fleeced by emergency repairmen
It seems that when you need a home repair urgently you can be at the mercy of unscrupulous operators who will fleece you — badly.
I have had to call emergency plumbers in the middle of the night because a heating pipe developed a leak and threatened to damage my home very severely. I found an emergency plumber in the Yellow Pages. He appeared, fixed the leak within a few minutes, and charged several hundred dollars for his trouble. I have had an similar experience with an after-hour locksmith, and another with an unscrupulous firm that fixed my garage door opener.
I am looking to get together with other homeowners to find solutions to this problem. One idea would be to arrange a service similar to the AAA emergency road service.
Any ideas ?
Same thing happened to me, only in addition to charging me a few hundred bucks, he raped my wife–and I STILL felt pretty lucky because the leak was fixed.
So if it’s so friggin’ easy that the plumber can fix the leak in “a few minutes” why didn’t you fix it yourself?
And why are you fixing your garage door opener in the middle of the night. If you want AAA service, sleep in your car.
You could have just shut down the heat and the water main until the morning and call a plumber during normal business hours.
As for the locksmith, I can only assume you locked yourself out… how about leaving a set of keys with a neighbor you trust or close friend elsewhere in the city… a middle of the night cab ride to pick up keys is a lot less than drilling a lock.
As someone who used to live with an emergency tradesperson, there’s only one thing I can add to the first poster’s comprehensive reply: The people who seemed most able to afford emergency service were the ones who complained most bitterly about the cost.
I don’t know what you do for a living, OP, but I bet you’d want a pretty penny to do it at 3 a.m.
I guess I agree with the poster.I expect to pay xtra for an emergency visit. I just dont expect to pay an arm a leg and a months mortgage.
Please define fleece. I’m dying to know what this guy did wrong.
I agree three.
“several hundred dollars” ?
How much would YOU charge to wake up at 3am, drive to my home and move my fridge from one room to another, or clean my coffee table with windex? I don’t know about you but I’d charge you $300 at least to do that job (actually, a lot more because I don’t need $300, but thats by the by), and doing that doesn’t even require any skill or training or insurance or tools.
I also agree. If someone called me in the middle of the night I would charge them double or triple. You are way off base here. What kind of work do you do that you would be happy to charge someone the same amount for emergency service?
What they said.