We live in a Condo apartment in Fresh Meadows, Queens. About two months ago, there was water leaking onto the basement wall, and the superintendent from the management office suspected that when our contractor installed the wood floor in our apartment,
one of the nails went through the heating pipe. And since the nail had rusted, the water started to leak inside the wall, and therefore dripping down to the basement wall.
Our management office (ABM Management, Inc.) hired their own contractor, McCready & Rice Plumbing Inc.; a plumber from that company came with the superintendent on 3/9. The superintendent left right away and the plumber first inspected the wall, then he opened the wall up (about 10"x10") and found that a rusty nail had caused the pipe to leak. He then went to the basement to drain the water tank. He came back up and cut up 4" of the copper pipe (the section with the hole) and weld a new piece to it (we still have that piece of old copper
pipe). He then turned the valve to refill the water tank back on, but before testing whether the system worked, he left. The time that he spent from ringing our doorbell to him leaving was about 45mins.
During the day, there was no heat, so we called our superintendent who told us to call McCready & Rice Plumbing Inc. They sent someone over in the evening and after checking for less than 20 mins, they found that the pump wasn't working and therefore the tank couldn't be refilled and to get the problem fixed, it'd cost over $1000, which we decided not to proceed.
We received a statement from our ABM Management, Inc. At the end of April, and the charge for the pepair service was $843.53. We couldn't believe how much we were chaged, so we called ABM Management who didn't return our phone call. When my dad went to the office, the manager was all nasty saying he didn't have time for it and they had paid the amount to the plumbing company already and if we didn't pay them back, they'd see us in court. I thought it was only right that our management office protects our right!!! Obviously NOT in this case.
So I called the plumbing company trying to get an explaination why it was so expensive for 45mins of repair work and 20 mins of check up. The manager there was also very nasty and said that it had to be more tahn 45 mins. After repeatedly telling him that I was there and knew exactly how much time his plumber had spent in the house, he told me that they also charged transit time. I asked him how much they charged and he told me for two guys, it'd be $150 an hour.
It still didn't add up the $850 and when I asked him again and again so how much time did he put it
down for, and he said the same thing as the other manager that he had no time for it and said he'd have to check and hung up.
What I wanna know is that how could a small job with no real parts cost as much as $850 and the management office went ahead and paid without consulting with us first? So does it mean that they could charge us $10,000 and the mangement office could still say they'd paid for it already and if we didn't pay, they'd
see us in court?
I bet the management office gets THEIR plumbing work done for FREE.
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