Redbird plumbing laid an underground gas line for us in fall 2011. A year later-this past fall-we start smelling gas. We called the owner of Redbird Plumbing and weren't successful in reaching him. About a week later, we followed up with a text stating that we still smell gas (Sept 26). RP owner suggested we call Nicor because Nicor would come out for free and find the exact spot of the leak which would save him the trouble of having to do this part of the job. Nicor came, found the leak and turned off the gas. We run a business that requires warm ambient temperatures for certain parts of the work we do. Now, we had no heater to run. We contacted RP and let them know Nicor shut off gas and we need the hole in the pipe fixed. On October 17, we still hadn't heard back from Redbird Owner. We tried to contact him again and left a message stating that the problem needed taken care of. Owner finally responds stating he'll be out the next day. He shows up on the 26th, yes, 8 days later. RP Owner takes care of the crack in the pipe. But then the heater wouldn't turn on. We call RP Owner again (Oct 29). RP says, ""oh gee, must just be air in the lines so we should bleed them"" We're not plumbers-it's not our job to bleed the line but we do so anyway. Still the heater wont work and we let RP Owner know this. On October 30, my husband took the day to stop working on our business and try to figure out the heater. We contact RP Owner on the 31 and let him know that we still have no heat. RP Owner fails to respond. On Nov. 2, we contact RP Owner and let him know that we had to hire someone to fix the heater so we could run our business. We indicate that we need RP to call us immediately. RP Owner texts back with a crude remark (he later apologizes for his crassness because he'd been ""day"" drinking....) Husband asks RP Owner to call him so they can discuss things. No response. On November 10th (8 days later) RP Owner finally asks what the HVAC guy found wrong with the heater. Husband explains that there was 3 GALLONS of water in the gas line because when Nicor turned it off (note: the water would have been visible and very noticeable to RP Owner as he fixed the crack in the pipe). The underground pipe sat without any pressure for nearly a month while RP Owner tried to slide out of having to be professional and actually see to a problem with his work. The heater required a new diaphragm, a new igniter and four hours of labor. This was a $475 bill. RP Owner said to send him the bill. On November 14, RP Owner contacts us and says our HVAC guy is a scam because he billed us so much for parts when RP Owner could've gotten them at a quarter of the cost. RP Owner chided us for needing our heater fixed so quickly (After 4 days of notifying him of the issue). He's upset that the repairs cost so much. He refuses to pay the entire bill and will only pay half which is more than we deserve because we were so hasty in hiring a HVAC repair man. RP owner's horrible customer relations ethic states that because we did hire someone, RP doesn't have to take care of the bill as 'we took the ball into our own court'. Yes, we did, in order to run our business properly, we need a working heater. We could no longer wait for RP Owner to stop jerking around and fix the issue at hand. RP owner does not take pride in his work and cares nothing for professionalism. We're extremely disappointed. Do yourself a favor and hire a 'small guy' to do the work for you. They're still hungry enough to care about the work they do and their customer relations. RP Owner clearly has enough money and accounts now that he feels like a fat cat on a cushion with no desire to work or strive for excellence.
more