Jessica L.
12/03/2018 12:00:00 SA
My partner and I called Shun to change our bath tub fixtures to a different finish. He did a good job replacing the fixtures and the piping behind the bath tub, however, in the process, he managed to drop the pipe, which fell through the ceiling of our finished basement. He offered to fix the hole, but my partner is handy and began the process.
Since accidents happen, my partner decided to hire him to install our dishwasher. He installed it to find that the plug already existing under the sink is connected to the switch for the garbage disposal so he needed to run new electrical. He also needed to return to correctly mount the dishwasher because he hadn't completed this prior to leaving for the day.
My partner also wanted a toilet installed in the basement, which would require moving the dryer and gas line. Shun agreed that these were also things he could do. My partner took a half day off work since Shun requested to get started on the toilet installation earlier. He was scheduled to arrive at 10:30am, and didn't arrive until an hour later. He analyzed the project, tried breaking through concrete with a sledge hammer, gathered money from us for supplies and headed to the store. He was gone for 3.5 hours to buy a jackhammer to break up the cement floor. After returning he needed to make another 2.5 hour shopping trip, in which my partner forced him to write out a shopping list, and then returned back to our home at 5:30pm. He then moved the dryer and the gas line ($100), and proceeded to break through the concrete floor. He laid the piping for the toilet, new cement, and began working on the electrical line for the dishwasher, which he decided to tie to a light fixture in the basement. We later found out that this is against code and does not provide enough electricity to run the dishwasher (it blew a circuit when we tried to run it). He also finally mounted the dishwasher installing a bracket on the inside front of the dishwasher. The dishwasher was also installed incorrectly in that the dishwasher piping was backing up in to the dishwasher unit and dirty water was sitting stagnant in the dishwasher tubing.
Feeling far less than confident in Shun's abilities to complete the jobs he says he can I started to smell gas. Shun did a dish soap test on the gas pipe he extended to find out that it was leaking. His first seal of the gas line was with teflon tape since he had misplaced the pipe thread compound paste. He found it and applied it to the pipe and we thought the leak was fixed until we ran the dryer. The leak still was not fixed, so we had to pay a real professional to come out and correct the leak. Turns out that they didn't even properly screw the gas line to the back of the dryer.
After he claimed to fix the gas leak, he and his partner moved the toilet on to cement that was not completely dry, level and measured incorrectly. Shun agreed to return the next day between 4 and 5pm to complete the toilet job since we are so unhappy with his work. The toilet was sitting at a downright angle, was leaking, and was several inches away from the wall than we had requested. My partner sent him a photo of the leaking toilet the morning he was supposed to return. We made the mistake of paying him for the entire job except $100 (per his request), but I cannot say that I am surprised that he didn't show up the next day to complete the job. My partner finally got ahold of him and his response was that he was having a busy day and would have to come the next day. At this point we were both livid, so we told him that his services were no longer wanted, in which he responded, Wow. Shun did not apologize or make any further attempt to correct the massive situation we were left in. We had to hire a real professional to fix the work he completed, which cost us a total of nearly $1,400.
If you consider hiring Shun for any of your needs, I would recommend that you limit it to very basic plumbing and do not front him money for suppliers or pay for the job until it is 100% complete to your satisfaction! I also recommend that you request a copy of his plumbing license, as we have come to also find out that many of the things he completed (plumbing-wise) were also not to code or require a permit.