I was referred to Barnes plumbing by a trusted friend, so I was expecting top notch service and treatment. That did not happen. We had a gas pipe leak that needed to be addressed, and when I called I explained the situation, that the gas was turned off, and that Centerpoint Energy had been there. When I learned of the after hours price, I declined in favor of someone coming the next morning. I got a call in the morning from Barnes and I explained again the situation, that the gas was off after Centerpoint had come, and Barnes scheduled someone to come that morning. The technician said he’d need Centerpoint to come so he could complete his work, and asked me for the number they’d left, but insisted on calling them himself, because he was the licensed plumber. So he called them and then started to do the work. I received no information on when Centerpoint would be coming, nor did the Barnes technician tell me that he’s finished doing the actual pipe work and was JUST WAITING FOR CENTERPOINT WHILE CHARGING US $250 AN HOUR FOR DOING NOTHING!! I was only told this when the technician came to me 3 hours in and said he’d heard from Centerpoint that they had to divert our technician to another job and didn’t know when another could come, and did I want to keep paying him $250 an hour for sitting here. At which point I said that was never discussed and/or told to me, and absolutely not. I told him at no point was I told by anyone that the rate was $250 an hour for time spent, as opposed to work done, nor was I told of the possibility of such a thing. If I had been, and the Centerpoint technician hadn’t arrived yet, I would have told him to leave then before an additional $500 was incurred. He then proceeded to ask me who would be paying the $800+ then! Angry, I told him I would pay so he would leave and stop charging for nothing, but that I would take it up with corporate. He laughed and said “there’s no corporate”. So I said, “well, billing then”. He laughed again and told me good luck. So I called the main Barnes number and explained what had happened with the technician, and while the woman was kind, and tried to be sympathetic, she offered me no options to fix this ridiculous error and lack of communication, except to so, “I will talk to him about that.” She even said that if she were me, she would not have expected to pay for someone sitting there either. I told her that while we had planned to use them (the reason I got the referral in the first place) for another project, I would not be using them for that project, or any other project for that matter. She said she was disappointed to hear that but said she understood. That’s it.
Then the Centerpoint technician came after the Barnes technician had already left, and of course discovered that the Barnes technician’s work was wrong and there were leaks in both of the repairs made. So I had to call Barnes back and tell them to send someone back out anyway, and that the Centerpoint technician had graciously offered to get permission to stay, because he felt it was the right thing to do (thank you Centerpoint). Thankfully Barnes sent a different technician, and along with Centerpoint was able to get the repair done correctly. And also, thankfully, they didn’t try to charge me again. But I had such a disappointing experience that I cannot recommend them in good conscience to anyone - at the very least not for a gas leak repair.
