No wonder all the latest reviews have been so good: they give you up to $20 in gift certificated if you give them good reviews. Not illegal, but a good indicator of how this company does business
The good things:
- They came the same day i called which was great
- Giacomo was nice enough, i can't blame him for being put in a position to upsell customers and have them feel ripped off
- I ended up with the best solution for now (having the drain cleaned by snake and having had the camera in to know that 30 years ago, somebody connected the toilet drain to a floor drain with a trap). A better permanent solution would cost way more and i decided not to do that right now.
- Giacomo re-installed my toilet, which initially he wanted to charge me for but in the end he did it 'to help me out', which i appreciate i guess.
The bad:
- I called them because they adevertise drain clearing for $99. When the guy was at my place he explained I first had to pay for a camera inspection worth $300. After reading the website a couple of times again, that is a possible interpretation, but is NOT clear when you read it first and is in my mind FALSE ADVERTISING. Too bad the plumbers are put in a position where they have to explain this.
- When I heard the actual cost ($410 plus tax) I said i wanted to think about it, after which he immediately knocked $100 off the price!! This was after explaining to me the "pricebook" so you always know what something "really" costs. Again, false advertising. ALWAYS NEGOTIATE
- After this i got the feeling (maybe that's just me) that Giacomo tried to get out of my house as soon as possible, he gave me the feeling that because i did not chose the most expensive option (which he had given me before inspecting hardly anything: $4000 to replace a trap outside the house) he wouldn't be able to fix my problem anyway and was just doing what i asked them. I was still, however, paying him $300 and would expect him to give me at least the feeling that he is doing everything he can to fix my problem.
As I said, I don't think I got a lot worse off than when i would have called a different plumbing company, but I just feel ripped off. The only reason I agreed to them doing the work (after knocking off $100 just like that!) was because they came fast and I wanted this result, which I guess they can credit to their false advertising, that's what got them in my door.
All in all, I had mixed feelings when the job was done. What made me feel ripped off was when they gave me the certificate to get up to $20 in gift certificate if I would write good reviews about them, that just pisses me off!
