ComplaintsforMattice Mechanical LLC

• Initial Complaint

  06/28/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My former plumber moved last November and I had to get someone new to winterize the house. This procedure requires that all water systems be disconnected, such as the water softener, hot water tank, dishwasher, washing machine, etc., all pipes be drained of water, all water lines are blown out with an air compressor and antifreeze is placed in all toilets, drains and the water systems mentioned above, The only company I could get was Mattice Mechanical and I had to wait a few weeks before they could come. Fred the Plumber arrived with a very arrogant attitude. He did not want me to speak to him or even show him where the basement was. "I'm going to follow the pipes" he told me. After 1 hour he told me he was done. I was shocked and asked him if he blew out the pipes as the previous plumber used to take 4-5 hours winterizing the house. He seemed to be bothered by me speaking to him and said: "that is not necessary. All that needs to be done is to drain the pipes." I asked whether he used antifreeze; again, he said: "that's not necessary except for the toilets." He then wrote up a list of items he "would like to do next Spring during the re-opening". He seemed more intent on adding sales items than to take care of the task at hand. Upon re-opening the house on 5/11/23, he found a "leak" and blamed it on the copper piping, telling me I would need to replace all the copper piping. He told me he'll "come back sometime next week to fix the leak". I'm still waiting... I spoke to the company secretary several times and asked to speak to the owner, Justin Mattice. She responded that "it's not company policy for Justin to call up customers". (???) To date, no one has called to apologize or even acknowledge that there was a problem. Meanwhile I have over $10,000 in damages to 4 pipes, the furnace, a retention tank which gushed water and the water softener and carbon filter froze and cracked at the base. He also had removed the shutoff valve which caused chaos during the leaks.

  

  Business response

  07/11/2023

  In response to the referenced complaint, I've attached documents which answer the timeline submitted by Ms. *********. While we can empathize with the customer in this situation and with regard to her 91 year old mother, both Fred and Alyese told Ms. ********* that it was not possible to get the necessary repairs completed prior to her coming from New York City on the Friday of Mothers Day weekend, she was alerted of this on Thursday May 11 at 6 PM. Ms. ********* chose to go ahead with her plans knowing that water would not be available. At this point she hired another plumber to make repairs and turn on water. We do not take responsibility for any of the issues the customer and her family endured as we made her amply aware that Fred would not be available until Monday May 15th. Ms. ********* declined to schedule an appointment for Monday, but instead contacted the office the following week to complain and to request to speak to the owner. This entire situation could have easily been avoided. The plumber she hired is a septic and drain cleaning specialist as indicated in her list of expenses and did not complete necessary repairs to system and left it pressurized which caused water damage. Sincerely, Mattice Mechanical, LLC

