I want to let you know my today's experience with R&B Plumbing and Heating Ltd.
- the technician was not familiar with the system, although I asked for an experienced one because my heating system is quite complex one and few other contractors did not want to service it.
- the technician tried to let the air out from the system by pressing the valve stems and they started leaking immediately. Instead of trying to clean them up he suggested replacing them. He called a supplier and said it would cost 200 dollars for each valve. When he was on the phone with the supplier I noticed that he was lowering the volume on his cell phone so I could not hear the cost of the valves. He went to get them but came back empty saying this is a metric thread and is not available in North America and the part must be ordered from Europe. And no adapter is available either. I was shocked thinking how much this would cost me and how long would I have to wait.
- the technician did not have a bucket on him, neither a piece of cloth so the water from the system was just running down to the floor and the carpet. He was using our toilet paper to wipe the water off.
- I did a simple google search for those valves and found that the thread is standard 3/4 thread (not metric, there is no such thing as metric thread in plumbing even in Europe). The valves are widely available for the value of 15-30 dollars. I understand the markup on the parts but this is way too much.
- the invoice R&B sent me was for $478 dollars! This is for not fixing anything, leaving me with the valves that need to be replaced and I still have air in the system. The company followed up with me stating that the part that was quoted for $200 was a wrong part and the right part would probably cost less (but I already agreed to $200 cost of the valve so not sure if they would surprise me with the lower cost). They do care about their reputation and I do understand that the valves were broken unintentionally.
- The invoice was revised later that day but I still had to pay for two hours of work (around $250 dollars). The lesson learned – never give your credit card information up front – avoid these places where it is a ‘company’s policy’. I am guessing they expect this kind of outcome so having customer credit card information gives them freedom to go wild with the charges. And the last – the technician was 15 min late, then talked on the phone (with the office at least a couple of times – why??), the first hour is gone already..
