Mike Tilton Quality Plumbing & Heating

"This review is very disappointing does not reflect Tilton Plumbing nor what we stand for. To say we took advantage of a handicapped senior citizen is uncalled for and completely false. There was a leak on a pool line underground in a tough spot, and the leak was on a tee. The pool had to be drained down to be able to make the repair. This is after digging up the leaking pipe in muck. It took 2 men 5.5 hours. And we charged for the time on the job. I have no idea how that can be considered taking advantage of anyone. We charge the same hourly rate every day, all day, to every one of our customers and we have been overwhelmed with positive reviews both on Angies List and Google. We also have elderly customers that we do not charge for jobs such as lighting pilots and checking their homes space heaters because they truly cannot afford to pay us, and those heaters can be dangerous. So to be accused of taking advantage of elderly customers floored me, knowing that the truth is quite the opposite. We are not the cheapest company in town, and I tell customers all the time if that's what they are looking for, then we're probably not the right company for them. What we do offer is top notch service, and some of the best technicians in the area. And many people do choose us for that reason. I invite potential customers to search through all of the reviews on Angies List to get a complete picture of what customers say about us. It is overwhelmingly positive and we are very proud of that fact!"

"UPDATE: I have tried to reach this customer for an apology and to resolve the problem and did not get a return call. We have done work for this customer a couple times in the past, with no issues. My issue with this F grade is that we weren't allowed to correct the mistake. I will be the first to admit we are not perfect. We do make mistakes, and we try to minimize them. In this case, we went to repair an issue that we don't deal with, discovered that was the case, and informed the owner we'd call back in the morning. The employee was new and forgot to tell me this the next morning. But to me, a call from the customer after that morning passed reminding us that an employee had informed him he was supposed to receive a phone call would have been the thing to do. We would have immediately resolved the situation to the customers satisfaction. Instead the customer decided to wait two weeks, saying nothing, and then post a bad review in an attempt to hurt the business. Also, there was no charge to him for the call, we were there when we said were going to be, but the customer posted F's all around. Doesn't seem right. I hope it's concluded by potential customers who read this that while we did make a mistake, this review is far more damaging to our reputation than we deserved. Thankfully we have 50+ positive reviews on the site for customers to see and know that we are indeed a fair and able company, though not perfect. INITIAL RESPONSE: I sincerely apologize for this issue. I remember your call and I'm not sure where the miscommunication occurred but we do not work on field lines. That work requires a septic company. I think what happened was my new employee was sent out there and told you that I would call you back but never informed me of this. I will contact you and help you get you in touch with a septic company who can help you. I will personally be sure to follow up on this and see that it is handled. I will also be sure to fix this with the employee so it doesn't happen again."

"I’m just going to be frank and say outright that this review makes no sense at all. I’m not sure where the prices the customer stated came from but if we charged $175/hr and the job took 5 hours then the price would be $875 not including materials (which were approx. $100). The job was done for the quoted amount of $600, not a penny more. So when the plumber was done, he wrote up the bill for the quoted amount and left. We got to the job exactly the time that it was scheduled, and yes the job took longer than it was supposed to but that was due to complications getting the pipes through the walls in the house to where we needed it. These are unforeseen problems that no one can know about until the job is underway but, again, the job was quoted and this had no bearing on the customers bill. It hurt only the company as the job would have been a higher quote had I known about these circumstances. Unforeseen circumstances occur all the time in this line of work, and reasonable people understand this. The coupon the customer tried to use is not valid on quoted jobs and this is pretty standard. When we quote work, the price is the price. The coupon is for time and material work, or service calls, not quoted jobs. It was never said that it was figured into the price. Now to the statement “boy am I glad it saved time”, besides dripping with a condescending tone that became a theme with this customer, was referring to the fact that we used flex pipe instead of hard pipe. Now if we had used hard pipe, this job would have only been possible if we had destroyed many additional walls in the kitchen due to the rigid nature of hard pipe. So not only did using flexible pipe save A LOT of time it also saved a lot of damage to the home. So this statement is just ridiculous, especially considering the customer knows nothing about installing gas lines through walls and ceilings. Reading this review would you would be led to believe this was the wrong decision, when it was the only decision, made by professionals who do it for a living. A few days after the job this customer sent me a letter, again with the same condescending tone, stating the gas piping I used had to be grounded properly after installation. He sent a page from the website of the company whos brand we installed. It stated the proper way to ground the piping into the house electrical system. He then demanded to know what I would do to fix this issue that I should’ve known about. Problem is this letter was dated in June 2011 and was for the old piping sold back then. In 2014 a new design in the piping eliminated the need for this and is stated in the website. The truth is right there but an extra effort was made by this customer to dig deep into the website to find something to complain about. But this is what I learned this customer is about, attack and demean. I have had customers like this in the past. Nothing is good enough, ever, and they know more about your profession than you ever will. It’s a common theme that customers talk to each other about which companies to avoid at all costs, but companies, too, have customers they’d avoid at all costs. This customer is absolutely one of those. I will say that I sincerely hope any potential customers will look back over the last 3 years and see that we have mountains of reviews that are all positive. In our office we have dozens of letter posted from customers who go out of their way to send us thank you letters for the great services we provide and we have a very large, loyal customer base. Very rarely do we get negative responses or reviews and even rarer are they valid. When they are, I can assure you we do everything we can to make it right. Mike Tilton, Owner"