  Customer response

  07/12/2023

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  It is very revealing when a company such as Mattice Mechanical is faced with a complaint and rather than to address it head-on, responds by not returning phone calls, not sending over someone to help fix the damage that their company caused, not apologizing, and now responding to this complaint by blaming the victim.  Mattice chooses to address some points that occurred AFTER the incident.  But let’s step back for a minute – the broken pipes were caused by their failure to winterize the house properly in November 2022.  The plumber who fixed the pipes even wrote up in his invoice that the pipes were broken “due to not being winterized properly” (See **** **** ******** * ******** ******* # *****).  As mentioned, Fred the Plumber came by and arrogantly stated that “blowing out the pipes was not necessary”.  When I asked him about using antifreeze, again he responded: “that is not necessary, except for the toilets”.  I have had my houses winterized every year for the past 20 years.  That is not what other plumbers have stated to me.  And in 20 years, we never encountered one broken pipe upon re-opening the house.  Upon discovering the broken pipes in May 2023 when he went to re-open the house, Fred tried to blame it on the fact that I have copper pipes.  I have spoken to many plumbers after the disaster he caused in my house and asked them “what is wrong with having copper pipes?”   “Nothing” has been the unanimous response, “as long as they are winterized properly”.  As was explained to me, the house is a ranch and so everything is level and the water does not have the benefit of gravity to pull it downward.  If the pipes are simply drained and not blown out by an air compressor, as was done in this case, some water will remain in the pipes and tanks and they will freeze and break.   That is what happened.   Additionally, the antifreeze might have helped to avoid the damage, but again that was not done. Now I must ask the Better Business Bureau if it is acceptable for a licensed plumber to cause over $10,000 in damages to someone’s home, and then respond by stating: “I’ll come by to fix it sometime next week”.   Neither Fred nor Alyese, who rarely answers the phone in the office, had a definite timeframe as to when they were going to send someone over to fix the pipes.  Monday was not an option.  That is just a lie.  They were talking possibly Wednesday of the following week.  But to date, July 12, 2023, I still have not received a phone call stating: “ok, we’re ready to go by and fix those broken pipes now”.  No.   What needed to be done was for the plumber to go underneath the house, fix the broken pipe, turn on the water, listen for any leaking, and if there was any leaking, then turn everything off again, and fix that pipe, and continue this procedure until every pipe was fixed.  From the outset, it was not clear whether it was going to be 1 broken pipe or 20 of them.  But what was very clear to me was that Fred, the arrogant plumber, had absolutely no intention of doing any of that.  Instead, he stated he was already booked for a few days and I should call the office (where the phones are left to ring endlessly.)   I was left to fend for myself and find someone who could help.  And now Mr. Mattice wants to blame me for what happened.  And still no apology for the damage caused, nor even an acknowledgment that there was a problem.  As he stated, he does not “take responsibility for any of the issues” endured.  Also, I would like to know why in the world were the shut-off valves removed by Fred?  I had paid good money to have those installed in the past, and he went and removed them without even consulting with me, and it caused all sorts of chaos when trying to turn off the water during the leaking periods. When a person calls in a plumber, it’s because they are relying on that plumber and trusting that that plumber has been vetted and will be competent and will take care of everything that needs to be done.  And if there’s a problem, especially one caused by that same plumber, then definitely, the expectation is that they will stay to fix it, regardless of the time, because it’s an emergency.   You just don't leave broken pipes unattended to.  That trust was broken, and I had to spend thousands of dollars that I did not have to fix the problems caused by Mattice Mechanical. This response is unacceptable, and I ask that Mr. Mattice’s license be revoked as this will no doubt happen again with other customers.  In fact, the entire company should be shut down for their incompetence and lack of customer service. Best regards,  **** *********

  

  Business response

  08/02/2023

  While we can empathize with the customer in this situation and with regard to her 91 year old mother, both Fred and Alyese told Ms. ********* that it was not possible to get the necessary repairs completed prior to her coming from New York City on the Friday of Mothers Day weekend, she was alerted of this on Thursday May 11 at 6 PM. Ms. ********* chose to go ahead with her plans knowing that water would not be available. At this point she hired another plumber to make repairs and turn on water. We do not take responsibility for any of the issues the customer and her family endured as we made her amply aware that Fred would not be available until Monday May 15th. Ms. ********* declined to schedule an appointment for Monday, but instead contacted the office the following week to complain and to request to speak to the owner. This entire situation could have easily been avoided. The plumber she hired is a septic and drain cleaning specialist as indicated in her list of expenses and did not complete necessary repairs to system and left it pressurized which caused water damage. We stand by our initial response to this complaint, please review that  response again along with the detailed documentation that was provided by us.  

