Complaint Review: Christian Brothers Plumbing

My wife scheduled an appointment for a quote to get the blower motor replaced on our evaportative cooler.  She mentioned that we though there might be an electrical problem and to send someone with electrical expierance.

They were to come on the evening of March 22, while I was home.   They called off and did not show up until the mext morning on the 23rd, I was at work 60 miles away.

Abe was the tech who showed up.    Stated to my wife that he only knew the basics on electronics.  My wife mentioned that low speed was not working and we had issues with the motor switching from low to high on its own and that the motor made loud noises when first turning on.

He presented my wife with a quote with 3 options, two of witch pushed their service agreement.    My wife mentioned she was not interested in that, and how much to replace the motor.   Abe preceded to tell my wife about the problems we would have within a short time on both the evap and our heat pump, and the service agreement would cover both. 

She did finally agree and signed the contract without calling me to discuss.  I would have definately told her to pay his trip charge and ask him to leave.   He wanted $1,104 to replace the motor and one set screw on the pulley.   The 1HP two speed motor costs between 130 to 160 dollars, and I have replaced them in the past within 30 minutes.   When I called back and asked her how much she was paying, I went unglued and was actually shaking with anger that a company would overcharge by at least $700.  This is ridiculous.  

My wife called and spole to a couple of differant peope at the main office and they agreed to remove the service aggreement amount of $184 as my told them they would not be allowed to work on our two houses and the third house we are in the process of buying, she was trying them out to see how they did.   

I also called the office from work, and said that I wanted to file a complaint and was told a manager would call me back within 24 houirs, Has not happened.

So we ended up paying ( I have not seen the $184 credit yet) $889 for a simple motor replacement on an evaportative cooler.     Their website and their office state that they don't work by the hour but only charge by the job.  But the person my wife spoke to at their office was tryuing to jusify the high pricing by saying that his tech spent almost half a day on our job.   That is the Tech's problem should not be ours.