I called "Pat the Plumber" t remove a plumbing snake that had been caught in my drain through my own stupidity. Pat's boys showed up the next day and, before they did any work, had my wife sign an agreement for payment of $49.00 for giving an estimate (on the phone they said this was a "service charge"). They then spoke to me and I explained the problem and what I had done to attempt to correct it.
They then said it would cost $199.00 to extract the snake from the drain and then an additonal charge to unplug the drain. I agreed to the $199.00 and they went to "work" but were unable to retrieve the snake. At that point they said they would have to break into the wall to retrieve the snake and possibly the concrete deck adjacent to the wall.
If it was the wall only the estimate was $1,100 to $1,300 and if the floor, $2,300 up. The said they required a deposit of $600.00 to return in two days since they didn't have the tools on board their truck. I authorized the $600.00 deposit and they left. After thinking about what they I done and said, the next day I decided to cancel the appointment and called them to do so. At this time their phone representative, Chris, said that was fine, but they would charge me $49.00 for the "service call".
I agreed to the charge of $49.00. I called the plumber I normally use (should have done this in the first place!), Dick Roberts of Morriston, FL. He came out and did the repair, to include snaking the drain, repairing the concrete wall, for $808.00 (this man is a licensed plumber too)!
The day after taliking to "Pat the Plumber", I checked my credit card and they had charged it for the $49.00 PLUS $199.00 for the removal of the snake from the drain&which they DID NOT accomplish.
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