Update: We had no issue with Jeremy's services. He responded to our request promptly and the service charge was fair. As long as you don't move forward with his referral - King Restoration, I'd still recommend choosing JLB Plumbing for your plumbing needs.
Our family had a broken drain so I looked up Yelp and hired Jeremy. We expressed concerns with water damage, so Jeremy referred us to a damage restoration company called King Restoration. He told us that he had been working with them for a really long time, so we trusted Jeremy and called this company after Jeremy had left. I usually don't think it's fair to blame someone for referring a bad business, but in this case, I do think it's necessary to warn every homeowner about their very suspicious practices. Here's why:
King Restoration told us they'd come out the same day to give us a free estimate. We had concerns about insurance coverage on fixing the water damage, but King Restoration reassured us that depending on how 'the plumber' (aka Jeremy) writes the report, the homeowner insurance should cover the entire bill. King Restoration also warned us that the insurance would deny our claim if we don't act immediately (which we later learned none of it was true). I attempted to look up King Restoration in Laguna Niguel online but found zero information (no info, no review and fake business address). Even with this huge red flag, my family signed the contract due to fear of financial loss and trust in Jeremy's referral.
The next day we consulted with our lawyer and realized this could be insurance fraud and those guys are just con artists. We reached out to King Restoration and requested more explanation, and they said they would have their manager call us back. But sketchy enough, we got a call back from Jeremy right after instead of the manager. Jeremy checked in with us to see if we had any questions about the insurance coverage and reassured us that he had been working with this company for many years. At this point our intuition is telling us that this whole thing is not legit, so we canceled the contract the next day with King Restoration, which btw was legal. In the end they have the audacity to send me a nearly $1,000 bill for a free estimate and lending us a dehumidifier, which an identical unit from home deport only rents $62 per day.
Again we had no issue with Jeremy's plumbing work, but this whole thing had left a bad taste in my mouth and we're still very upset about this whole situation. It's unacceptable to take advantage of someone's misfortunate and go along with fraudulent practices. I hope Jeremy keep up with his promise to stop working with King Restoration.