling and said we will need to do this and that and it’s not covered by the warranty, but we can do it for $500. This was the first time I was going to be “scammed”. Here’s how I know. Since $500 was quiet a big of money, we decided to ask the warranty company to send out a different company for second opinion. They said if they find the same thing wrong, then we’d have to pay them the services fees again, which was fine. The second company said we just needed to replace this plastic ring around the toilet and did it for us and it was fixed and not more leaks.
So now, we were left with this hole in the ceiling. The first company denied to the warrantly company that they had made the hole. No kidding, they DENIED it! What the….I couldn’t believe it either. Why would there be a hole then, I couldn’t have just cut a huge hole myself for fun. I had to call the warranty company and had to go through a few times talking to different people and finally got to the supervisor and he approved for someone to come out to fix it up. Though there is still that reminder since it wasn’t perfect as it use to be.
I’m just kind arrghhh just writing about this. It’s amazing how much they could have gotten away with. I don’t mean just me, but for all the people that never realizes what’s going on. This is like the auto mechanic industry where they scam people. I’m sure there are honest company doing honest things to, but these dishonest companies really are just not very ethical.
Here’s another thing - home warranty. While it’s a peace of mind that you have it. Sometimes when you do those service calls and they come out, they have “loophole” that they can get around. Another Plumbing company (yeah another one) told us a toilet was improperly installed when there was a little crack in the tank. We didn’t do anything because actually this was more of the first time we were scammed. When we try to contact the warranty company, they said it was pass the time that they can send out another company for second opinion. That’s also why I found out you CAN call for second opinions, which are actually useful. I just thought how can a toilet in this 15 year old house be improperly installed. Wouldn’t it have leaked way before then?
Another Plumber (the one that told me about Charro Chicken, so I guess he was useful for something), he replaced our kitchen disposal thing, and did talk about a bathroom drain that was clogged that we should install a two way clean out system. He said it was about $600. We didn’t do it, but I later found out the city of Richardson will do it for about $60.
We don’t use home warranty anymore and I don’t know if we should go back to it, but it’s just really hard to find people you can trust. The warranty company has too many “this is not cover” items under their contracts and you just have to read it all carefully and make sure that the service company that comes out isn’t using it as a loophole. Most of the time, you have to end up buying something you need to replace such as a bigger size disposal, or air conditioning unit that bigger than the standard. The only positive is that they will use the price of the standard and you just have to pay for the upgrade price.
Regarding the faucet company, the one where the faucet leak fixed myself. I called them to ask for a refund of $39, just for the principle of it. I don’t care for the $39, but it will show the character of the company. I talked to one of the managers and he said he was going to talk to the guy who came out and will call me back…so we’ll see.
One more thing. When I told this to Grandma (in-law), she’s been through a lot and she told me a few stories herself. One that one of her grandson had worked in a auto mechanic place long ago and was told by the company to tell the customers they had more problem than whatever it is. When he didn’t do it, he almost got fired. Another story was how she had a service call and someone charged her $600 and told her he did this and change that, and someone else had come out for something and looked at it and said… there are still spider webs here, that guy didn’t touch anything he said he had done. So anyway…it’s not very reassuring of course, but things like this does happen.
