I don't write many reviews - good or bad, but my recent experience with Benjamin Franklin has compelled me to share my experience. My daughter lives with 3 other girls in an off campus townhome in Clarksville and my wife and I are in Nashville. Two weeks ago my daughter called Benjamin Franklin plumbing due to a clogged toilet. She could not get in touch with us and was panicked as the toilet was overflowing. Mind you, she is a college student that is living on her own this year for the first time. None of her roommates were home and when she could not unclog with the cheap unit supplied plunger she called Benjamin Franklin for assistance. They were prompt in responding and arrived shortly after she called. She was charged a $69 service charge just to show up and then without even trying to plunge the toilet or doing anything else, the service tech explained that he would have to snake the toilet and it would cost another $194. How did he know this without even looking at anything or trying to plunge?? 10 minutes later the toilet was unclogged and my daughter was out $263 for a total of 15 minutes of work. My first issue is that the plumber immediately went to a more expensive operation - snaking the toilet with a "special tool that only professional plumbers have” rather than using a plunger. The second issue I have is the cost for such service. $263 for a 10 minute job - really? $1,000 an hour? Even with travel it’s still a $500 an hour charge - for something that took 10 minutes and required nothing more than having a good plunger. My third issue revolves around my first call to the office. My wife and I were greeted by a nice receptionist that transferred us to the manager on duty. The manager was rude, condescending, called my daughter a liar, and accepted no responsibility or culpability for the issues we had. In fact, from the start she was so defensive that I don't even think she heard our concerns. After a 15 minute conversation that was going nowhere, we asked to speak to the owners.
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