I called Preferred Plumbing to repair a lack of hot water in my condo shower pipes. I was quoted $55 for my service call, very reasonable. I was surprised that 2 plumbers arrived for this seemlingly minor job of what I though was going to be relacing the cartridge. I had done this type of work myself in my old home. Beware of companies that quote various project rates rather than an hourly rate. There's no way for the consumer to know what's fair or reasonable. But I do know that there was what felt like bait and switch tactics going on for my repair. I was quoted the low service visit fee (I thought, because I was a senior). But when they arrived, they quoted a high rate for opening up the wall to investigate further (this was obvious they'd have to do this to do any sort of reasonable investigation, but there was no mention of this on the phone). Apparently, the service visit fee was just for walking in my front door, no real work. I was then quoted $2000 for a repair that they eventually agreed to do for less than half that (still too much). In the middle of my repair, they left my condo for a while, came back and there was time wasted. The way they charge seems to be an unethical approach and still unsure why this company doesn't have an hourly rate, plus parts like 99.9% of other plumbers out there so things are transparent and fair to customers. Watch out.
Your standard responses to online reviews such as "We put a huge amount of effort, time and training into developing high performing personnel and qualified trades people." doesn't account for the bait and switch tactics of low-priced service visits followed by unwarranted massive charges rather than a fair hourly rate for straight forward work. When estimates run into the thousands, that would mean breaking into walls (not just taking parts apart in front of the wall) or the replacement of entire systems rather than straight forward repairs that take an hour of less. Giving people options is one thing (which again, you mention in a previous review, but I can assure you that no senior of anyone else for that matter, wants to rebuild a fairly new bathroom or do major extensive (and expensive) work when there’s a reasonable alternative for a solution that’s a fraction of the price. With regards to training your staff, please train them on above, in terms of looking out for the customer with reasonable, honest solutions and pricing, rather than taking advantage of those who are vulnerable to your tactics and simply need their plumbing fixed to take a shower.