  Customer response

  08/02/2023

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  I stand by my initial complaint, and I must say Fred the Plumber is quite the fiction writer.  He definitely missed his calling.  Just about the only grain of truth in his responses is that I was not able to meet him on the initial appointment.  The rest is all lies.  I was not upset that he was late – I didn’t even notice he was late, as I had just arrived about 15 minutes before he did and was grateful that I had arrived first as I thought he might arrive before I did and leave thinking I missed another appointment.  But he didn’t know that, so he makes up a story just to make me look like an unreasonable person. As I mentioned, and Mr. Mattice should be aware that Fred is not doing him any favors by representing Mattice Mechanical out in the community, Fred arrived with a very arrogant “I know everything and you don’t” attitude.  I was not able to say anything to him.  When I tried to show him the basement, he shushed me and said he did not need to be shown, “he was going to follow the pipes”.  I mentioned this to Alyese in a subsequent conversation and she agreed that she could not speak to him either.  So for Fred to claim that he asked me about the antifreeze and I refused it is ridiculous – the man does not speak to people.  When he says he only had a list for certain appliances to winterize, I did not give him a list, and once again, I could not speak to him.  When he states he was not told how the winterization was done in the past, how could I have told him?  He wouldn’t allow me to speak.  Yet I have invoices for the past 12 years that I have owned this house and 8 years with another house, in which I have always had my houses winterized, air compressor used to blow out all the pipes, and yes, antifreeze in all pipes, appliances, traps, etc.  (Sample invoice attached).  And never a broken pipe.  Why would I decline antifreeze when I know the importance of using antifreeze in the pipes?  Fred states the pipes were already broken – that is pure fiction and blaming the victim once again.  The plumber who did the repairs left the broken pipes to show me how he knew that the winterization was not done properly.  The water laid in the pipes (that were not blown), froze during the winter and then split open as per the photos.  These were not previously broken. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.  Since Fred knows the pipes broke on his watch, he now wants to claim that he gave me so much advice and I refused it, and hence there is no warranty on the winterization.  Where does it say that on the invoice?  (Copy of invoice attached again)  That’s something that’s usually noted on the invoice.  The invoice proudly states that the house was winterized.  And because Fred is so omniscient, he had all sorts of plans of what he was going to do in the Spring when he re-opened the house.  Never discussed those with me - all of those sales items were listed on the invoice.  So if he was willing to do all that writing on the invoice, why wouldn’t he write down that there was no warranty because I had refused the antifreeze?  He didn’t write it because it didn’t happen that way.  He was asked by his boss to respond to this complaint, and so he has to cover his assets and make himself look good.  And so you see a bunch of “I recommended…”    But the reality is we did not discuss the water treatment system, nor water tests, nor did he show me any crystals from the hot water tank.  He did not state that the water softener and carbon filter were not working back in November.  And I know personally that they were working fine as the house was rented all summer and I stayed there in the fall and there was no problem with them.  But, more importantly, we know they were working because Fred did not write up a new order for a water softener and carbon filter on his Spring Plans on the invoice.  Had it been the case that they were not working, he would have jumped at adding a few more sales items to the list.  The water filtration system was working just fine until Fred decided he couldn’t use an air compressor or antifreeze because he didn’t have enough in his truck.   He states it himself in his response to this complaint.  How many plumbers go out on a winterizing assignment and fail to bring antifreeze?  It’s just incompetence, pure and simple.  And so, he left water in the tanks and they froze during the winter and cracked at the base causing a slow leak onto the floor.   At some point, someone should take responsibility for the damage done rather than to continue to blame the victim. What I did notice and ask him about, besides whether he had blown out the pipes and used the antifreeze, was whether he had removed the in-house chlorinator from the system as it probably had water in it.  He stated no, and at that point, he disconnected it in front of me and I noticed a big mashup of dissolved chlorine pellets mixed with water.  I told him that could not be left that way, it would freeze over the winter and crack, and so he proceeded to remove the chlorinator and dumped the partially used chlorine pellets in the creek by the house.  Who does that?   I was dismayed that he had dumped chlorine in the creek water, but not as dismayed as this whole interaction with this company’s incompetent and negligent practices. And so I must return to my original question to the Better Business Bureau - Is it acceptable that a licensed plumber cause over $10,000 in damages to someone’s home, and then respond by stating: “I’ll come by to fix it sometime next week”.   And further when questioned about it, the response is:  “The client never scheduled again to make repairs or re-pipe.”  Is that really acceptable?  As a professional plumber, you know the damage being caused by water leaks and you know that homeowner is going to encounter bigger problems the longer it takes to make repairs.  Is that response really acceptable?  And to date, 8-2-23, no one has called to apologize or even acknowledge that there was a problem.  Although denied, it’s looking like what Alyese said to me was in fact true:  "it's not company policy for Justin (Mattice) to call up customers".  Does anyone at the Better Business Bureau think this is acceptable business practice of a licensed plumbing company and its owner? I don’t envy the Better Business Bureau for having to decide cases like this.  It must be tough not having been there and not seeing what occurred.  But the truth of the matter is revealed in Fred’s own words when confronted with the leaking pipe in May 2023: “At this point, I had come to the end of the workday and did not have the materials to make all necessary repairs...” and there was no way he was going underneath a hot and dusty house in search of leaks and repairing pipes.  And there was no way he was coming back to fix them.  The company claims they told me they would come back on Monday to repair everything, but that is not true.  Fred stated he was booked for most of the week, and when Alyese finally answered the phone, she thought possibly Wednesday of the following week and that was not even a sure thing.  This is totally unacceptable for a company to put someone through all that damage, and then try to wash their hands of the whole matter as though they’re a  company that’s hanging drapes and not an emergency-laden company that requires urgent responses and a sense of commitment. When a person calls in a plumber, it’s because they are relying on that plumber and trusting that that plumber has been vetted and will be competent and will take care of everything that needs to be done.  And if there’s a problem, especially one caused by that same plumber, then definitely, the expectation is that they will stay to fix it, regardless of the time, because it’s an emergency.   You just don't leave broken pipes unattended to.  That trust was broken, and I had to spend thousands of dollars that I did not have to fix the problems caused by Mattice Mechanical. This response is unacceptable, and I ask that Mr. Mattice’s license be revoked as this will no doubt happen again with other customers.  In fact, the entire company should be shut down for their incompetence and lack of customer service.  Best regards,**** *********

