Bryan Northrop
2 years ago
I called Zoltan to replace my water main. I briefly described the project on the phone, and he quoted me a price, which I found reasonable. He said he could take a look at the project that day, and do the work in a few days. Great!
He called me back a few minutes later, and said if I wanted to do the work that day, he could do it, for an extra hundred dollars. That seemed a little sketchy, and I declined, I was fine waiting a few days.
When Zoltan showed up, he said I misrepresented the job to him on the phone. I didn't think I had, but ok, I assume that's why a tradesman looks at a project before starting or giving a formal estimate, right? But Zoltan seemed especially annoyed by this.
He told me I didn't tell him the main went under the sidewalk. Well no I did not, but that's a common scenario, and I had offered to send him pictures, which he said wasn't necessary. He said he had to do more things, add protection under the sidewalk or something. I asked, what things? He said he would show me when he did the work. I said, I'm curious, what is it, adding conduit or something? And he would not give me a straight answer.
He said, 'you said this was easy job. I don't recall ever saying that. I'm a contractor and I know when people tell me it's easy, it usuallty isn't, so I'm not likely to tell another professional that. If it's not easy, fine, explain how it is difficult. But he didn't do that.
Anyway, I didn't like the way he was becoming more annoyed and accusatory. I didn't like that he wouldn't be specific about the details under the sidewalk. I didn't like that he was throwing out different numbers as we talked, ranging from $800 to $4800.
So when he said, let's take a look inside the house, I said, you know what, let's save each other some time, say goodbye and move on with your day. This seemed to make him more angry. He said, you said it was easy, you do it yourself!. He wanted to argue more, I just wanted to move on.
Maybe he's a great plumber. Maybe he was having a bad day. Maybe we miscommunicated. Maybe, despite my efforts to be friendly and open minded, I rubbed him the wrong way. In any case, he didn't act professionally, and I felt compelled to relate my experience here.