Mr_Robot, would you mind sharing some of the other things the guy did that made you uncomfortable? I'm curious about that. (Obviously you don't have to share if you don't want to).
Regarding the other stuff which I got bad vibes from, lessee - this is going to be difficult to describe, there was a bunch of things that went on, and hard to try to explain/detail, and relying on my faulty memory....
(1) Coming into my house he made no offer to remove his dirty shoes or cover them with booties or whatever. Not a dealbreaker there, but seems standard today that most professionals do just that.
(2) First thing he said when he saw the toilet was something like - "oh gee this is old, you should really just get a new one. We don't normally do residential work, we do a lot of new construction [and something else he mentioned which I can't recall like contracting for Home Depot or Lowes], and I can get you a good deal, but I'm not trying to sell you anything, that is up to you".
Which meant the opposite of what he was saying, in that he WAS trying to sell me a new toilet of course.
I told him I'm not looking to buy a new toilet; just wanted the leak on this fixed, depending on what the problem was of course. Note that the toilet came new with the house when I bought it as new construction, in 1992.
I was shocked and confused about his line of "we don't normally do residential work" (uh what?????). So I asked "why are you here, why didn't you say anything like that when I called in the first place????" And he said something like "well the woman who answered the phone is the owner, and I'm the head something or other, so she patched you through to me" and didn't really even answer my question at all.
Note that their company is in the yellow pages under PLUMBERS and only says "Plumbing and Drain Cleaning" - there is no mention of "industrial only" or "new construction only" or "not for residential" or whatever. So right there I was wondering what kind of b.s.-er am I getting involved with here?
(3) After he realized he wasn't selling me a new toilet he took off the caps to look at the bolts and said the bolt on one side was loose and that was just the problem, that it didn't need a new seal at all.
He tightened it up and said that should do it. I told him that I was skeptical that would do the trick, and really wanted the seal replaced, that was why I had called for a plumber, it would have been a total waste of my money to have someone come out and just tighten the bolts. He filled the toilet up and flushed it a couple times and said it looked fine. Then he added that if I wanted him to replace the seal it was going to cost a lot more. Although at that point he didn't say anything about what he would have charged for that 5 minutes "work" to tighten the one bolt. And also on the phone he had already told me it was going to cost about $150 to replace the ring or maybe around $200 if it was more involved, and I had already agreed to that, to come and replace the ring, for $150, I wanted that done and was prepared to pay that to get it done (but of course I thought that meant that I would be getting a job done right, the old ring taken off, a new one put in its place etc etc etc).
Then he also said something like, "it looks fine, if you see it leaking later, just calk it up & seal it that way".
To which I replied "but isn't calking it up the exact thing you DON'T want to do, since then you seal the leak in and could cause damages under there?". To which he replied something like "no it will be fine, that is what I always do" kind of thing, and I protested that if I did that and it leaked inside it might damage the floor etc and again he insisted no, it would be fine in there, it was normal to do that etc. At that point I should have just told him to get out of my house I guess. But what do I know? I'm not a plumber. This is his job he must know more than me. But I could've sworn I had read that is exactly what NOT to do but I guess I could be confused..
So while we are having this discussion he is continuing to flush/fill it and says it looks good. But I thought I saw some water leaking out the side & put my finger down where I thought I saw a leak and felt some wetness that I showed him, at which point he just went right into "OK here we go let's pull the toilet and replace the ring etc" mode.
(4) When he drained the toilet he used a portable vac that was like a toolbox size. It was kind of coming apart like it was loose in spots and some of the water got spread around on the floor. He picked up the hose and held it by the end with his hand and just stuck his hand in my toilet, like he was sticking his hand into a clean swimming pool. I was kind of grossed out - would you stick your hand in a stranger's toilet with no gloves on? I wouldn't but maybe that is just a plumber being brave and doesn't mean anything. And after draining it (including the really gross dark brown water from the tank - due to the hard water deposits there I guess?), he put that vac thing onto the changing shelf outside my bathroom (getting it wet). Ughh. To his "credit" he cleaned up the water on the floor (using pieces of my toilet paper). I cleaned what I saw on the shelf. And I made a note that I needed to be sure to disinfect everything later.
Then we got into the weirdness that I already talked about where he was putting the toilet into my tub, not cleaning off (or even looking at) the old wax ring when he put the new one on the flange.
(4) After tightening the toilet back up he said some b.s. like "the toilet is going to be a bit higher now since the floor isn't level" (what the eff?). The real reason it was higher was because it was sitting on top of twice as much wax as it was supposed to. At that point I pretty much had had enough and just wanted him gone. He seemed like a real scheister (spelling?) and I just want this nightmare to end. I told him it's OK if it is higher as long as it doesn't leak anymore.
He filled it up & flushed it a couple times, didn't seem to be leaking. Told me to tighten it up later if it leaks again (and to calk it). I noticed that he had not filed down the bolts (which were sticking up like 6 inches) and asked him to please do that so I could put the caps back on easily at some point. So he did that but I felt it was weird that he didn't do that without me asking.
(5) Then he went to put his stuff back in his truck and had me continue to flush it a couple times, which I did. He came back inside downstairs, and I went downstairs to settle up, see how much he was going to charge, his phone rang and he said he really needed to take this call - it was something to do with him buying a new house (?), and went outside again on my porch area. So I stood inside waiting for him a couple minutes, checkbook in hand....eventually he poked his head back in the door with the phone still on his ear and said "that'll be $200". Sigh. When we originally talked the price was supposed to be $150 if it was just changing the ring, but possibly $200 if there was something more involved. So he's jacking up the price I guess to the max we discussed earlier even though the job was a non-involved quickie that he didn't even do right, let alone something requiring a lot of time having to deal with a broken flange or problems with the floor or sewer hookup or God knows what.
He didn't tell me who to make the check out to so I had to ask him. The name to make the check out to was not his name, nor the name of the company I had called either, it was something I had never heard of. I wanted a receipt and he said "oh the office will mail you one". Btw I had a similar issue with a ripoff HVAC guy over a year ago who never gave me a receipt either - despite even calling a week later and asking for one. So I doubt I'll get one this time either but who knows.
OK, I've rambled on way too much and didn't even really cover everything, doubt anyone will be able to follow all that above but you asked so....oh wait, here's another thing, total b.s., at some point he said something like "I know you don't think I did this right without taking off the old wax ring, but note that I bought the best wax ring you can get now, this is a really good one" - what? I didn't know wax rings varied so much in "quality", was this one made of earwax instead of beeswax?? I guess it cost $2.50 instead of $2.00. Cut me a break.
