D&D Rooter and Plumbing Service

On April 25, 2019, I took a shower in the master bath of my home. When I went to shut off the water, the shower valve failed and would not immediately turn off. It took several attempts to get the water to turn off completely. I took off the fixture handle and attempted to remedy the issue myself. I thought, as I had in the past, all I needed to do was to change the valve and the problem would be solved. Simple, right? No, not quite. The fixture and the entire assembly was at least 15 years old. I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that the whole fixture was original and had been here since the house was built in 1982. You can only imagine the amount of corrosion that time and water had done over the years. Screws were breaking off, sleeves were fused to other parts of the assembly. I, by myself, could not remove the valve assembly from the housing. So, I called an expert. Or should I say, I called a so-called expert according to HomeAdvisor/Angie’s List. I’ve used Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor before and had no real issues, until now. Orlando (David) Flores of D & D Rooter and Plumbing Services, Long Beach called and said he could come out immediately. Of the places I contacted, he was the only one that was able to respond immediately. I agreed to this because: 1. I had contractors in the house working on a remodeling job. 2. With family members still in the house and the loss of a shower stall, the potential for stress was looming. Mr. Flores arrived 45 minutes later than he said he would. (1st Red Flag.) Normally I don’t judge individuals on their looks because I don’t like it when people do it to me. In retrospect, I should have heeded my intuition about him when I first laid eyes on him. (2nd Red Flag) I told him and showed him what the situation was and asked if he could handle it. He bragged about being a plumber for 30 years and said he could. Mr. Flores handed me an agreement to pay $950 to repair the shower valve. I thought it a bit exorbitant but this being California and needing this shower repaired and working as quickly as possible took precedence. I agreed and allowed him to begin working. The first thing Mr. Flores did was break the decorative ring around the valve opening while attempting to remove it, claiming that it was old and not his fault. Next Mr. Flores ripped open a jagged, massive, 24” x 46” hole in the wall to access the valve and remove it. He then stated he needed to purchase a new valve and handle set for the shower. Upon returning he replaced the valve but claimed he could not get it to sit properly without a longer faceplate screw. He asked if I had any screws lying around that he could use. When I told him, ‘No’, he then stated he’d have to go to the hardware store to get one. I informed him that there was a Home Depot roughly a mile and a half from my home. Mr. Flores said, “I need to find an Ace Hardware because Home Depot’s people don’t know what they’re doing.” He then informed me that he knew of an Ace Hardware in Long Beach and it would take him a while to go there and return. An hour and a half later, Mr. Flores completed attaching the valve and face plate and replaced my shower head with a cheap plastic model which I did not ask him to do. After turning the water back on, Mr. Flores said there was something clogging the pipes and the water pressure was low. He then disassembled the valve again and leaked water down the wall into the downstairs where the remodeling crew was working. They responded quickly and told me about the water coming downstairs. Mr. Flores began arguing with the crew foreman about there being sediment in the line and that it was their fault. He claimed he would have to clear the sinks angle valves and the toilet valve to resolve the problem. All I wanted was to have my bathroom returned to normal and have the water pressure back where it was. Mr. Flores charged me for these ‘fixes’ he claimed I had to have. All in, he went to his van and came back with a bill totaling $1430 on top of the $250 deposit. I asked about my showerhead to which he replied, ‘I thought I gave it to you.’ He said he would look for it in case he had ‘accidently’ taken it with him. When I inquired about the huge hole he had left in my bathroom wall he stated, “I don’t do drywall.” These are the events as they occurred with this man. I will swear to them in a court of law. I am of the opinion that Orlando ‘David’ Flores is a crook, a thief and a liar. I believe he manufactured events to appear worse than they actually were in order to ‘jack-up’ his fees. I also believe he fabricated the ‘sediment issue’ to cause me panic and didn’t realize the remodeling crew had their own plumber who called him out on this. In order to save face, he repaired the problem but charged me for the additional work he now had to do. I charge that Mr. Flores saw the remodeling work being done in my home and wanted a piece of the action in terms of the money. I am disheartened that Mr. Flores and D & D Rooter Plumbing Services would take advantage of a disabled American Veteran in this manner. In my book, that makes him unscrupulous. I will never use their services again. I do not recommend their services and I hope this serves as a warning to others to beware of this man and his practices.