Frank Gay Services...stay away!!!!
 

My 12 year old water heater was leaking due to rusting out.
My neighbor recommended Kiley Plumbers. Earlier this year he had his replaced at the cost of $740. Said they were great.
I called them but they have been bought out by Frank Gay.
They would not give me even a ball park estimate over the phone and that only the technician could do that. Someone will be out between 4PM and 8.
4:15 he come and says to do the inspection to determine the price is $39.
The PRICE $2700!!!. No way are you kidding me. Calls the manager and he says he'll reduce the price
$1761.00 if I join the one year Family Plan at $199.
I just laughed and said goodbye
So they got me for $39 and hope they don't get you.
I did get a new water heater the next day $910. which was quoted over the phone by Mike Scott.

I wouldn't pay someone to come to my house just to provide a quote.

May I ask if it was "gas' or "elect."? If gas I hope you took advantage of the energy rebates. $350 - $550 depending on type.

Water Heating

Just saw there truck by Captiva pool. Someone has to pay for the terrible radio ads

Called Kiley and Sons to replace my water filters. Six months ago it cost me $65. Frank Gay Services came and charged me $39 to analyze the situation and I told him that I just wanted my two water filters replaced. He said it would cost $229 to replace the filters. I paid him the $39 and told him to get lost!

I had the same experience with Frank Gay last week. Now I need another company to replace the filters. Does anyone have a suggestion?

well it is the villages and we all have money to burn

If these are the typical cartridge filters, you can usually buy the new filters at Lowe's or Home Depot. They may also have the plastic wrench to help removing the housing. Then it is turn off the water, place some towels on the floor, remove the housings, remove filter, install new filter, replace housing. Turn water on SLOWLY to check for leaks. I helped a neighbor doing this. Any of the local handymen should be able to give you a hand.

Good grief, now that is one scary tale ! We had one go out 2 years ago. Went to HD, bought an O.A. Smith, they delivered it the next day. Hired a retired plumber with 40 year's experience who now lives in the villages and does small jobs like this a couple days a week. He suggested a new expansion tank since it didn't add much to the total. Total was around $700 and HD did not charge to drop off the (gas) water heater.

Great advice. I think so many here are really taken for obscene amounts of money for simple, or relatively simple, things ! Thought perhaps it was a "target older people" thing, but seems to just be a "Florida thing" as many younger members of our family from north to south Florida report the same types of way out of bounds charges for such things a AC maintenance/repair, minor electrical, etc. Good we have this community "blog" to report and recommend.

Looking at heater replacement(electric) soon. Contact info on your handyman plumber?

Looks like if this Gay Plumbing company that bought the great Kiley family plumbing company keeps having bad publicity, they will soon be out of business here in TV.
If the Kiley's knew this was going to happen, in my opinion, they would not have sold their company to them.

How did you dispose of the old water heater?

If it becomes an accepted practice to pay a contractor to provide a quote, I can see some "contractors" making money for just giving overpriced quotes. I would never pay someone for a quote. Ridiculous.

Mike Scott plumbing
 

Were you happy with Mike Scott plumbing? I was just quoted the exact same price over the phone, $910 for a 40 gallon electric water heater replaced.

As the old saying goes, I sure wish I had a $5 bill for every time I have been warned about "Frank Gay" ! (if there is such a person, or if that is just a trademark name). Most recently, I called a trusted handyman we've used for at least 10 years, not someone running a commercial business, but a resident who does small handyman jobs. After he completed the job we called to have done, we were just chatting and I mentioned some electrical work more involved than what he does as a handyman. We discussed several options, and he said his only suggestion is to NEVER call Frank Gay. Told us quite a horror story about his next door neighbor, a widow. Said Frank Gay charged her over $3K to replace ONE breaker, and he felt really bad that he or his wife had not know before hand. He does not do that, but said he would have at least told her what a reasonable charge would be for one breaker to be replaced. He also said this F G has bought out many independent electrical AND plumbing businesses in our area ! It's sure a mine field around here to say the least ! New lady, again a widow, in our neighborhood, just had a guy charge her $300 to take out a really small palm tree. Again, when to other neighbors found out, they were just very angry, as both said they could have easily cut down that palm which was about 10' and had a 6-7 inch diameter... they ARE PLANTS, not trees. We're originally from south Florida we we know they are not trees. Yes, they get huge and $300 might be in line for some, but not for this little thing she had in her yard ! I never noticed, but most of us must have a sign, visible to others, in our yards: Retired Sucker lives here ! ?

We sure did. Picked out an O.A. smith at HD, they delivered it free of charge next day, hired a "retired" plumber with 37 years experience to put it in, and got about $400 back from TECO. Total out of pocket cost for a 40 gal O.A. Smith, and hiring an experienced man to install it, The water heater was close to $500, and we paid $200 for him to install it, but got nearly $400 from TECO back !

There have been a lot of negative reports re: them on NextDoor. A friend of mine said she'd called them to replace a garbage disposal and it turned into a fight to get the guy to leave. She had wished she'd known before hand. I can't recall what the outcome of it was now but stay away from this company!!!!
Maybe they'll go away with all this bad "press".

We recently received a spam card from them in the mail. Not only did they word it ("Our customer records indicate you have not yet had this service peformed") such that it made it sound I was a customer, but that it's urgent I use their services by a 'due' date.

Not only false/bullying advertising, but it became laughable when they couldn't even spell "performed" correctly.

Before even reading this thread, I not only vowed to never use them - but sent their card back with a pretty nasty note.

Just hoping they now take me off of their list. lol