Cid H.
02/03/2021 12:00:00 SA
Sloppy, inexperienced, underprepared. Needs better & clearer communication with clients.
I reached out to Dorjan yesterday AM about a toilet leak with details of my issue (water dripping into my neighbors ceiling downstairs at night while I heard water dripping but saw no visible signs of a leak). He was prompt in the reply which is how he got my business. He diagnosed it as a broken drain pipe & flange underneath the toilet and said he may need to cut into my neighbor's ceiling in order to replace the piping which would leave a 2x2 hole in their ceiling! Needless to say, I emphasized to him to please try to fix the issue from my unit.
He arrived on time/early and got to work. I wish there was better communication or he showed me what the issue was when he opened things up because the only time he pulled me in was to mention another problem, a leaking valve and asked if I wanted to fix it. I was working from home and in the middle of meetings so I just said yes, go ahead and fix it. I have no idea if the leaking valve was actually leaking and when he showed me the drain pipe afterwards, I could not tell if it was broken on purpose because the crack seemed almost too large and manmade to my untrained eye. Regardless, he did fix what he said he would and replaced the drain pipe, flange, and valve. He called in an assistant to bring the valve part and they worked together.
Here's where it starts to go south. When he put the old toilet back, he stuck a chopstick I had been using to try and keep the pump from filling the tank into the pump slot and said the toilet was too broken and needed to be replaced. I agreed with him that the flap in the tank needed to be replaced (a cheap rubber item you can get at any hardware store) but the pump was highly suspicious - how could a plumber stick a chopstick in there and pretend that's how it worked when the actual pump mechanism was right next to it? However, I knew the toilet was old and thought, why not do it all in one go since my floor was broken up already and the toilet was on its last legs. We made plans for him to return the next day to install the new toilet. After he left, I stuck the pump back into its proper place and lo and behold it worked. I should've seen that as a red flag and not asked him to return but my old toilet was left unhooked and on a hole in the floor.
An hour later, he called me from the plumbing supply store and said my one option was a Delta toilet for $385. I kept pressing for more details, what model number, what functions and features, how water efficient is it? And he seemed not to understand that I wanted any info on this toilet beyond the price. Frustrated that we couldn't understand each other, I told him there was a Home Depot a few minutes away from me and I would be way more comfortable buying something when I knew what I was getting. He said he would go there and get the toilet and finish everything for the night so he wouldn't have to come back. I understood that, it was snowy and cold but this is not what we planned for just an hour earlier. Nonetheless, off he went to Home Depot and once again, only listing prices to me for the toilets, not anything about the features and functions. Luckily I had the website open to try and find some info and made a choice on the spot.
Half an hour later, he was back to install the toilet. I noticed it was the elongated bowl model, not something I had asked for and again, if he would've answered my function/feature questions, I could've said no to. He had bought it and come all this way so once again I thought, well let's keep going. The issues keep mounting as the install went on: I had a bidet attached to my old toilet and he said he would move it to my new toilet. Instead of asking for directions or help to unmount the bidet, he ripped it from the old toilet and thus destroyed the bolts and mounting mechanism. The tiles he broke to get at the pipe underneath were thrown out. There is a gaping hole of wet wood where those tiles were. I repeatedly asked him how someone could retile without moving the toilet. He assured me it was fine and that he would caulk on the existing tile. He did neither and now I will need to move the toilet to re-tile the hole in the floor. The tank is loose and jiggling on top of said hole and I had to buy new parts to mount the bidet myself.
At this point, it's an hour into what he said would be a 30 min install and I need to hop on a meeting. My husband takes over and was forced to help Dorjan take the old toilet downstairs, lifting it above his head to prevent the dirty water in it from splashing onto him. What would Dorjan had done if it was just me? Left the old toilet for me to remove on my own? Dorjan was also going to leave the toilet on the curb which my husband had to argue with him about. Thus, after spending $1200+ and all day on this, I still don't have a working toilet and have so much work ahead of me to get my bathroom back in order.
