I am the owner of a building in New York City. About two years ago, I needed to do an oil to gas conversion to update the building's heating system. Like everyone else in this economy, I shopped around for the best price. Another building owner, who I knew from the neighborhood, told me they received a very good price from Central Plumbing and Heating and that I should talk to them.
Shortly after Ed had completed about 90 percent of the job, I ran into the building owner who recommended Ed. He suggested that I withhold some payment to Central Plumbing until all the required paperwork was filed with the city. It turned out that this plumber did not file the required paperwork for him and he was dealing with fines, attending hearings, etc. Because of it. Unfortunately, I had already paid Ed most of the money and hoped the same would not happen to me. It did.
If you are a property owner, you know that paperwork must be filed with the Department of Buildings and you must have this type of work signed off. If the paperwork isn't filed, your life as a building owner becomes hell. I have been trying to get Central Plumbing and Heating to complete the job I hired them for. For almost two years, Ed's wife Rose Kelly assured me that they were in the process of filing the paperwork. She was very good at dodging the situation and making it seem like she was trying her very best. She answered my emails and acted like everything was going as planned. She can probably pass a lie detector test in front of the Taliban while being water boarded. She had me fooled.
As of now the job is still not finished. I hired an attorney to try to get them to complete the work but they have dodged both my attorney and myself. Now I have hired another plumber to try to complete the work, which will cost an additional 5 to 10 thousand dollars. To make matters worse, the new plumber stated that Central Plumbing installed a boiler too large for the building thus costing me more money for gas to heat the building. This plumber's dishonesty and bad business practices are going to end up costing close to 30 thousand dollars. Hopefully, my attorney can recoup some of the money through the court system.
Hopefully my nightmare experience can save others from falling prey to, and being financially and emotionally drained by Central Plumbing and Heating Service Corp's dishonest business practices.
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