Advanced Plumbing Systems

 Jeff Crum, the owner, was very personable and thorough on his initial visit. Our house is old and when asked by him as to whether we wanted to replumb the house we specifically said, "No" as it was not in the budget. We hired him to specifically do the work listed above and then the trouble started.  First of all, Jeff hired temporary plumbers from a "temp serivice" to do the work. One of the fellows installed the hot water heater with 3/4" pipe where visible outside the house but then dropped it down to 1/2" pipe under the house (restricting flow).  When asked by the second temporary plumber the first plumber explained to the other plumber that he was expecting to replumb the house anyway (despite knowing full-well that we had said this was not going to happen).  When it came to the upstairs bath and washing machine installation, Jeff Crum, the owner asked if he could provide the new faucet. I thought, "OK, so he makes an extra twenty bucks or so."  Jeff, however, said that he was going to charge me $160 for a faucet that is less than $80 at Lowe's or Home Depot (same brand).  Also, he then told me it was going to cost $700 above the original bid to install the faucet and shower head; this in a location where there was already a faucet and hot and cold water (the shower head was the only new piece to the puzzle). Access to the plumbing was going to be direct through the back of the wall; nothing could be more easy.  When we first met, we told Jeff that we wanted to install a washing machine on the back of the very wall that had the bath plumbing.  The water supply was there already and all that was needed was a drain to run down the wall down to the crawl space one floor down.  He checked everything out but when it came to doing the work he wanted to run everything outside the house as it would be easier for him but very unsightly.  When they did finally do it inside, it was very simple but Jeff told the plumber that was on-site to cut off our water supply so that we would be without water and he could charge us more. All in all, this was a very bad experience from the start.  It was all about getting us to pay more than the agreed upon amount and trying to take short cuts to save him money.  We kicked him off the job the same day a lady in Largo did as he was trying to take her for a ride, too, I was told.