ComplaintsforFirelands Plumbing

• Initial Complaint

  01/19/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Reference my Google review on them: Overall, the workmanship, quality, and experience is awful. I received an initial quote and a statement of work (SOW) to be performed. They showed a lot of excitement and appeared to enjoy the destruction and removing my attached deck in order to get to the wall. I’ll have to rebuild this myself, now. The owner did not follow his own statement of work. He cut corners. He simply did not perform some of the work that I was charged for. When asked, he admitted the work wasn’t performed as described, but attempted to explain away the changes as “unnecessary”. They were the ones to quote it. I was definitely charged a specific and separate amount for the work that wasn’t performed. They didn’t replace cinderblock or rebuild the wall, as per the SOW. They stood up the damaged block and filled with concrete and/or mortar. Gross additional charges were added for a second wall… that was in the original statement of what the company would perform, but conveniently omitted from the statement of work. I was told 4-5 days for the project. I was told that they would clean up and we’d “never be able to tell they were there” when all was said and done. It took five weeks. They destroyed my basement floor tiles. They left it filthy. The work is shoddy. It looks awful. The owner declared themselves done, and decided to walk away. No clean up. No grass seed or sod on the ground outside. They left it a muddy mess. All this for 150% of the agreed upon budget. The owner even tried to appeal to me that he had performed the work on my house as a charity case. I’ll be fixing this myself now, for months to come. I’ll be lucky to be done in a year. I will not recommend their services. I will do precisely the opposite.

  Business response

  02/26/2024

  Everything was fine during the project, not a word said, not a complaint. It's all written in the estimate,it was approved, when completed they paid the bill. Everything was fine up untill they found out their insurance company wasn't going to pay the bill, only then they had complaints and wanted refund. We specifically told them their insurance would not cover that work and there was zero change that they would. .They didn't listen, Never called the office. See pictures before and after. The only permit 5 for attachments. There are over 80 before and after pictures. Pictures clearly show a nice cleaned up job. 

  Customer response

  02/26/2024

  Complaint: ********
  I am rejecting this response because:
  Daily, after the completion of work, we took photos. We attempted to ask questions of the workers. None had answers.
  Every word of their response is incorrect. 
  We complained to them everyday. The complaints obviously fell on deaf ears. 
  ***** just wandered around.  We believe he stole from us.  We know he was fired from the business before the job was complete for stealing from them.
  ***** seemed to work. Slowly, but he worked at a pace throughout the day. 
  ****** seemed to be in charge, when he was there.  ****** would address issues and complaints with us, almost daily. These issues were never resolved by his boss, *****. ***** moved him to another site to keep him from talking to us. He was not present most of the time. 
  ***** (the owner) simply wouldn’t speak to my wife or address her concerns.  He was arrogant and appeared high most of the time.  He slammed the house numerous times while operating the heavy equipment. ***** would be absent for days at a time. 
  The work is shoddy.  It remains shoddy and sloppy.  They never cleaned up their mess.  They damaged my floor tiles and did not repair their damage. They never sodded my yard, like they said they would.
  They did advise the insurance would not pay for the wall damage. We still had to try.  When they did not, we paid the bill.
  There are items on their Statement Of Work that we were charged for, that they did not perform, and the know it.  ***** attempted to changed the SOW at the end of the job.  They did not replace the cinderblock walls, they did a shoddy patch job, cranking mortar and cement into the spaces and causing bubbles on the walls.  They did not go 18” below the foundation and install a second external sump, neither did they install a back flow device in the front. We already had one.  They did not repair or work on that one either. They did charge $3,100 for the work though. I want, at least, this amount returned. Maybe another $5,000 returned for the new cinderblock they didn’t replace.

  My photos will not load from this device due to file type (.jpeg).

  Sincerely,
  ******* ******

  
  

  Business response

  02/28/2024

  We can't be any more detailed as to what the job entails. The invoice here is the actual job invoice, not the estimate from October. They knew exactly what was happening. They paid, but according to their complaints we were so terrible. People don't write checks for this amount of money if they actually believe what they are claiming here. Our Pictures attached here speak for themselves. The story changes each time they respond, now it's personal attacks. No refund from us. No more responses from us. 

• Initial Complaint

  08/07/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I called Firelands Plumbing on 6/1/23 to repair a clogged toilet drain in the lower level of my house. I was told that they would jet & scope the line for $1,000.00. On 6/5/23 the plumbers showed up and used a water jet to try and clean the drain. After failing to unclog the drain they used a camera to try and diagnose the issue. They determined that the camera had gone about 20ft before hitting an obstruction. They told me the sewer line had collapsed and they would have to dig up the line to repair it and they would also put in a clean-out. They said it would cost an additional $1900.00. We paid them the $1,000.00 in cash that night and they called **** to come out and mark ******* lines. They returned several days later and dug two holes next to my front porch trying to find the collapsed drain. After finding footer tile and smelling sewage they determined that the sewage was draining into the footer tile. We paid them the $1900.00 with a check and they told us we were looking at another $10,000.00 to install a sewer line from the house to the street. They also said we should hire a lawyer to go after the company that had tied the sewage drain into the footer tile. I called another plumbing company(Roto-Rooter) to look at the drain. They came out and traced the sewer to a different location then where Firelands Plumbing had dug. They came back later and dug up the line and installed a clean-out and flushed the line out. I called Firelands Plumbing to ask for a refund as their website says "If we can't fix it, you don't pay!" and they had completely failed to fixed the problem and misdiagnosed the issue. The customer service representative told us that the owner would call us back but we have not yet heard back from them. I have never received an invoice for the work but I have attached the electronic quote. I can also provide the image of the check they cashed if necessary. The memo on the check notes the $1000 already paid in cash.

