Don Z.
06/11/2019 12:00:00 SA
In total I had 5 appointments with Price Busters to replace a disposal and to replace a tank-to-bowl gasket on a toilet. I'm not sure how these guys are still open with their terrible attitude towards customer service. I have no doubt they're great when things go well, but they do not hold themselves responsible for their mistakes (and in fact hold me responsible). That is unacceptable.
TL/DR:
- Price Busters did not know what work was supposed to be done, on multiple occasions
- For the disposal job that was completed, Price Busters did the job improperly
- Price Busters has not respected my very valuable time by neglecting to call me back when they were unable to return later in the day, resulting in my needlessly staying home from work.
- Price Busters has shown bad faith by refusing to answer my calls and refusing to provide information about the part.
- In addition, Price Busters seems to believe it is justified in its bad faith because of the considerable resources it has spent in attempting this toilet job, despite the fact that the wasted resources could have been entirely avoided if Price Busters had kept the plumbers informed about what jobs needed to be done, or if the plumbers had collected information about the model of the toilet or inspected the old part.
Appointment 1: Initially, I had Price Busters plumbers come to my place to take a look at the two jobs I needed done, a leaky toilet and a leaky garbage disposal. The plumbers determined that my toilet tank-to-bowl gasket needed to be replaced, and that my disposal also needed to be replaced. After comparing the Price Busters quote to quotes from other plumbers, I noted that the disposal work was more expensive than other plumbers, but the toilet work was more reasonable. As a result, the total cost for the two jobs was very competitive with other plumbers, and I saw that Price Busters had excellent reviews on Yelp. I decided to go with Price Busters because I expected good service and because of the low total cost.
Appointment 2: I booked an appointment to do the toilet and garbage disposal in one visit. At the appointment, the plumber came prepared to replace the garbage disposal but did not know that the toilet also needed to be fixed. He fixed the disposal and inspected the toilet, confirming that the tank-to-bowl gasket needed to be replaced. I was then charged for the disposal work portion of the job, and booked another appointment to fix the toilet. After the disposal work was done and the plumber had left, I noticed that my dishwasher had stopped draining as a result of the disposal job, and I called Price Busters to inform them of the fact.
Appointment 3: The day before the appointment to fix the toilet and to re-fix the disposal, I received a call from Price Busters and was told that the appointment had to be canceled since nobody was available to do the job. We rescheduled the appointment for the next week. When the plumbers arrived for this appointment, they were also unaware that the toilet needed to be fixed as well. They fixed the disposal to re-enable the dishwasher to drain, and inspected the toilet, confirming again that the tank-to-bowl gasket was damaged and needed to be replaced. I booked another appointment to fix the toilet.
Appointment 4: At this appointment, the plumbers arrived and told me that they were here to take a look at the toilet to see what had to be done. I was confused, since 3 separate plumbers from Price Busters had already determined that the issue was with the tank-to-bowl gasket. They again confirmed that this was the issue, and told me that they would obtain the part from a plumbers' supply shop and come back later in the day, and would call me if they were unable to obtain the part. As a result, I elected not to go to work that day. I did not receive a call, nor did the plumbers return.
Appointment 5: Days later, I called Price Busters since I did not receive a call back after the previous appointment. I was then able to schedule an appointment on the day of. Before the appointment, the plumbers called me and asked me for the model number of the toilet so that they could purchase the correct part. The plumbers then arrived with the replacement gasket and installed it, but the toilet still leaked, as they had brought the wrong part. The plumbers then took the old tank to bowl gasket, and said they would try to obtain the part and come back later in the day, promising again to call me back when they determined if they could come back that day. Again, I elected not to go to work because of this and I did not receive a call back.
At this point, I told them I no longer wanted them to do the work, and asked if they could give me the part number of the correct part number so I can order it myself. They told me they did not want to do that, presumably out of spite. I ended up ordering the part from the Kohler website for $6 and doing the job myself in 10 minutes.