Complaint Review: Consumers - Nationwide

You know, I have read through each of the 11 currently posted complaints in this category and many other complaints in other catagorys and I have concluded that the consumer is generally the biggest rip-off artist. I have been in the plumbing business for 12 years now (since age of 18). I have and never will own a plumbing business. I am ambitious. I have excelled, I have received all liscences and possible training I can, I have advanced through my positions, and I am currently a general manager of a plumbing company. Our customer's have very few complaints. Why? Because we do things by the book. We will NOT quote prices over the phone without seeing the problem first. However, several people want to know how and how much it will take to fix their problem without having it properly diagnosed. We quote a 39.00 service call to come out, once we diagnose the problem, we give a written proposal for repairs. We will do work upon your signature authorization. Our technicians receive perpetual technical training and are all licensed. We invest large amounts of money to our fleet and inventory. We screen all job applicants to try to have the very best people. We pay our people well. Our turn-over rate is low, and we retain outstanding employees. This all comes at a price which is shared by the consumer. Our cost of doing business is carefully calculated. This break-even cost is divided by the average billable hours paid by customer and marked up 20% for our profit. If we can't make profit, then why be in business. We are not wiling to make sacrifices in quality to lower our price either. This is why you people shouldn't be surprised that you received poor service when you call the guy who is giving you a "good deal". Somebody called someone out of a penny saver paper, what did you expect? Another person on this post stated that he received a water heater. He figures he should pay a certain price without even knowing what the company that put this heater in for him must charge to make a profit. Another states that a company gave him a home inspection and recommended he do some other work at a "huge price" as he states. Then surprise, a few months later he has more plumbing problems. Maybe you actually had a plumber who knew what he was doing. That's o.k. go find yourself a good deal plumber. Don't get me wrong here. I have been in the business long enough to see and hear alot of horros stories. Some of them do hold water (no pun intended). But don't expect any sympathy from me when you should have known better. If you want to pay a cheap price, you will get cheap work. Companies that are not charging proper prices have made sacrifices that can hurt you financially or otherwise. Furthermore, don't expect me to be sympathetic when a contractor does everything they have promised, provided you with good service, quoted you a price in advance to doing work which you agreed to, and then you complain now that your problem has been fixed that you feel you have been charged to much. Maybe the contractor made the job look easy because he knew what he was doing. Some of you should be ashamed. Which brings me back to the reason that I will never own a service company. The company I run gives money back whenever anyone complains, regardless if they are right or wrong, we will refund money or whatever it takes to make the customer happy. Sure we make mistakes, we are happy to show off our outstanding commitment to excellence in these situations. Sometimes we have done everything top notch, but the customer just wants money back because their "plumbing buddy" says he could have done the job for much less, or their regular plumber was not available and he charges less. Well maybe we would be able to charge less too if we serviced our customer's at our convenience, not theirs. But, we give the money back. It would kill me if it were my business to know how hard our people work, yet we take money out of all of our pockets to give back to these people who don't understand or care. Just be smart. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Do some research, find a reputable contractor, and prepare to pay the proper price. If you get top notch service, you will pay a premium. If you are looking for the cheapest price, I guess we will be hearing from you on this board....

I'm sorry if I offended anyone, I just needed to vent. I'll post again in another 12 years.