  Business response

  12/21/2023

  I apologize for the delayed response here, it has been a busy year and my email is being jam packed with garbage and it's difficult to even pay attention to it when busy. Try to give attention where it's most important, which are emergency service calls where people have damage and are waiting on us. I haven't even seen his complaint, but to give you some background, we were out to his home, he had major sewer issues, see pictures, we did a dig to expose what looked like sewage in a corrugated drainage pipe on the camera. When we ran the camera into the sewer this is where the camera ended up and you can not have sanitary sewer running through corrugated pipe. We didn't know if it was piled in wrong and it was directing the camera into footer tile or if it was actually installed as sanitary sewer pipe. Either way it's wrong. Shouldnt end up in corrugated pipe running the camera down a sanitary clean out. If camera ends up there, so does whatever goes down the drain. We uncovered it, gave the homeowner a price to fix it, he would not approve the quote, but insisted we come back and dig more to investigate other items that he wanted to look at, but didn't want to pay for it. The excavator was on site for a week waiting for him to approve the work, we were on site for multiple days investigating and he never paid more than the first initial price given, not did we charge him anymore. We pulled equipment out after a week of him not wanting to pay for us to go further, we exhausted the funds that he paid initially and it was an exploratory excavation and if it were just a repair it was going to be done at the same cost as long as it was one full day and no more   and it didn't require more time or material initially planned. Our minimum excavation cost to mobilize, with a full day on site is ****. He paid about half of that. We can't help someone if they don't hear what we're telling them the solution is and what needs to be done. If he states that another company repaired it and did something different than what we suggested, that's typical. ****% of our service calls that we go-to are not failed or worn out plumbing systems, it is fixing another companies incorrect or subpar installs and misdiagnosed issues. It's been that way for 16 years now. If you need anything further please let me know. We do our best to make sure everyone understands what is happening and that they are satisfied with what we are doing. Some people just don't listen and can't be made happy no matter what is done. 

• Initial Complaint

  05/04/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On March 27th, I reached out to Firelands plumbing because there was a leak coming from the upstairs bathroom through into the utility room. They came on March 28th, investigated it, told me that the drain needed to be replaced - worked, said it would cost $1800. The plumbers were great and there was no issue at all and they knocked the price down to $1600. I was happy with this and paid them via check that day, cashed on March 30th. On March 29th, the leak occurred again when I had a shower, so I reached out to the plumber who had told me to text him personally if there were any issues. He came back, later that day, tightened something and said that should have fixed it. However, the leak occurred again so I called him the following day to let him know. He came back on March 31st and said that we was sure this time it would be fixed. For a week it was, however then it started leaking again and so I called the office to ask if anyone else would be able to come and check, but the only people they could send was the same people. They were scheduled to come on April 17th but did not arrive during their window and said it would be late when they could get there, so I rescheduled for the morning of the 18th. Again they said it wouldn't leak again. It was fine for a week but then started leaking again on the 25th. They came back on the 27th and one of the plumbers discovered his colleague hadn't put a rubber ring on the drain. He said that would not be sorted. It started leaking again on the 29th. I called the office May 1st to ask for a refund. They said the owner would come the following day between 9-11. He came after 1pm, looked and said there was no leak, he'd not give me a refund when it wasn't leaking. I said I wasn't a liar and offered to get in the shower to prove it leaks. He told me to get someone else to fix it and left. He then sent me an e-mail when I sent a video showing the leak calling me an ******* and a liar. I am neither.

  Business response

  05/04/2023

  Upon my arrival the customer was rude & disrespectful from the start. The repair that was done at the time of my arrival was correctly installed, up to code, no evidence of any recent leaking, drywall and surrounding area moisture reading was 6% moisture content which is below acceptable level. Thermal imaging had no temp change and nothing indicating leaking or moisture. Only used those two pieces of equipment when nothing visually was leaking. I showed him  that everything was dry as could be and he asked me if I was calling him a liar. I said no sir, I can not address a leak without seeing a leak. He became extremely rude, speaking to me still disrespectful. 

  Our call log has him calling 3 times. The last being when he called and invented a story about the technician slamming his doors and storming out " that was me" and didn't happen. 

  Nothing was leaking, he sure didn't call the office that many times, claims he called the techs personal number, has a warranty, why not call the office number if you are having that Many issues.

  To fix a leak I have to see a leak, can't fix something until I see where it is originating from.

  Unreasonable, and we don't refund jobs that are done and working. It is definitely possible it could have had two leaks, not one. No leaks at the time 

  We stand behind our work, but it is correct, we don't have to put up with anyone being an ******* and disrespectful.

   

  Customer response

  05/05/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  I was not rude. He was two hours later than the window provides and offered no apology for that. He claimed to have video of his visit to me - I’m perfectly willing for that footage to be viewed because I know who I am and how I act. He continues to call me an ******* even in his response to this complaint. 
  

  the leak is still there. Every time I attempt to take a shower it leaks. The lack of moisture probably reflects the fact I can’t use the shower because it’s leaking. I’m not lying and for him to claim otherwise is ridiculous. He can ask his plumbers how many times they came here and if they witnessed the leak each time. Just because he left when I told him I would stand in the shower to prove it was still leaking doesn’t mean it is not still leaking. I just wanted a refund because four visits was enough, and agreed to him coming at all because I wanted to move on to another company who might be able to fix the leak. I’ve been only reasonable and asking for what is fair. He is lying about me.

  
  Sincerely,
  
  **** *****

*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. ↩