Carla from Toronto

We now have a word for overpaying for what ends up being simply horrible service and/or workmanship - it's called, 'being Shanked'. We called Shank's for a small overflow problem in our basement sink. It turned out the overflow was caused by the exit pipe sloping upwards. My husband discovered this himself after we had already paid Shank's over $10,000 to replace the pipes under our floors, which they insisted was the cause of the problem. They ripped up our washroom in the process, and, even though, after much correspondence back and forth, they finally agreed to repair the mess they'd made, they did not finish the job and the washroom ended up looking much worse than before they ever started their 'work'. They gave us a verbal warrantee for this work, but then, upon deciding to not finish the job, refused to give us a written one. One of their contractors said, "If you didn't like the work, you shouldn't have paid us!" The problem was that we only discovered the overflow was still happening after they had replaced our floor pipes and said the problem was solved. They sub-contract almost every aspect of the job ("Duh … I only deal with below ground." "Sorry, I only do pipes above the surface." Etc.) and no one seems to know what the other contractors are doing. Calling Shanks was the biggest mistake we've ever made. No … trying to get them to fix what they'd broken was bigger. I wish I had been warned about them beforehand. I highly advise you to look elsewhere if want quality workmanship and professional conduct and integrity. Don't set yourself up for getting Shanked!