First off, Shane seems like a knowledgeable, responsive, and friendly businessperson. I firmly believe that had he completed our job himself, it would've been completed quickly and for a reasonable price. But unfortunately, as soon as Shane left the house, things fell apart. . .
A partner of mine and I bought an investment property as a rental. We've been spending the last 6 weeks replacing the flooring, repainting the interior, replacing the furnace, roof, electrical panel, etc. A longtime colleague of mine was handling the painting, as well as wrangling our various sub-contractors and managing work flow of the various projects. We had a plumber lined up for a couple simple plumbing items (replacing the main gate valve for the water supply, connecting a shower drain and shower head).
Shane responded quickly to my request for a bid and was able to schedule work to be completed the next day, which we were thrilled to hear, since we were on a pretty tight timeline to get the project completed. Having worked with many different plumbers, electricians, and other contractors over the years, I have become accustomed to being billed hourly for work. Typically there's a basic trip fee and of course materials costs, but otherwise work is billed on a per/hour basis. I've had plumbers charge me as little as $100/hour and as much as $150/hour. We figured our project might be 5-6 hours of work and perhaps $100 in materials. So including the base/trip fee, I expected our total job cost to be perhaps $1000-$1100. . .
Shane arrived on-time with another fellow whose name I've forgotten. Shane was on-site with the other plumber for around 2 hours before leaving the other plumber on site. . . This is when things went horribly wrong.
First off (and I'm not sure if this was Shane's fault or the other plumber's fault), but after Shane left, it was brought to our attention that the existing P-trap for the shower drain was installed upside-down and would have to be replaced. Fair enough. An unexpected item to add to the project and an additional cost we had no problem incurring. The problem was that Shane and his rig, with all his parts and gear had already left. Shane's plumber ended up needing to make a trip to Home Depot to pick up a basic part that ANY plumber should have on hand. . . Shortly after returning with the part he needed, I he realized that he needed ANOTHER part from Home Depot. This time a 90-degree PVC stub (one of the most common plumbing components that exists). Shane's plumber not only didn't have a proper work van with materials; he didn't have a work vehicle at all. He had a beat-up Mazda. He also made a mess of our bathroom and didn't clean up after himself. Our site-manager was a hair's breath away from kicking him off the jobsite, but by that point it was too late to pull the plug on the project (pun intended).
Long story short, after making multiple trips to Home Depot, Shane's plumber was finally finished, but not before making a mess of our bathroom and working well into the evening, forcing my site manager to stay on-site 2 hours into the evening.
When Shane followed up the next day, he was apologetic that things didn't go as smoothly as we had hoped it would and accordingly, said he was giving us a discount off of the normal rates for the work they completed, however, his plumber still needs to get paid. . . By my site manager's count, between Shane and his plumber, there were plumbers on site for a grand total of perhaps at most 7.5 man hours. The total materials used could not have costed more than $100 (maybe $150 if they were marking up the materials by 50%).
So imagine my surprise when Shane told me he was ONLY charging us $1,877 for the job!
Again, I still believe that if Shane had completed all the work himself, he would've been in and out in 5-6 hours, would've had all necessary materials on-site, and my site-manager wouldn't have had to stay at the property into the evening. Even if he charged us $200/hour for labor, after materials and taxes, I think $1300-$1400 would've been reasonable. But considering the hassle and mess, getting hit for nearly $1900 while being told our job was being discounted because of what a debacle it was felt like a slap in the face and an insult to my intelligence.
I have to believe that Shane is trying to expand his business too quickly. I see all of the 5-star reviews Professional Plumbing and I have no doubt those reviews are well-deserved. In fact, I would not hesitate to hire Professional Plumbing again, but ONLY with the explicit understanding that Shane would be completing ALL work himself. Calling his hired help a Professional plumber is sadly (and ironically) grossly inaccurate.