I called for some bathroom work. The receptionist was very nice and did a thorough job, which made me feel I was off to a good start. The price was very reasonable, so I chose to work with ASS (this acronym is pretty fitting, because that's how I feel about their service). Anyway, scheduled the appointment for 12:30-2:30 on the following Monday. I get a call at 9:00 asking why I'm not at home. I say appointment is for 12:30. He apologizes and said no one gave him an appointment time. Sure, that's fine. At least he is there early, ready to work.
The problem starts when he starts to work. He sends me out to get some parts. I come back with parts. He then says he can't finish that day because he needs different parts. He says he'll be back the next day. He never shows up the next day. I call ASS twice, and both times I am told he will be there soon. He NEVER calls to say he won't be able to make it. I should have just cancelled the service there and found someone else, but by now I'm in it. I call the next morning to see why I never even received a call that the plumber wasn't coming. I am told that he came by and told us he would be back the next day (which obviously did not happen). Anyway, AGAIN, we are told he will be there at 1:30 that afternoon (we are now on Wednesday). I call at 2:00 to see where he is. The receptionist says he is picking up some things and will be there soon. Fast-forward to 5:00 and STILL no one. I call again. Again I'm told he is on the way. Guy finally shows up at 5:30. He starts (barely) to work and says he needs some parts that he doesn't have and he'll be back tomorrow. He leaves without turning the water back on, but I am able to stop him before he pulls out of the driveway. He turns the water back on, but now the shower won't stop running. He now HAS to finish what he started, otherwise I'd have to choose between the water being off or the shower running all night. He finally comes back and manages to get the shower to turn off. Cue I'll be back tomorrow morning at 9:00. Tomorrow (now Thursday) at 9:00 rolls around and he is not back. Finally shows up at 9:45. I am at work, so my roommate, who had to wake up early to make sure the guy gets in, is there. He is PISSED. The guy bumbles around and leaves again because he doesn't have the proper parts. AGAIN! He has seen the shower on three separate days now. How does he not have the correct parts. I feel like this is some sort of scam. I call ASS and tell them they need to send out someone who knows what they are doing. They say someone is on the way. It is now an hour and a half later and no one has come back. The shower is leaking like crazy and it is still not fixed. I've heard the adage you get what you pay for, but this is ridiculous. I feel like I have to stick with ASS through to the bitter end because they owe ME money by now, right? Anyone else ever had a similar experience? I still can't wrap my mind around it.
Update: They finally managed to finish everything after 4 days of trying. I will admit, the price really can't be beat. They kept their original quote (which was almost $600 less than Roto-Rooter). I'm thinking the one guy was fairly new. They were nice at least. I feel I was a bit harsh, but they came on four different days and stayed for about 10-20 minutes on 2 of those days (doing it multiple times during those days too). The more I think back on it, I guess I was not too harsh. This is pretty unacceptable.
Update 2 (September 23rd, 2015): The shower they fixed has been leaking from the shower head since Saturday. My landlord called these guys back to fix it (as it has only been a few months since they were here). As you can imagine, I am not the biggest fan of this idea, considering the crap I had to deal with last time. Anyway, they were supposed to call me when they were on their way to fix the leak. I called twice throughout the day to make sure this was still happening and was assured that they would be out at some point during the day. I was told they always work past closing hours to finish any jobs they had promised, and they were behind because of a job earlier in the day (I'm assuming they were behind because they had to go back to the site multiple times as they did not have the proper parts/equipment/knowledge of how to do the job). Remember, I called TWICE, knowing they aren't very good at sticking to their word. Of course, as you can guess, they never showed up. I'm pretty much at my landlords whim right now, as he understandably wants it fixed for free as they couldn't get it right the first time. Unfortunately, I am the one who has to deal with them no-calling/no-showing because they can't even be bothered to let me in on the fact that I'm not worth their time (perhaps they didn't like my initial review). It would be comical in a comedy-of-errors/sitcom type of way, if it weren't happening to me.
