I called these guys back in early January as I suspected I had frozen pipes, when I awoke one morning to find no water coming from any of my spigots. My wife called Gillece while I went to work and someone was scheduled to come out to the house around 4:00 PM. My wife called and said that a tech had arrived at around 3:30 and proceeded to climb into our crawlspace and lit up a kerosene powered forced air heater and focused it onto a section of pipe that he believed may have been frozen. I came in the door at around 4:00 and the entire house reeked of kerosene fumes and carbon monoxide. Needless to say my pipes were still frozen solid. After introducing myself to the tech, he explained he got started by spending 25 minutes walking around my property looking for a mysterious water meter (it's actually underground out by the street) to see if he could determine if the problem was mine specifically or the water company's. I knew it wasn't the water company as I had already confirmed there were no problems in my area before calling the plumbers... But little did I know I'd later be paying dearly for that time the tech wasted walking around my property. After "giving up" and calling the shop... The boss Mark Gillece himself shows up and determines right away that a simple heating clamp needs to be installed on the water line where it passes into my house though an outside wall. 10 minutes after hooking up the heating clamp my water flowed freely.
Now for the best part... I received a ridiculous bill of $390 for the services rendered!
2 hours of expert labor at $70 per hour. = $140
A $100 "trip charge" when I can literally hit the Gillece shop with a rock from my front yard
And also a $150 "special equipment charge" for using the machine that heated up my pipes!
All of this to show up and do 10 minutes work. His tech stank up our whole house and may have permanently damaged a wedding gown that had been hanging in the crawlspace he decided to use the outdoor heater in.
Long story short... I would't call these guys if they were the last plumbers in the world... And Mark Gillece personally is the head scam artist running the show. Expect to be ripped off when you call these guys.
Oh... Any follow up phone calls concerning your ubsurb bill will be taken by an answering service and ignored.
Call ANY OTHER PLUMBER before calling Gillece. Just my two cents...
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