Beware of doing business with York Mechanical in York PA. These plumbers completed work for us in the past at a rate of $65/hr. I was less than satisfied with the work they performed previously, but my husband decided to contact them again for another job.
The task was fairly simple - converting a single sink to a double sink and connecting our toilet - and it should have only taken about 3 hours to finish. Unfortunately, the "master plumber" - Mark Vega, made errors in judgment and several mistakes which resulted in numerous trips back and forth to Lowes. We were irritated that it took so long, but tried to be understanding. We weren't so understanding when we received the bill and found out that they were charging us $90/hr and charged us for the time of the mistakes as well as for the lunch hour, time to talk to us, etc. The total bill was $1073 - for hooking up a standard sink and toilet from Home Depot.
Despite our shock and disappointment, my husband tried to settle the matter by offering $873 as payment in full. He mailed it in his employer's envelope - which happens to be the police department. He did not think this was a big deal, as the plumber knew that my husband was a police officer and it was the only envelope available at the time.
What resulted was absolutely unfathomable - Gene Vega, the owner of the company, called my husband's employer and slandered him by saying that the letter came on police "letterhead" and that my husband was trying to intimidate him. (The letter was on plain paper and mentioned nothing about my husband's position.) Then, he sent us a letter which amounted to extortion stating - "all this can be avoided by paying the rest."
We stopped payment on the check immediately. A month later, they tried to cash the check, despite their claim that they would not accept it. Rather than contact us regarding their change of heart, they sued us.
In the magistrate hearing, the master plumber, Mark Vega, (owner's brother) perjured himself by stating that mistakes were not made - that he had to make "conversions" due to the sink being altered. We could have easily rebutted this with pictures, but we were not prepared for this lie. Now, we are simply waiting for the magitrate's holding to see if we should appeal this matter to an actual court.
Word to the wise: especially in these tough times - make sure to get a firm agreement in writing before having someone do work, even if they've worked on something before. And certainly do yourself a favor and stay away from the Vega brothers and York Mechanical, unless you want to be intimidated into paying whatever they've decided to bill you.
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