Rittenhouse & Sons Inc

In a nutshell, Rittenhouse did not honor his quote. He quoted low to get the job and then charged the going rate for cleaning. When on site, he quoted $65 per hour for any additional work and then charged $65 per man hour or $130/hr for the entire time they were here. In other words, he?s double-billed me for the cleaning and charged double for hourly work. He brought two men out to do a one person job. He billed for work not performed. He billed a Licensed Plumber's rate for a trainee who is not a licensed plumber. Here is how it went: Rittenhouse quoted oil burner cleaning/service over the phone in the amount of $140. Included in that price was the nozzle and fuel filter replacement, as is customary for this yearly service. Mike Rittenhouse was training a helper, or so I thought since this is a one person job and the helper wouldn't make a move without being instructed. I observed all work performed for the duration. When he opened the furnace he said that it did not need cleaning but insisted on continuing with the cleaning process. While he was overseeing his helper, Mike had one hand each on the pipes leading away from the furnace for the 2 zones that heated the bedrooms and determined that additional repairs would be needed which he would do at a later date. Regarding the cleaning. Mike refused to replace nozzle even after I brought this overersight to his attention and insisted that he do so. I thought a faulty nozzle was part of the over consumption problem. He instructed his helper to replace the oil filter located in the garage. During that time, Mike and I spent about 45 minutes going over the necessary components to estimate a new bathroom installation. He never provided me with a verbal or written estimate but is charging me $130/hr for the time we spent. Mike Rittenhouse and helper arrived at 9:05am and left at 11:25am. Sometime after 12:30pm Mike called and said that he could do the additional repairs that would take all afternoon and cost $500, $200 in parts and the rest in labor. He returned at 1:04pm with 2 circulator pumps in hand. When his helper drained about 2 feet of pipe by removing one bolt (directly onto the basement floor immediately in front of oil burner...I ran for a bucket but by the time I got back the pipe was drained) they found packing material had been left inside when the system was originally installed. He removed the packing material (I still have these pieces), replaced the bolt using white nylon tape and allowed the system to refill itself. No parts were required. They left at1:28pm. The furnace was still short cycling and I could tell no decrease in oil consumption. I gave Rittenhouse many opportunities to complete the work he had billed or credit me. After consuming one tank of oil at an alarming rate I hired another, Contractor 2, to replace the nozzle. Again, I observed all work for the duration. In short, the furnace was black inside, the oil filter had never been replaced and the nozzle was the problem for over consumption. Contractor did a complete cleaning/servicing. When he got done he billed me the quoted $180 and was paid on the spot. As a direct result of Contactor 2's work, Oil consumption is down due to resizing nozzle thereby eliminating the short cycling. Back to Rittenhouse: He sent me a bill dated Feb 12, 2010 in the amount of $560. There were two items listed on the bill: Cleaning service for $180 (quoted $140) and Labor charges for $380. It took me three phone calls before Mike would speak to me. He first refused to itemized the work done to substantiate the labor charges but finally agreed. I sent him a letter confirming our conversation and work done, the actual time he was here along with a "Good Faith" check covering the quoted labor charges until I received his itemization. Another invoice of the same date, invoice number and amount of $560 was received the following month but the description was completely changed. It now reads: Labor-2 men 4 hrs each and Material of $40. All of a sudden, there is no quoted cleaning work. It is now all time and material. In other words, he is charging me for two men to do the cleaning, two men to estimate for the new bath and two men to unscrew a bolt and rescrew the same bolt. After further discussion with Mike, again refusing to itemize work and unable to tell me what 'Material' was charged, he said that he would accept $400 as payment in full. I insisted he put this in writing. I got a bill for $450. He is taking me to court for $600.