Daves Plumbing And Rooter

On Friday morning the plumber arrived a little bit early (very nice) and was waiting outside in his van. The van was unmarked but in my experience this is typical with contractors in our area. I waved at the gentleman in the van to signal that I was ready whenever he was and a few minutes later he approached my front door.
I was greeted by a pleasant man that was clean an professional looking. We went inside and I showed him the two leaks that we had in our house. While showing him the leak in our guest bath he immediately commented how our fixture was very expensive and that the parts may be special order. He explained in detail what he would have to do to fix the problem which included removing some grout from around the fixture. He made sure I was ok with this since it would alter the appearance. I appreciated the detail and concern that he had for the end result.
We moved on to the other leak in our kitchen and after inspecting everything he said that this leak should be an easy fix. After that he asked to see my water main and I showed him where it was located. He noted that we didn’t have a pressure regulator (a very common thing for the houses in our neighborhood) and that we should have one. He very clearly explained the benefits of having a pressure regulator along with the negatives of not having one. I asked him how much the pressure valve cost and he said $ 400. Then I asked him for a price to do everything and he quoted a price which I agreed to.
The plumber left to go and get the necessary parts from the local plumbing supply store and returned a short while later. He quickly finished the repairs to the bathroom and kitchen. When it came time to install the pressure regulator he noted that the sprinklers in our backyard were tied in to the water main in our house and that if he installed the pressure regulator our sprinklers would no longer work. I asked him what our alternatives are and he stated that we really needed to separate the rear sprinklers from the house line which meant that he needed to run a new line from the water main in the front yard to the backyard. His suggestion was to break up our concrete along the side of the house and across our rear patio to run the new line. I asked if there was another way mentioning the attic as a possible alternate route and he said that that might work. He quoted me a new price for the work which was substantially more than our original quote. When I stated that I would have to discuss this with my wife he began to get noticeably nervous and anxious.
This was when he offered another alternative: he could install a more expensive pressure valve that would provide enough pressure to run the backyard sprinklers but still reduce the pressure inside the house to a more manageable level. I asked him how much this new pressure valve would cost and he said it was $ 600 more (that means that this new pressure valve was $ 1000). I once again stated that I would have to discuss things with my wife to determine the best course of action. I didn’t want to go with a band-​aid fix if the best long term solution was the new line. He immediately dropped $ 400 off the price of the «special» regulator. I once again told him that I needed to talk things over with my wife and asked for the bill for the work that he had completed so far.
He went off to his van and was on the phone for a little while. He returned and offered to knock off another couple hundred dollars off the original estimate if we installed the pressure valve right now. At this point, I felt like he was determined to make a sale at any cost regardless of what the right thing to do was. Ironically, I was leaning towards the much more expensive new line in the backyard. I told him thank you but no thank you and asked for our bill for today. He gave me a non-​itemized bill that was for 75% of the original estimate which had included fixing the two leaks AND the pressure valve install (which he had originally explained would be most of the charge since it required the original $ 400 part and a lot more labor).
When I inquired as to why the price was so high he first stated that the parts for the bathroom faucet where very expensive because it was a very high end fixture. When I inquired further he stated that the original pricing had a special discount since we were doing three jobs. Now that we dropped one of the jobs the special discount was no longer available. During this exchange he was extremely confrontational and seemed very angry. I quickly paid him and said thank you.
Feeling like I had been taken advantage of I contacted three local independent plumbers and confirmed that we had, in fact been over charged for the work that was performed and the additional work that they were proposing. All I can say is be very careful if you decide to engage with this company.

Very poor customer service! He Had a fit because I asked for a written quote. His words were «if you’re gonna be like that then go find someone else» consider that done. He sounded like Bubba. My experience if you can’t back up your quote officially it’s because there’s something to hide. Will never do business with someone rude and arrogant. Found someone wayyyy better and paid less booyah!

Dave is awesome! great guy, no BS and within 2 minutes figured out my main line problem and told me how he could fix it correctly for minimal $$$$
who does that!!!
ive dealt with tons of plumbers and Dave was by far the most honest friendly and knowledgable that ive seen!
great guy!