Craftsmen Plumbing Heating & Cooling

Craftsmen plumbing gets kudos all the way around, i called dan for a leak i had at my house, he gave me a quote for 400 because they had to break up some concrete in the back yard, well i gave him authorization to go in the back and do the work while i was at work. He was done before i even got home and said he had some of the parts already in his truck and he saved me about 50 bucks, out the door was about 350, no more leak, very satisfied with the quality of work, speed and customer service from dan.

First, let me just say that this review has absolutely nothing to do with the actual work that they (Dave) provided. In fact, the work was done really efficiently and corrected a pretty big problem. This review is all about everything that happened before and after the work was done.
While on vacation, we found out that our main water meter started leaking pretty heavily, so we needed someone to come out that day. When Dan (I’m assuming the owner) called us back, I told him what was going on, and asked how much it would cost to fix. He told us that it would be somewhere between $ 200 – 400. Understandably, he said that, the only way they were going to give us an exact estimate was by coming out to see what was going on. I completely get it.
I asked him what he would charge if they just came out to «diagnose» the problem, and he told me it would be $ 42 without doing any work. Again, I get it — they are using their expertise to figure out what’s going on and they should be paid for that.
About an hour later, we got a call from Dave (the repair guy) who said he was at the house, and that the cost of the repair was going to be «somewhere between $ 200 – 400, but he won’t know until he starts digging and finds the leak.» When I asked what that covered, he said «parts and labor.»
Within about 45 minutes of him starting, we had our pet sitter go by the house to check up on everything. When she got there, she said that he was done fixing the leak, and he only had to fill the dirt back in. At that point, she took our dog for a 15-​minute walk and by the time she got back, he was already gone. Let me just say — kudos for Dave getting it done so quickly.
When Dave and I finally spoke on the phone, he told me that the total cost was going to be $ 249.96. I asked him to explain what that covered and he told me that they charged us for 2 hours of labor at $ 85/​hour, parts, plus «a bit of markup on the parts.» When I told him that I was aware that he finished the job within 1 hour, he told me that they also charge for drive time:
1 — from their location to our house
2 — from our house to buy the part they used to fix the leak
3 — from the store back to their location
Did I mention that their location is literally 6 minutes away from our house?
So when I finally get Dan on the phone, when I told him about my thoughts about all of this, he said, (this is a direct quote):
«What do you want, we told you it was going to cost somewhere between $ 200 – 400 and we only charged you $ 250. If you want, we can come back to your house and rip the part out of the ground and you can find someone else to fix it!»
Classy Dan!
What’s so sad is that I actually had to ask him to watch his tone with me, and that I’m well aware of the fact that contractors ALL pad their prices, giving estimates that are quite a bit higher, so when they do present us with the ‘incredibly low price of only $ 250, we’re supposed to be thrilled.” Let’s just say he didn’t like that too much.
Oh, don’t let me forget that they also charged us the $ 42 «service charge» fee that they said they were only going to charge us if they «diagnosed» the problem. That would also been nice to know up front.
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Again, let me just reiterate that Dave did a GREAT job! My BIGGEST issue with how this whole thing played out is the fact that there was absolutely no transparency throughout the process. We weren’t told that we were going to be charged the $ 42 (even though they will argue that they did), and we weren’t told that we had to pay for them to drive around town. If they told us all of that, we could have made a more informed decision and known exactly what we were getting ourselves into.
Bottom line, in the real world, NONE of us get paid to drive to and from work. Apparently these guys do. And coming from someone who works in a customer service business — these guys NEED to learn to have the «just so you know, here is everything we are going to charge you for…» conversation before they agree to doing any work.
Just think — if that DID happen, I would just talked about how great of a job Dave did, and not how shady the company is.

very knowledgeable and friendly, reasonable price for such a quick response. fixed my water heater right away

Excellent service, honest, reliable., I highly recommend this service