Great Neck Plumbing and Heating

Harry B.

I called up to have one of the plumbers fix a gas furnace that stopped producing heat. They were schduled to be at the house at 5 pm. They showed up at 7:30pm.

The plumber was not a local employee but an indepenant contractor from the south shore. It took him all of 10 minutes to figure out it needed a new sparkbox but he did not have the part with him and by that time the parts store was closed. I was charged a service charge of $85 plus tax. He told me he would be back first think in the morning to install the spark box which he estimated to cost about $75. He told me there would be no more service charge and that he would charge for his time on an hourly basis at $145 per hour. I told him I would need to be at work but would leave a signed check with my daughter who would be at home in the morning.

He showed up around 11 am. It took him all of 20 minutes. I was charged for $145 of labor, $200 for a spark box, $125 for an ignitor for a total of $470 and an additional $42.30 of tax. There was never any discussion about an ignitor nor any suggestion it did not work. When I asked for documentation as to the parts, the spark box cost $162 and the ignitor cost $120.95.

So far I have paid $605 to replace a part which took less than 20 minutes, involves connecting one wire and costs $162.

I checked out the company's web site which portrays these guys a licensed professionals. That has not been my experience.