Ralph Downs Plumbing & Heating

Matthew C.

I called this company to fix my mom's master bedroom toilet, which wasn't flushing. My mom is 76 and disabled so having a toilet near her bedroom is important. Ralph, Jr. was in the house less than ten minutes (he was proud of how quickly he fixed it), charged $265, showed her that it flushed and left. $150 was the service call, so $115 was for less than ten minutes work. This was not an emergency call, as it took him eight days from my initial contact, including one day that she had an appointment and he just didn't show up, before he came (I have that all documented in text messages). They are also based less than 10 minutes from her, so travel was not an issue. The toilet stopped working later that day. When I followed up, I spoke to Ralph, Sr. who said his son said he was there for a half an hour and that if it's not working, she needs a new toilet, which would be $483. When my mother called to speak to Sr. to ask them to come back and spend more than ten minutes on the toilet, he was extremely rude and called her a liar for saying his son was there for less than ten minutes; I was actually on the phone with her when he left and she said it at the time. He also claimed that ""in 40 years he's never had a complaint""--which seems extremely dubious considering his treatment of my mom. He then called me and was extremely rude and unprofessional--I actually hung up on him as he was being abusive. I wish I had held off paying him the $265 until I knew the toilet was actually working. Obviously we won't be calling them again.