*** Response to A & Y Plumbing's response
- blaming the customer and the bathtub company without taking any responsibility, is not the correct approach
- saying that it was "impossible" to notice the defect before installing the tub, is ridiculous
- I noticed the defect, and spoke to Alex on the phone about it prior to installation. I asked him to write it on the work order to investigate
- I talked to the plumber about this, and asked him to check it
- He felt it was ok, despite the fact that there was a port open to the air, outside the tub, leading to a connected water jet!
- He insisted that he was an expert and insisted that there was nothing wrong with the tub, instead of investigating
- He was wrong
*******
I read the reviews about this company and they looked pretty good. I'm sure they are fine for small repairs and installing faucets.
I had a similar experience, to another recent review, about a bathroom upgrade.
I was left with a flooded house, multiple giant holes in the ceiling, and scratched walls on my freshly painted hallway.
The company wanted to charge me extra for finding the leak, that in the process of finding, destroyed my ceiling.
Let's get to the beginning of the story:
I ordered a whirlpool tub from Costco, which was delivered to my home.
I inspected this tub, and decided to call a plumber to do the installation, because I was not qualified to do it myself.
I noticed a pipe on the hot tub, which led out from one of the jets, was open, while all the other ones were closed. I asked Alex, the person who answered the phone from the plumbing company, to please make a note on the work order of this concern, and to have the plumber verify if this is okay. he told me that it's not necessary to make a note of it, because the plumber is a professional, and he would notice any problems.
I should have canceled at that point, because ignoring customer concerns is not good practice.
The reviews were pretty good on this company and I decided to go ahead because I trusted them.
I was not home when they showed up, because they were late. I did call the plumber and ask him to please inspect that pipe. He assured me that he would.
A few hours later I came home to double-check his progress, and to remind him about inspecting the tub. I saw that as he had moved the bathtub up the stairs, he had done a lot of scratches along my walls which were freshly painted just a few months before. I had spent more than $500 to paint that hallway. In a short time, he had made a brand new paint job look like garbage.
Things were not looking good. But I did see that the bathtub was in place. The plumber assured me that everything was inspected.
I left and let him finish his work. I came back later and he was ready to go.
After he left, I finished the faucet plumbing, and tested the tub. my wife was downstairs and started yelling about the tub leaking.
I quickly drained it all, and called Alex.
I had to wait until they came back a day or two later, to check it. Instead of quickly checking, the plumber kept the water running forever, causing a huge flood in the ceiling, and then he felt that he had to cut open two giant holes in my textured ceiling of the living room.
After causing several thousand dollars in damage, Alex called me from their head office, stating that I owed them more money for the inspection.
Eventually we found that the cause of the leak, was the same pipe that I was initially concerned about and asked him several times to inspect.
Alex wanted $200 extra, and meanwhile I wanted them to pay for the damages.
I didn't really want to get into a big argument. I told him I would hold back any payment until damages could be assessed.
The living room ceiling is still not fixed. I did not pursue him for damages. The blame is somewhat on the manufacturer of the tub. And that's why I didn't give a zero rating.
They got paid $500 for their work, plus taxes, minus $50 for a can of paint.
I lost thousands of dollars in damages.