How did you find these guys? The bit about the $7700 install for a tankless water heater tells me they are ripoff artists. This is not ok. It sounds like they sized you up as not very knowledgeable and thought they could charge you an exhorbitant amount. I'm not as concerned about the PEX issue as I am about how much you paid for their time. A $550 estimate for 2 hours of digging... and that only took 20 minutes? My lawyer doesn't get that! Have you paid them yet? If so, can you cancel a check or challenge the credit card charge?

In any case, since you say you are out of your league, get some help. Call the Mayor's office and see if there is a consumer protection department that can help, or a legal aid non-profit if you can't afford an attorney. Or consider a small claims court case, where you can represent yourself for a small filing fee. Also, do you have any adult children who can go to bat for you? Good luck.

Hi Kudzu,
Thank you for the reply. I am waiting for the manager of the office to call me back but he is out for the day.

How did I find them? Well, yellow pages. They have Rooter in their name and are supposed to act like gentleman. They run nationwide commericals on TV.

If I had been here it would not have happened, but dh handled it.

I am so livid. Yes, I can afford a lawyer, but I hate to but may have to. What I wanted to make sure of is that
it does not look like 6 feet of pex. They charge something like $150 FOOT for installing the PEX, that is why they said 6 feet...pictures say otherwise.

Should I call the national office?

Update:
Manager called from home after viewing the pictures. He said obviously plumber "made a calculation mistake" 6 ft of PEX that plumber said he used versus 13 inches that was actually used. (they charge $186 per foot of PEX)

They offered a $400 refund off the $1900, which we refused.
They called back and offered $889 for total price, which we asked for break down of fees. They had a new $88 extra fee which we refused.

Finally settled this mess for $776.00. I am more than willing to pay $776 but not $1900...especially when we were lied to.

They are coming by to give us our old check (which we stopped payment on) and take new check for $776. And of course, to get their shovel they left under the house.

Just wanted to update everyone.

How can they charge so much for PEX ? It only costs pennies per foot. The labor is the same for 10 cents of pex as it is for 50 cents of pex.

pex cost is 30 to 50 cents a foot, you are being ripped off. Go online and google pex tubing and you will see the price fer foot.

Yea, I realize how cheap it is. I told them that and they said the $186 per foot is their labor charge for installing it. I know we were totally taken advantage of, and I'm sure an honest plumber would have charged far less than the $778 we finally ended up settling on.

I only wish I had been here when they were to be paid. DH just doesn't think that clearly as he used to as his MS has progressed and wrote them a check. I was only gone because child was sick and took to dr.

I remembered something my lawyer friend always says, "A bad settlement is better than a good lawsuit" So probably cheaper than hiring a lawyer.

I do wonder about writing this up on Angieslist, as I jsut don't want someone else to be taken advantage of.

Thanks for the moral support.

Well congratulations that you got these crooks to come down a fair amount. For someone who's "just a housewife," you did good! If it were me, I'd be tempted to pay the reduced amount...and then take them to small claims court. You can always say -- truthfully -- that you did more research and discussion with other people after you gave them the check for $778, and realized that it was still a ripoff. The idea that you were charged per foot for PEX installation is ridiculous. Whether it's 1 foot or 25 feet, the amount of labor is essentially the same, and the materials are only a few bucks more.

Why not contact the national headquarters anyway giving them the info on what happened asking for a reply. They would want to know how they are being represented by this plumber.

Before paying, contact the State licensing board and request that a field representative look at this total situation. Save all the paper work and do not let these people do any more work at your house.
At the website, click on the link for complaints.

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas

contact the main office. Get another quote. Enough bad press and they may refund even more. Sorry but I can not see paying $800 for 1 hour of work when the part is so cheap. They will say they had 3 guys on the job but thats theie fault.

Now that the furor has died down and this ended as a mostly happy event, I can tell you that I deal with this stuff almost daily.

As a manufacturer's rep for a heating equipment manufacturer, I get calls from desperate people, usually young single women that these types of clowns seem to prey on. I can always refer them to the dealers who are honest, but usually I get the call after "the damage is done".

These dealers go on a list of ones who will never get a recommendation from me and I feel I'm doing my part to promote an honest relationship between our dealers and our product users.

Labor rates in the heating industry in this area are about $70 per hour per man. I realize that companies have to make money to stay in business. It's when there is an obvious gouging, as in this case, that I do my little part to help out.

Thanks again for all your comments. Kudzu, thanks for mentioning stopping the payment. When you mentioned that, I had not thought of doing that, I decided to do a quick BBB check on them and their rating was F. Then I got dh to put a stop payment on the check which I believe gave us great leverage for them listening to us.

