First and foremost, I would like to say the plumber who came to my house was top notch. He was friendly, courteous and competent. Based on his performance alone I have no apprehensions about recommending the abilities of DrainWorks plumbers. There is however something about DrainWorks that does bother me. They claim upfront pricing, but I think this is selective representation. When I initially called DrainWorks for an estimate on the job I wanted them to do, but I was told that they do not offer pricing without coming to see what needs to be done. However, the plumber from DrainWorks refers to a booklet of jobs, and based on that booklet quotes a price. So there was no reason the person on the phone would have been unable to give me a price. I wanted a drain installed for a kitchen sink with a single basin. He could have opened the book, said that service falls into this category and quoted me the standard $269.99 price point. Now the only reason I can assume they do this is because their prices must be a little high. Once a plumber is already in your unit, looks at the job and tells you the price, you're likely to just tell them to go ahead with the work rather than send them away so you can get other quotes. It's smart business, but I would have liked to see them be truly up front about their pricing since it IS all printed out in a little book anyway. That price booklet should be on their website, and the phone reps should be willing to tell people what the jobs cost if they fit within the criteria. Also, should my drain required a minor repair and not a replacement, I don't think DrainWorks would be the company to do it. I get the impression they can only work within the framework of their little book. So for example, if I need a small repair to the drain, not a replacement they might not have had an entry in the book for it. But this is something they would be able to tell you on site, and it would be no charge to you.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $290.00
- Company Response
**Thanks rbs** We appreciate the feedback and are glad you found our plumber and his service top notch. We would however, like to address your concerns with the price book and we invite you to call or come into our office so that we can spend some time with you to explain it fully. Essentially though, only a qualified professional should assess and provide pricing for any job that needs to be performed. We respect the fact that our customers like to self diagnose their own repairs, but sometimes what one hopes to have done and what is possible may be two different things. The only way to know for certain is to have a licensed plumber sent over to accurately assess, and that is why we sent our plumber over at no charge. In addition there is a whole section in the price book for repairs, so albeit a customer who says they want a replacement might not know that a repair could be a cost effective alternative, saving you money, and wouldn’t have known about such an alternative unless the qualified plumber was sent to the home to visually assess and go through the options. It is also important to us to clarify that our pricing is in line with the going rate for service from a licensed and insured plumber, and no illusion, our pricing is exact and provided up front to our customers for approval before we proceed. As we sent the plumber over at no charge, there is no obligation and no recourse for not proceeding if you are not satisfied. We hope this has shed some light on some of your concerns and we do look forward to hearing from you should you care to go over those concerns in more detail.
