What comes out of a person's mouth and what goes into another person's ear sometimes it is not the same! I had a problem with the plumber that came to remove the toilet from my bathroom. I never knew there was a problem because what he told me was different than what he was telling me when he came to put the toilet back.
"Hi, you are right on time," I greeted the plumber at 8 a.m. in the morning.
"Yes," he replied, "I'll have the toilet back in place in no time." He fooled around with his hand-held computer and said, "that will be $700 dollars."
"What?" I remarked, "You told me you would return to do the job since I had already paid."
Going back to the day he took the toilet out, we had chatted like two old friends. I paid the $400 plus dollars and we discussed the flange and he showed me two types and I picked one. He told me not to have any one else come in to do the replacing of the toilet because he would return to do it and "after all, it's all paid." Today's amount was a shock to me. I told him I could not pay it because it was not in my budget. I reminded him of his comment but he did not recall saying that to me. He mentioned something about me needing a new flange and I said I had already had the flange and it was sitting in the toilet in the bedroom where he had placed it. I thought he acted surprised that the flange was already in the house.
On his computer he showed me that two visits from a plumber came to over $1100. I told him he should have told me when he was here previously and I either would not have used him or I would have tried to come up with the additional money. In the back of my mind I kept thinking, another person I can not trust and here I thought I had found an honest plumber. He said he would proceed and put the toilet back in and after he finished the job he said, "I just want you to know that you got a $700 job for free!" I think he really thinks he is right and I also think I am right. If we had everything in writing all of this would have been avoided.
My response was that he should have told me that there would be an additional charge and he never should have made the comment about how I had already paid for the job. I also told him that when I called to set up the date for him to return, the receptionist asked me if I had already paid for the job. I told her I had paid and he was just coming to replace the toilet. She never made a comment. I truly believed he was returning to reset the toilet and there would be no cost. I had also mentioned this fact to family members and to some friends so I knew I was not dreaming!
I feel bad about the misunderstanding and probably would have found someone else to do the job if I had known there would be an extra charge!
"Read your contracts.
Up and down,
left and right."
Lauren Jauregui
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