The sad thing is that we used this same chain before a couple of years ago, but what I did not realize is that we called a different office. The different office is close by, but has a different owner, and it has an A rating with BBB. I learned alot about using someone and not checking on them. I normally check references, but thought, hey we have used them before, which we reallly had not as we had used the other franchisee.

I know without those pictures there is no way this would be settled. They sent the plumber back out here at 6:00 to give us our stop payment check back and claim his shovel he left under house. Husband gave him a good lecture on "value" and ripping people off. I doubt it did any good, but the plumber looked like he was very sheepish and embarrased. The office manager was obviously angry at him, as he insisted it was 6 feet, and at most it was about 12 inches of pex... 1 ft vs 6 ft is fraud...

Hubby does not want to pursue this, but I do. I plan on submitting it to Angies List calling corporate etc. At this point it is not about me, it is about the next victim who uses them.

Thanks again, you all rock!!!

computerklutz-
I agree with you totally. At some point it becomes a matter of principle. It's never fun to continue to pursue stuff like this, but, after what these guys did to you, your response is appropriate and they deserve it. I wish you good luck on this.

Name and shame these clowns

Mrclancy, you are right they do need to be named. I have everything documented, it was in deed deceptive on their part.

It was Mr. Rooter, the franchise that is on Airport Freeway in Fort Worth Texas. It has an F rating with the BBB.

However, the Mr. Rooter franchise in Fort Worth on Camp Bowie has an A rating with BBB.

When you folks post these complaints, please make clear which company you're talking about. I had to read all the way down into the comments section to determine the offending company was Mr. Rooter. However, in the body of the complaint, the writer says 'a national chain plumbing company with Rooter in the name.' Now most people are going to assume you meant Roto-Rooter, which is the most recognized name in plumbing and drain service. I work for Roto-Rooter and we received a form email on our web site slamming us for doing you wrong and there was a link to this page. Unfortunately, the person who filled out the form on our site did not leave a real email address so I was unable to let him know that it was not Roto-Rooter who wronged you, it was Mr. Rooter. People often get confused about the two companies and in this case, many reasonable people would read your initial complaint and assume you were talking about Roto-Rooter, a company that has been around almost 75 years and has a great reputation.
I'm sorry for your problem and wish you had called us instead.

Here is a link that might be useful: Roto-Rooter home page

Paul, I never meant to cause you any confusion towards your company, and I see the names are similar. I hesitated to name the company in the beginning as I did not want any more problems than I already had.

I mentioned that it was a national company, yes, but I also mentioned they were supposed to act like gentlemen. Mr. Rooters national ad campaign has been how "not every nice person is a Mr. Rooter plumber."

I do apologize for the confusion.
I also tried to be clear which one it was as the other Mr. Rooter in Fort Worth is okay, but the one I used did not behave professionally.

It is sad that the names are similar ..... I am glad you work for a reputable company and I certainly wish I had used a reputable company.

I've lived in Texas for 47 years and have never heard of Mr. Rooter.

dadoes, I don't know. I have lived in Texas the same amount of time as you and I have heard of them many times. Perhaps it is the part of Texas. Mr. Rooter is an international company with over 300 locations...so they are pretty big outfit.

They've had a radio campaign in eastern PA for the last year or two. Before that, I never heard of them either.

Computerklutz, it's a common problem and has been ever since the patent wore off on the original Roto-Rooter drain cleaning machine many years ago. Lots of copycat "rooter" companies started popping up with names that sound an awful lot like ours. We've had people call us to complain about bad service only to learn they actually used a sound-alike competitor. But such name confusion works for those companies because by blurring the lines, they're able to capitalize on our well known name unless people are paying extra close attention.
Roto-Rooter is based in Cincinnati but I grew up in Fort Worth (Burleson). The Fort Worth Roto-Rooter location is an independent franchise, not one of the company-owned branches but I know the owners and they're good, honest people.
I work at Roto-Rooter's corporate headquarters in Cincinnati. Sorry to hear about all the trouble you're having with our competitor. I hope it all works out for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Roto-Rooter home page

ROTO Rooter is not exempt of problems either, from leaving a mess or tools behind to doing side jobs at inflated prices. This is just based on my own local experiences, your mileage may vary.

That is terrible! You should report them to the better business bureau.

Roto-Rooter has always been good in my experience as well.

Send them a check for $200.00. Tell them to sue you for the rest. They won't even think of trying it. A judge would brutalize them in court. They are criminals so don't feel as if you are shorting them. That job should have cost 1/10th of what they tried to charge you.