Joe M.
01/06/2020 12:00:00 SA
I had them come out to clean the main sewer line which was backing up. Diego came within an hour of calling, and did a great job cleaning it out quickly. Payment was where things got frustrating. There was some confusion, and weird conflict of information about pricing. I was quoted $179 on the phone for a main line clean out (which she immediately scheduled before I had a chance to think about it - but that's fine, I thought, she was just trying to be efficient), and the website had a 10% discount for first time customers, so I agreed and was expecting to pay $162 ($179 - $17)
Diego said the total was $189. I mentioned the 10% discount and Diego said Yes, normally it's $200, but with the discount, it's $189. I mentioned that I was quoted $179 on the phone, and he allowed that he could give me a $10 discount and charge me $179. This was obviously not the $162 I was expecting, but he seemed in a hurry, so I wrote him the check (this was my own mistake), and called in to see what had happened.
Mary wasn't sure what had happened, and also didn't seem to be sure how much a main line clean out was actually supposed to cost anymore, saying the service people can determine on-site what the price for the job should be depending on how the job goes, but she just doesn't want them to go over $200. Then she recanted and said, no it's not a flexible pricing model, but didn't seem to be able to tell me how much a main line clean out is normally supposed to cost. Mostly I was just calling for clarification, which I did not end up getting. Instead she seemed frustrated to be talking to me at all (more of a fast-talking east-coast kind of personality), and was probably just trying to get her job done and go home, but used the classic tactics to get me to take the blame without giving me a straight answer, like talking about how she did me a favor by getting Diego to stop by on his way to pick up his kid, asking if I wanted her to take extraordinary measures like You want me to send out another truck to get a new check, or what? and saying I was half to blame for not mentioning the discount on the phone when I first called (the website didn't mention this requirement - see screenshot - but I was actually going to if I'd had 10 seconds to think about it before the service was scheduled), however she also said that she had already given me the discount in her quote (without mentioning it apparently), and that the discount had changed from 10% to $10 for the new year and they just hadn't updated their website... which would mean a normal service is $189, in which case I don't know what $200 Diego was talking about...
She ended up offering me a $10 discount on my next service, but $10 off what price is anyone's guess apparently. Overall, it was just... OK. $17 isn't a big deal, and maybe they really do just need to update their website and/or don't have any fixed pricing model, but the whole thing seemed a little fast and loose, and I ended up feeling like they were just trying to pull the wool over my eyes. At least my drain is unclogged! So, thanks for that :)