Complaint Review: Dattile & Sons Plumbing

DO NOT USE !!!

Clearly these people are SERIOUS PRICE GOUGERS, and do not care in the least about the customer.

We discovered a soggy carpet on 4/9/13. We looked up "leak detection", and Dattile and Sons showed up. They were a husband and wife team. We were told the cost to come out and determine the problem, would be $29. Keith Dattile stated that if he had to open the wall, it would now be $250.00. He rammed his saw into the drywall and cut out a square, and found the wet pipe underneath. He then said, in order for him to repair the pipe and stop the leak, it would now be $850. We, did not know the hourly rate for plumbers (and have since found out it is $65-$120/hr.), and happy to get the leak stopped, said Okay. Keith then cut off the four inches of pipe, that seemed to have started leaking, given it's age, and old techniques that were used at that time. He then welded a new copper elbow back in place. Start to finish, all of this took place in approximately thirty minutes.

Having now shown all this to another licensed plumber, a repair handyman (drywall, paint, plumbing and electrical), our Citizen's insurance adjuster, and our private adjuster, they all concurred that upon seeing the receipt from Dattile, the money charged was unconscionable. The job should have been considerably under $200 total, in all of their opinions.

We began contacting Keith Dattile and Christina, his wife, and requested some sort of refund, in light of all that was being revealed. She argued that "we agreed to" the price and that we were "paying for his expertise". She said she would call back, and she never did. My husband called twice on Monday, May 6th, and left two messages for Keith to call back. He never did. My husband called back again on 5/7/13, and spoke with Christina, and she offered to give us back $50. We refused such a meager offer.

the first LICENSED plumber that came to the residence, could not detect where the leak was coming from.  I have a proposal from them (after the fact) stating that to OPEN THE WALL, AND REPAIR LEAK IN THE WALL, would be $85 per hour plus charges for materials used (copper elbow).  Before we determined to start demolishing the wall and pulling up carpet, we called Dattile for a second opinion.  They previously stated there was a $29 charge to come out.  Once they were here, we were again told it would be necessary to pull up the carpet, and then to open the wall, where the pipe was discovered, that was leaking.  He began to plunge a knife- like object into the wall in several places and stated that the cause of the leak was behind the wall. He quickly changed his price to $250. Once the leak was confirmed, he stated the repair would NOW be $850.  He was in and out in 30 minutes.  When I received the estimate from the first licensed plumber, as I had already assumed, we were GOUGED drastically.  Upon further research, on line, I read reports of several others who had gone through the same experience with Dattile. 

During the insurance adjusters evaluation our suspicions were confirmed when they stated that they thought that the plumbing bill was excessive.  Up until this point, we had no idea what the true cost of a plumbing repair should be.  As rebuilding commenced, various other LICENSED repair people stated what a fair price should be, and they all stated a billable amount for a plumber should be between $85-$165 per hour.