Quote:
Originally Posted by Pairadocs
We had no idea of the price differential in F.G. and others in the area, until we hired a man, a resident of another close by senior community, who does handyman work a couple days a week. While completing our simple job, replacing the "guts" of an existing toilet tank, we were all chatting, and he made a remark about not charging us for a small additional "job", 15 seconds to replace rubber washer. So that started some chat about the various rates of trades people. He told us in his opinion (since he gets around to many homes) most plumbers, electricians, etc. do not vary that much from one to the other. But, told us how he had helped one of his neighbors, a widow, who had been confused and misguided by F.G. in such as way to have a $300-to-$400 job turned into a bill of over $3800. He went on to explain how they were able to do this (expand the problem !) from his experience as a handyman, but most people would have no idea what is going on. He said a number of plumbers in the area had been consolidated, "bought up", under one name, and were getting quite a reputation for misguiding people as to what it takes to fix a problem. When he finished, I wrote down the name "F.G." to remind me not to call the next time we needed a plumber. So I know your story is factual, and there are many others who have been seriously overcharged, we've found out since.
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Wow, this must be how they get a lot of their business.
We lived in SE FL and my father moved down. This was 20 years ago. He bought a home that had been inspected, including a termite inspection.
My father was getting older and needed our help. He called me to let me know that he called a termite company (after getting one of their flyers.) He didn't even have to call them, but he was starting to get confused about things. They came out and told him he had termites and it would cost him $2,500 to put bate out.
I told him not to do anything. I immediately called the company who had done the termite inspection for my father before he bought the home. We used them monthly to treat our yard for bugs. I told the owner, who we had a good relationship with what happened. She immediately sent her husband to my father's home and guess what? There were no termites.