ComplaintsforNative Plumbing & Drain LLC

• Initial Complaint

  03/04/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unresolved

  More info

  We had basic plumbing work done on November 20, 2023 at our rental property that is being renovated. When we returned to ** in January we noticed that the faucet did not turn/swivel properly. It was a nightmare to try to get them to come back. This company does not answer the phone, return calls and they failed to show up at appointments they made with us. And we had to drive there for each appointment only to have them not show up! Finally, on February 2nd at 9am we had an appointment. We pulled up in the driveway at 8:50 only to find out that they picked the locks to our door and broke in! The 2 workers stated that it was the business policy to go in to properties like this if no one lived in it. We told them this was illegal! We eventually spoke to the owner late that day who told us he would reimburse us for all of the work done wrong and all missed appointments and for his employees damaging our lock (which we had to replace entire door k*** and plates). But to date we have not heard back from the owner or receive the compensation credit to our credit card. We have emailed him, called the office and left messages, but they do not respond. We are from CT so this has been very difficult on us. We did our part and paid them on time as agreed. What they did to us was unacceptable and ILLEGAL and lied to us and now they are avoiding us. It's a very poorly run business.

  Business response

  03/22/2024

  Native Plumbing and Drain received a call requesting a replacement a faucet at one of the clients vacant homes. Due to techs being out sick our office had to reschedule the first appointment. The day of the second appointment our techs were scheduled to do faucet repair at 9am. When Techs arrived they were met by the clients handyman who was already on the property doing some other requested work for the home owners. 

  Our Techs did so, they made requested repair and were surprised to be met by the homeowners that morning accusing them of breaking into the home. Our Techs explained that the clients handyman was on site so they went in to the vacant home to do requested repair as requested. The techs reviewed the repairs with homeowners. The home owners were very angry and began making harassing calls to our office staff threatening to call the police. However the clients approved and paid their invoice less than 24 hours after our techs came and replaced faucet. We then began getting complaint calls. We spoke with the clients several times trying to hear out their complaints and do what we could to resolve any issues that they had. The clients were very rude and angry and yelled at our office staff making them uncomfortable. The owner stepped in and offered to mail our a check of $150 to resolve the issue. The client agreed. However the clients were so violently rude and continued to yell at our office girl day after day even calling her personal (emergency number) making threats.We thought we had this issue resolved and are actually very surprised to see this complaint on BBB after a resolution had already been met. 

  Our company has had many many excellent reviews and has never encountered any issues like this. We hope to get the issue resolved. 

   

  Customer response

  04/03/2024

   
  Complaint: 21364971
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  Native Plumbing's response to our complaint is inaccurate in many ways.  First, they do not address any of the issues that we had. 

  To clarify once again, we had a SCHEDULED apt. for February 2nd at 9am.  We advised Native Plumbing that we would be there to meet them to fix the original job that was done incorrectly on November 20, 2023.   When we pulled up to our property at 8:50am (10 min before our scheduled apt), to our surprise, the plumbers were already inside working.  We met our painter who was doing OUTDOOR painting who did NOT go inside or need to be inside.  Our painter advised us that he noticed the plumbers picked our door (see photo attached) and let themselves in.  When we walked in, we expressed our concern and shock about them picking our locks and their response was they had been to our property before and done this and that this is the business practice when no one is home.   Really?  The question remains why they did/do this and are okay with doing this.  Even more concerning, there was a very visible lockbox on the door!  Why not call the office and ask for the lockbox code instead of picking our locks?  That in itself was very concerning to us....and should be for anyone else!   I have attached a photo to show the damage.  This was a brand-new plate we had just installed a week before and we had to replace it again due to the damage. 

  Native Plumbing states that we paid our bill for this service the next day.   That is inaccurate.  To clarify, we paid for the ORIGINAL job back on November 20th the following day not realizing that the work performed was done wrong.  We left to return north and wanted to pay them as we do with all our contractors in good faith.  We did not realize until we returned the following month that the job was done wrong which is what brought us to this point.  So, this is yet another inaccuracy in their response as to what happened.

  I would also like to address the claims that we "harassed" them and that we were "violently rude" to their office staff.   First, finding out that the techs PICKED our locks and entered our house without our consent was EXTREMELY disturbing and shocking to us.   Are you taking our response to this as harassing and violent?  These techs were obviously professionals at lock picking having this be their first option to get into our locked house!  We were then told that this is their business practice and that they had entered our house in the past when no one was there.  This too was disturbing to hear!   I would imagine any homeowner would feel the same.   We immediately contacted Native Plumbing's office to notify them that this happened.  We were extremely upset (rightfully so) and we told them we wanted to speak to the owner.  The owner made no attempt to call us all day (this shocked us).   We called the office again telling them we wanted to speak to him before the close of the business day.  We also expressed that we felt we needed to call the police.  We felt VIOLATED and extremely concerned that this took place.  Finally, the owner, ****** called after 5pm some time (this happened before 9am) so he was obviously in no hurry to rectify this.  When we spoke, I expressed all of our concerns.  He listened and stated this was not his business practice and that he had been going through some business adjustments, etc.  I told him we really felt that we needed to involve the police and maybe he could come, and we can work it out that way, that we felt that strongly about what had happened.  We spoke a bit more and he offered to give us $150 back for our trouble.  I hesitantly agreed, wanting to give him the benefit over all of all our doubt and didn't contact the police.   We left the conversation he would credit us $150.

  We headed back north the next day.  Three weeks later, we realized we never received the $150 credit.  We again, contacted the office only to be told someone would get back to us, etc.  We never got a phone call back and never received the $150.  We continued to call Native Plumbing only for our phone calls to be forwarded to voice mail.  We realized our calls were then blocked.  And, to address another inaccuracy, we called the only phone number we were given.  We didn't know this was someone's cell phone.  Why give this phone number if you do not want people to call it????  These calls were not harassing, they were to follow up on what ****** offered and agreed to.  We wouldn't have had to call back if ****** followed through on what he offered to us.   We now believe that ******'s offer was not intentional, and instead, he probably just wanted to avoid us calling the police that night (he knew we were leaving the next day).  

  In summary, it is very unfortunate that people are like this and cannot be trusted these days.  It is a very sad and scary world we live in.  We did our part, we paid for the original job.   Yes, they had to come back to repair a job they did wrong, and they did repair it.  Yes, we had a painter who was painting the exterior of our house who had NOTHING to do with this.  He notified us what happened as soon as we pulled up.  Your tech had no problem admitting to picking our lock (photo to prove that is attached).  The techs then tried to point the finger at our painter somehow saying he was to blame.  Picking a lock with a lockbox on it is extremely concerning and violating to us and I would think to anyone.  The fact that this is not being addressed is concerning as well.  We were offered $150 which was never followed through.  If ****** follows through as he said and offered, we would like the $150 to be credited back to our credit card we paid him with.   

   

   

   

  
  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. ↩