Blake M.
02/12/2014 12:00:00 SA
Moneyball: gets the job done quick, workers are nice.
Airball: Trust? Technology? err...nope
Makes: If you just want the work done in and out don't care who they are, what they do how they do it or what it cost then these guys are for you.
Misses: I feel like I can't trust them to ever use them again. I didn't choose to use them, I would have preferred a family friend that I could trust, but the building I live in said these are the guys we have to use. I had a leak, that actually started 7 months prior with the previous owners. 7 months later I move in and BAM! hit with a $1400 bill for the plumbing and $1500 bill for the drywall to fix the huge holes they made to fix the plumbing. Supposedly the leak 7 months ago was found and fixed...obviously not. Was CJs the company that found and fixed it 7 months ago??
The workers are really nice but I don't know if that's a baiting thing. The first guy was really apologetic about the problem I walked into with the leak but said another unit fixed all their plumbing for $1600 so I said whew, thought it was going to be a lot more. Well, he took that as an agreement to a $1600 price. Quote: I SPOKE WITH TECHNICIAN AND HE HAD SAID HE GAVE YOU A PRICE OF 1,600 AND YOU AGREED TO PRICE BUT PRICE IS FAR FROM THAT. Yeah, they write you back in all caps. And I guess $1400 is far from $1600.
I also asked multiple times for estimates for how much it would be for a water shutoff valve and to fix my dishwasher. Estimates and quotes are not in their vocabulary, they just do it even if you ask multiple times first and then charge you. Quote: THE WORK THAT WAS PERFORMED WITH DISCRIPTION IS THE INVOICE YOU HAD GOT. So they way they work is they don't tell you what they are going to do, they do it and the invoice, aka bill, tells you what they are going to do, I mean, did.
With today's technology, I think it's very prehistoric to cut holes in walls to find leaks. These guys work on my building regularly and should know where all the pipes are. They diagnosed the problem as being in the right side of the bathroom, but we came home to a huge hole in the middle of my bathroom. Why? They already knew where the problem was. They said it was to look for more leaks...c'mon man, drill a 0.5 hole and stick a endoscope in there...it's like $200 on amazon! There were already 3 holes in the wall if they needed to put a light source in the wall, ugh. They use their own contractor, CSL, who in their estimate (at least they give proposals/estimates first) said they would have to move the toilet to fix the drywall. At this point I felt like they were both trying to make more work for each other. The plumbers made a bigger hole for the contractors to fix, who in turn, would need the plumbers to come back to remove then put back the toilet. I asked another contractor who said the toilet wouldn't have to be moved.
Avoid avoid avoid. Unless you want extra holes in your wall AND EMAIL RESPONSES THAT LOOK LIKE THIS. No payment plans either. You get this instead: PLEASE SUBMIT PAYMENT ASAP when you inquire about their checking in to if they have payment plans. So unless you can afford an extra $3000 in a month to fix a leaking shower drain plumbing problem, think twice about CJs/CSL (they needed half of the $1500 up front, I don't know if they have payment plans).
Here's another one: NO MORE WORK WILL BE ADDED TO THE WORK ORDER FOR WE HAVE COMPLETED ALL WORK THAT NEEDED TO BE DONE. False. Got a $400 bill two days later for work they forgot to add to the invoice.
Technology is out there. Businesses need to be using it for the benefit of their customers. As long as it is reasonable, upfront costs will pay for itself as long as you keep doing the right thing for the customer.