DeWitt Plumbing

"Homeowner called and was desperate for assistance. After him describing problem, I told him that it sounded like effluent pump in septic tank might be the problem. Tried to get information from homeowner about his septic system. He was unable to provide any useful information. Told him I would come to check it out and because of the travel time to get to his house that I would bring a pump and float switch assy. with me to try to save from making another trip and costing him any extra expense. Made service call and found that pump was running but effluent level in tank was not dropping as it should. We opted to change pump but still did not drop level in tank. Told homeowner that I needed to get information about his septic system to help me troubleshoot what problem might be. He told me he would try to contact builder and get info. He called me several days later and told me he had no luck in getting info. I made special trip to Health Department and was able to get drawings and information I needed. I then made another trip to home site to confirm system configuration. I found out that install utilized a pump line that went up hill several hundred feet in elevation.This situation would require a special high-head effluent pump. Man was working on driveway and did make comment to me about pump after I had determined what problem was. I called homeowner and told him what I had found out. I told him about the cost of the high-head pump and that I would replace the pump I had installed with the new high- head pump. I had to order the pump, not a common item. When pump came in I went down and switched out the pump. This fixed the issue. Told homeowner I would give him credit for cost of first pump. He was responsible for difference in cost of the pumps. I told him that I would charge him for additional service calls to troubleshoot problem. When work was done, he complained that he should not have to pay for the two additional service calls I made. I told him that it was unfortunate two extra calls had to be made but that if I had more info in the beginning this might not have been necessary. I told him that I had incurred expense and had not charged all of the time I had spent going to Health Department. He told me he did not think he should have to pay for the additional trips. I told him that I had dealt with him in good faith and that he could do what he thought was the right thing to do as far as the bill he owed. He grudgingly paid the entire bill after trying to talk me down.He proceeded to tell me he was going to give me a very bad review. I told him I was sorry he felt the way he did, but to do what he felt like he needed to do. In retrospect, I guess hindsight is always 20-20 and that some jobs can prove to be more involved and more expensive than others. An estimate is exactly that, an estimate. Usually my estimates are pretty close, but in this case it was not."