Daniel Hurley
5 years ago
Aqua City Plumbing (and Dave the owner in particular) is a classic example of a business that takes advantage of people who need plumbing work done NOW, and who trust that they will get an honest and competitive price. Not the case with this company. Others have noted that Aqua City will NEVER give an estimate over the phone (not even a rough ballpark figure). And they charge about $79 just to come out to give an estimate. What kind of business is that? But people who have an Aqua City magnet on their refrigerator or phone book (like my daughter) still fall for this scam. In my daughter's case, they came out and gave her a $700+ estimate to replace two shutoff valves on either side of the water meter. She didn't know how much work was involved, and one valve connection was dripping on the basement carpet, so she accepted. The work took about 1.5 hours. I called later to complain about the outrageous charge, and I told Dave that the valves cost no more than $20 each. I asked him how he came up with the $700+ price, and he basically told me that it was none of my business (he has high overhead). He said that my daughter accepted his price quote, so he did nothing wrong. I told him he took advantage of her trust, her lack of plumbing knowledge, and her desperation to get the leak fixed. I also told him I contacted two other plumbers, and they DID give me an estimate over the phone. Both estimates were between $200 and $300. My message: Check out reviews before choosing a plumber, and don't just refer to the magnet on your refrigerator. If my daughter would have done this, she would not have called Aqua City Plumbing to begin with.