  Customer response

  08/29/2023

  Just to summarize, I needed to have my house winterized in November 2022.  From my experience with previous plumbers for the last 20 years, it takes about 3-4 hours to complete the job, as the pipes need to be drained, an air compressor used to blow out any remaining water, and antifreeze placed in all appliances, toilets, pipes, drains, or anywhere else where water could remain and freeze over the winter. Fred the Plumber from Mattice arrived with a very arrogant attitude. He did not want me to speak to him or even show him where the basement was. "I'm going to follow the pipes" he told me. After 1 hour he told me he was done. I was shocked and asked him if he blew out the pipes.  He seemed to be annoyed by me speaking to him and said: "that is not necessary. All that needs to be done is to drain the pipes." I asked whether he used antifreeze; again, he said: "that's not necessary except for the toilets." He then wrote up a list of items he "would like to do next Spring during the re-opening". (He spoke to me as though he was the owner of the house, and I was a small child.) He seemed more intent on adding sales items than to take care of the task at hand. Upon re-opening the house on 5/11/23, he found a "leak" and blamed it on the copper piping, telling me I would need to replace all the copper piping in the house. He told me he'll "come back sometime next week to fix the leak". I'm still waiting... I called the company several times, but they don’t usually answer their phones.  At one point, I was able to reach the company secretary, Alyese, explained the situation, and asked to speak to the owner, Justin Mattice. She responded that "it's not company policy for Justin to call up customers". (???) To date, no one has called to apologize or even acknowledge that there was a problem. Meanwhile I have over $10,000 in damages to 4 broken pipes, the furnace which was hit by the spraying water, a retention tank, water softener and carbon filter froze and all cracked at their base. These were not immediately apparent because there was water everywhere, and so we could not tell where the water was coming from.  Once the plumber from **** finished, we knew the broken pipes were fixed, but he advised I call a water filtration expert in as it didn’t seem to him that the water softener and carbon filter were working properly.  So, it was a process of about 3-4 weeks in which every time I thought things were all fixed, we would find yet another consequence of Fred’s incompetence and negligence in his work.  Fred also had removed the shutoff valve for no apparent reason which caused all kinds of chaos during the leaks when the plumber who came to do the repairs frantically looked for a shutoff valve. The proof I have, which was submitted previously to the BBB website, is the invoice from **** ******** * **** ******** which clearly states the pipes broke as a result of a poor winterizing procedure.  He left me the broken pipes which he stated are typical of water remaining in the pipes, freezing over the winter, and splitting open as the photos I previously submitted indicate.  Other proof includes the other invoices from other plumbers who came to check on the water filtration system and found the cracks at their bases and Fred’s own responses, previously sent to the Better Business Bureau.  If you look through them, he alleges that I declined the air compressor and antifreeze.  Why would I do that if I’ve been through this process for 20 years and know that those items need to be used?  And why did he not include that in his invoice?   That’s something that any company does when a client refuses a recommendation.  He claims now that there’s no warranty on his work because I declined his recommendations – why isn’t that on the initial invoice from November 2022?  It’s not there because he never made such a recommendation.  His responses indicated that he didn’t use antifreeze because he had very little of it in his truck.  And the truth of why he didn’t repair the pipes he broke is also in his responses.  If you read through them, you’ll see:  again he didn’t have the necessary materials in his truck, and it was the end of his work day, (so who cares if your pipes are broken?)   That’s like a fireman saying, well your house is still burning, but it’s 5pm and my workday is over.  Is that acceptable business practice for a company that typically deals with emergencies? I wrote to the Better Business Bureau because I went through a lot of stress, frustration, and unnecessary expenses with this company, and as you can see from their responses, they’re not very ethical or responsive.  They sent in one reply and just keep on repeating it over and over again.  They stated that they take no responsibility for their action and that is the truest statement that they have provided amid a lot of fiction.  Meanwhile, other people out there may use this company thinking they are reputable because they have “no record” with the BBB, but if you look at other feedback websites, you’ll see that there have been other complaints against Mattice.  It’s just that people don’t have the time or the inclination to put in a formal complaint or perhaps they don’t know that an organization such as the BBB exists to monitor unethical business practices.  I felt it was my duty to prevent other people from having to deal with such incompetence and poor business practices.  When you hire a plumber, you’re putting your most important asset in their hands – your house.  It’s a matter of trust.  I trusted them to use their expertise and time-tested plumbing practices.  They failed me, and I’m looking towards the Better Business Bureau to live up to their mission and, at the very least, hold Mattice Mechanical accountable for their incompetence and lack of care in dealing with a problem that they themselves created and sanction them in some way.  I would also like a public apology from this company for all of the hardships they put me through and a refund for the money I had to pay for this fiasco, which was money I did not have.  And by the way, they never sent me an invoice for the May 11, 2023 service call in which the broken pipes were discovered.  Why not?  Because they know that they are responsible for breaking those pipes and the rest of the damage done.  Please hold them accountable and don’t allow them to continue to operate in such a negligent and destructive manner.  Thank you for your attention to this matter. Lucy Regards, **** *********

