Roberts Plumbing Services, Inc.

If I was rating just on his first visit, I would have given him a higher rating. We called him out because, just after we moved into our new home, water was leaking through the ceiling into our basement. It turns out that our washing machine was hooked up incorrectly and was leaking. He replaced the water hoses, and helped dry out the duct work insulation in the basement. At the same time, he checked the pressure in our hot water tank (not really sure why) and told us that the pressure was way too high and that our regulator valve was shot. (Looking back, I'm not sure this was completely true, but I'm not a plumber) We paid him to replace the valve. About 6 months later, the pressure valve was making a loud buzzing sound every time we ran water. I asked him to come back and check the valve. He told me I should just do it myself, but I wanted him to stand behind his work. He agreed to come two days later in the afternoon. He said if he couldn't come on Friday, he would come on Saturday. Not hearing from him on Friday, I called Saturday and asked when he was coming. He said he would not be there, maybe on Monday afternoon. He then said that he would have to charge a trip fee to come out. i told him to forget it, and that I would do it myself.

I think I have been thoroughly bludgeoned. RBS charge was a $272.00 per hour for a plumber. The base charge was $250.00 to repair the leak which ended up being only to make a couple of cuts in the plastic pipe and glue the 3/4 inch pipe back together. Additional charges were $150.00 to dig a hole 15 inch deep and 36 inches in diameter to locate the leak and shut the water off, an additional $75.00 trip charge to go to Home Depot and buy 4 each 3/4 inch elbows, a piece of 3/4 inch plastic pipe and some glue (even after I had told them the line size and type of the line before they arrived on site-they still had no parts on the truck), $20.00 for the parts purchased which probably were no more than $10.00, a $39.00 service fee which I guess was for travel time to the site and Oh yes, a $10.00 administrative fee which must have been for answering the phone. All totaled at $544.00 for two and a half hours including the trip to Home Depot and lunch.