Recently, the gas company was servicing my mothers neighborhood, replacing all underground pipes and gas meters. When they got around to my mothers home, they noticed a small gas leak inside the home. They informed my mother that she would have to contact a plumber to fix the leak before they would be able to reconnect her gas service. The leak was in an elbow portion of a pipe and we were told by the gas company that it was an ‘easy repair’.
My mother called upon GEM Plumbing and Heating to come out and fix the leak because they had done previous work in her home and she was familiar with them. To her disbelief, they quoted her $1,349 to fix what she was told by the gas company, was a simple job. GEM TOOK ADVANTAGE OF THE SITUATION (where my mothers gas service was turned off) and couldn’t be turned back on until repaired. GEM decided to turn this job into a ‘big to-do’. This put my mother in a spot. Thankfully, instead of just giving in and telling them to go ahead and fix it, she decided to contact another local and highly rated “Professional Company” to come out and look at it.
They were upfront with her on pricing and it was on a per-hour basis plus any materials costs. When the job was complete, it cost her $247.00 and it took them a little over an hour to complete. That’s a whopping $1,100 less than what GEM was to charge for the same job/end-result. Incredible!
Bottom line here, watch your wallet and by all means get a second quote before choosing GEM. I’d also like to mention that when the gas company came back out to turn on the gas, they had to inspect the repair work done because the gas was turned off when it was actually being repaired. They said that everything looked good and that there were no leaks.
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