  

  Business response

  08/30/2023

  BBB spoke to the business owner and the following was relayed: Our invoice for this job was vague and that is our fault.  I've already spoken to my guy about that and we are being much more detailed in our invoices and notes to avoid this kind of situation again.  However, other than not having a better, more detailed invoice of the work we did -I'm sorry but this customer's situation is not our responsibility.   Our invoice states that we performed winterization on the house.  What is does not state is that this customer refused the Anti-Freeze that we use on every winterization job that we do.  She told us that in the past, other companies she hired did not use Anti-Freeze and so she would not let us use it.  We tried to explain to her that we may use a completely different procedure than another company and it was in her best interest to allow us to follow our procedure and utilize Anti-Freeze but she refused it multiple times.  This is evidenced when she writes that she knows how to winterize and told us how she wanted it done in her own words in her complaint.   We also tried explaining to her that maybe the previous companies that she used did not use anti-freeze but instead blow out the pipes.  Well, our procedure is to use anti-freeze and not blow out the pipes.  Again, we tried to explain this to this customer a few times while on site but she insisted we do not use anti-freeze because her previous company did not.  At some point, after trying to explain this to her a few times, and getting told no - and getting told what to do and how to do it by this customer, my guy eventually could not fight with her anymore and performed the exact service that she insisted upon.  He did reiterate to her that we do not blow the pipes out so not using Anti-Freeze is not in her best interest but she insisted we do exactly that so we did.  Now like I said, I had a talk with my guy about putting all of this in the invoices and notes moving forward and we have been doing that, the whole company all my guys have been doing that, moving forward to avoid situations like this coming at us again.  But with that being said, I am telling the truth- I have no reason to lie because if we did make a mistake I would take full responsibility and the cost associated with repairing that mistake would come out of my guy's check.  I would have no problem doing that if we were at fault.  But we are not.  Also, I think that if you look at everything I'm explaining that happened- it matches up with her version of events right on.   Now she is also blaming us for other things such as the water softner.  The water softener was in Bypass mode and was not even working when we were there. And the last thing I want to say is that when she contacted us with her concerns afterwards, we right away offered to come out and take a look and assess the situation with her.  We told her that if we were responsible, we'd make repairs.  But she wouldn't let us come out- we tried to schedule her and everything- she refused us returning.  So I didn't even have the opportunity to take a look or offer any kind of repairs if it was deemed that we were responsible after taking a look.  And then she goes and hires a 3rd party company and wants us to pay for that?  I don't think that is right or fair.    

