D K.
03/12/2021 12:00:00 SA
It feels like Show Plumbing price gouged me in the aftermath of the big freeze. We live in a small townhome development where all the townhomes have the same type of water heating - tankless water heaters. The day after city water service was restored, my water heater started leaking badly. That day I contacted several plumbers and quickly realized it was almost impossible to find a tankless water heater and a plumber for at least a week if not longer. A couple of the plumbers who had previously worked in our neighborhood gave me a cost estimate of $2800-$3000 for the job. I was able to get a cost for the heater unit on-line - it was sold for $1500-$1700. That day I saw a Show Plumbing truck in our development and called the number. They said that they had a unit with them and could replace ours that afternoon. The tech looked at the job, then went outside to call his boss for a price. When the tech came back in, the first thing he did was to be VERY clear that the price was non negotiable. The price was $5295. So I had to decide whether it was worth paying that much verses not having hot water for 1-2 weeks. Not having hot water would of course mean no showers for our kids or us, no washing clothes and no dish washing. Under those circumstances I chose to pay the high cost, thinking that maybe the previous cost estimates were not good estimates. Since that day I've found out that several of my neighbors had the same unit installed in the same way as I did. The costs ranged from $2800 to $3200, with ARS charging the most at $3200. I've talked to the Show Plumbing rep twice since I found out the cost of the other units and he says that I'm welcome to get the invoices from the other jobs and provide them to him, but he was clear that nothing would change. Hard to believe a company would take advantage of a disaster situation to gouge people like that.