I reached out to over a dozen plumbers to see if I could get an estimate. Almost all of them were unable to come out without a service fee, but Frank offered to send someone out to quote it without a charge. That was the first thing that won me over.
I don't understand when service professionals can't give you a best case/worst case without seeing the issue or at least do a complimentary quote to win the business. I know that it costs the business money to send someone out to quote it, but that to me is a business expense or should be at least applied to the job if move forward.
My concern is that I wouldn't be able to afford the fix and wanted to know what to expect and be assured it was competitive. I hate the idea of paying a $60-90 call fee to get a quote and then potentially not move forward with the service. Seems like a risk if the quote came back as something I just could not afford on site or if it was not competitive. I understand that there are a lot of variables so it's necessary to scope the situation out, but it just doesn't seem like a good way to win business or build rapport. The good news and the point to my short rant here is that Frank at GNC did not charge me to send someone out to look at the issue.
GNC was easy to communicate through via email, another bonus for me. I submitted email forms to many and most had a call center call me and leave me messages - not a great way for me to communicate during the day, I much prefer email, so that was a plus too.
The plumber showed up on time and were very professional and friendly. They took a look and provided me an estimate. The estimate was higher than another plumber who had been out before to fix the same issue last year, but I felt a sense of trust with Chris who was sent. He was great, explained everything that was going on, and with a smile. I decided to move forward with the job same day, I didn't need to shop around, the experience and trust level was there.
When he opened the wall, he identified areas where the last plumber (the more affordable one I mentioned) could have done better to mitigate risk of the hose bib from freezing again. There were a few things that could have been better attended to and Chris did just that. He took every opportunity to do the best work he could do to help keep the bib warm next winter.
I was very nervous going into this because I have had poor experiences in the past. I will recommend GNC to anyone of my friends in need of a qualified and caring plumber.