  Customer response

  08/30/2023

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  Once again, there is a lot of fiction going on in this response.  Luckily, I had previously uploaded my previous plumber’s invoice (****** Invoice) for winterizing the house in November 2021, as a sample of the type of winterizing service that I was used to receiving and in which the ****** plumber states:   “shut camp down disconnect dishwasher / water softener / hot water tank / expansion tank / well house / washing machine / removal of all shower heads / toilet tanks blow out water lines with air compressor put antifreeze in all the toilets / dishwasher / washing machines / sink drains / shower drains labor and materials $437.50 tax $36.09 total $473.59” Now this is not the best grammar, I’ll admit, but one can easily distinguish what is being stated, and yes, for the past 12 years, ****** blew out the water lines with an air compressor and put antifreeze in all the above areas.  And never a broken pipe or leak with this procedure.  Now why would I suddenly tell Fred the Mattice plumber, who did not allow me to speak to him anyway, that I didn’t want him to use antifreeze????  Why would I do that? And in Fred’s responses in red, one finds the truth:   I informed the client that I only had enough antifreeze to winterize the traps, washing machine, toilets, and kitchen as I had never visited the property before.  Now, I ask myself:  what kind of plumber goes out on a winterizing assignment and fails to bring enough antifreeze???  But that’s more a management problem, so I won’t comment on that one. As stated in previous responses, the water softener and carbon filter were properly working last year, and I know that because the house was rented, and renters complain about any little thing, so imagine if the water softener and carbon filter were not working properly.  And I stayed at the house for several weeks after Labor Day last year, and everything was working just fine.  Both plumbers from ***** ******** * ******** (invoices previously uploaded) stated that if the water was not blown from the appliances, the water just sits there and freezes over the winter.  They found cracks at the base of both tanks, causing a continuous slow leak onto my basement floor.And as stated in previous responses, Mattice Mechanical is not in the habit of answering phones or responding to customers.  So, I re-emphasize that I called several times to get them to come back and fix the problem, to ask why the shutoff valve had been removed, to get the manual for the ***** filter, etc., and I finally was able to speak with Alyese, who had no idea when someone might be free to go by. There was never any offer to come out and look at the problem, there was never an apology, and as of 8-30-23, I am still waiting for someone to return my calls and schedule me in… So just to recap, in this response, Mattice alleges that I declined several times to have Fred use antifreeze, even fought him on that, and that their company doesn’t use an air compressor to winterize houses.  So, if that’s true, what was Fred doing at my house?   Winterizing the house requires 3 things:  draining the water from the pipes, using the air compressor to blow out any remaining water from the pipes, and pouring in antifreeze.  According to Mattice, I refused the antifreeze, which is plainly just a lie, and they just don’t use an air compressor.  Well, that explains why the pipes broke – all Fred did was drain the water from the pipes.   And so I end with Mr. Mattice’s words: “I have no reason to lie because if we did make a mistake I would take full responsibility and the cost associated with repairing that mistake would come out of my guy's check.  I would have no problem doing that if we were at fault.”  Thank you for clarifying this situation, Mr. Mattice.  When can I expect a public apology and the check reimbursing me for all my expenses caused by your guy's negligence and incompetence?  Regards,  **** *********

  

  Business response

  09/19/2023

  The business owner relayed the following to BBB: I'd like to please see records from her that she had the water softener serviced every year as she states and that it was in working order prior.   Again, she refused to let my guy use Anti Freeze.  I told my guy that it was his mistake not writing that on the invoice notes that 'customer refused anti-freeze because that's not what her previous company did."  I have dealt with that employee accordingly.  All of my guys now take detailed notes on jobs so that something like this doesn't happen again.    I'm prepared and willing to do arbitration.   

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