They riping me off?
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They riping me off?
I "had" (not after this though) a Home warranty which did good on keeping my A/C working for the last couple years.
I got up and took a shower at 6am and sometime before 7am I went to the other end of the house and heard water flowing full force from the crawl space.
Long story short I had someone out (that the warranty company sent out)
They diagnosed it by just hearing the water saying that someone "I" twisted the outdoor spigot and broke the pipe and it will not be covered by the insurance.
This was before they even went down there and looked at it or even touched the nearby spigot.
Once they went down and came back up with a picture from their tablet they said the pipe going to the spigot was PHYSICALLY CUT as it was a smooth cut. I could not really see that from the picture but I stood my ground and said it is impossible as I never went down there and no one else did either to physically cut a pipe!.
Obviously they told the insurance company this so now it is not covered.
My service charge fee is $75.00 through the insurance company.
They wanted to charge me $150.00 to cap it off or $350.00 to fix it so the spigot is connected like it was.
Long story short again, Insurance won't cover it after 30 minutes of going back and fourth with the so called plumber and the insurance co. I was not going to pay his prices and mainly because he accused me of physically cutting it. Knowing no way it was possible that it was physically cut or the spigot was never used in over 2 years on that side of the house.
I ended up going down there after they left and the pipe (PVC) was broke jagged edges.
Long story short again, I fixed it in 15 minutes (not including the cement drying time) (AFTER getting the parts too) with (1) 1/2 coupler, 1/2" pipe and (1) 1/2 male to female adapter.
I bought the 1/2 coupler, 1/2" pipe and the adapter FOR $3.xx. I had the rest of the stuff needed , cement, primer, Teflon tape etc. But even if everything needed to be bought it would be less than $10.00 or so anyways.
To me this broke from getting brittle from old age and or when you turn on and off the water some pipes might move a little. I know for a fact no one has been down there or used the spigot.
Either way if this needed to be fixed by a plumber is this a normal cost for 15 minutes of work? And charge double from capping it off versus not for another couple dollars in parts and less than 5 more minutes of work versus just capping it?
I doubt they would have to go by parts and this was all common parts in a older residential house
The adapter in the photo goes into the spigot (not directly) there is galvanized pipe on the spigot then an galvanized elbow then the adapter goes on there.
Thanks
I got up and took a shower at 6am and sometime before 7am I went to the other end of the house and heard water flowing full force from the crawl space.
Long story short I had someone out (that the warranty company sent out)
They diagnosed it by just hearing the water saying that someone "I" twisted the outdoor spigot and broke the pipe and it will not be covered by the insurance.
This was before they even went down there and looked at it or even touched the nearby spigot.
Once they went down and came back up with a picture from their tablet they said the pipe going to the spigot was PHYSICALLY CUT as it was a smooth cut. I could not really see that from the picture but I stood my ground and said it is impossible as I never went down there and no one else did either to physically cut a pipe!.
Obviously they told the insurance company this so now it is not covered.
My service charge fee is $75.00 through the insurance company.
They wanted to charge me $150.00 to cap it off or $350.00 to fix it so the spigot is connected like it was.
Long story short again, Insurance won't cover it after 30 minutes of going back and fourth with the so called plumber and the insurance co. I was not going to pay his prices and mainly because he accused me of physically cutting it. Knowing no way it was possible that it was physically cut or the spigot was never used in over 2 years on that side of the house.
I ended up going down there after they left and the pipe (PVC) was broke jagged edges.
Long story short again, I fixed it in 15 minutes (not including the cement drying time) (AFTER getting the parts too) with (1) 1/2 coupler, 1/2" pipe and (1) 1/2 male to female adapter.
I bought the 1/2 coupler, 1/2" pipe and the adapter FOR $3.xx. I had the rest of the stuff needed , cement, primer, Teflon tape etc. But even if everything needed to be bought it would be less than $10.00 or so anyways.
To me this broke from getting brittle from old age and or when you turn on and off the water some pipes might move a little. I know for a fact no one has been down there or used the spigot.
Either way if this needed to be fixed by a plumber is this a normal cost for 15 minutes of work? And charge double from capping it off versus not for another couple dollars in parts and less than 5 more minutes of work versus just capping it?
I doubt they would have to go by parts and this was all common parts in a older residential house
The adapter in the photo goes into the spigot (not directly) there is galvanized pipe on the spigot then an galvanized elbow then the adapter goes on there.
Thanks
Last edited by michaelrj9; 07-30-15 at 08:14 AM.
#2
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I've always thought that plumbers charged too much .... although the plumbers on the forum will probably disagree with me
Have you documented the break along with the repair and sent a copy to the warranty place? I've never dealt with one but hear a lot of horror stories about the plans and what they disallow.
It almost always pays to diy
Have you documented the break along with the repair and sent a copy to the warranty place? I've never dealt with one but hear a lot of horror stories about the plans and what they disallow.
It almost always pays to diy
#3
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Many plumbers (and electricians, etc) have a minimum charge of $100-$300 just to make the trip out, since every trip is driving time, gas, mileage on the truck, etc etc.
Most reasonable contractors understand that it's not great business to charge $350 for a 20 minute fix, so they will often negotiate with you if you're pleasant and helpful as well. If they cover their costs, maybe you'll remember them the next time you have a bigger issue or a neighbor needs a reference.
But who knows who this person that the warranty company sent out. He may also be working off a price sheet, who knows. But I'm in agreement, those home warranties are rarely worth the cost. It needs to be such a specific case for them to pay the costs, and even when they do, they rarely cover the 'incidental' costs of re-landscaping or repainting, etc.
Good job fixing it yourself! Make sure your new outside faucet is well attached to the house and not only the pipe. (regardless of how it broke)
Most reasonable contractors understand that it's not great business to charge $350 for a 20 minute fix, so they will often negotiate with you if you're pleasant and helpful as well. If they cover their costs, maybe you'll remember them the next time you have a bigger issue or a neighbor needs a reference.
But who knows who this person that the warranty company sent out. He may also be working off a price sheet, who knows. But I'm in agreement, those home warranties are rarely worth the cost. It needs to be such a specific case for them to pay the costs, and even when they do, they rarely cover the 'incidental' costs of re-landscaping or repainting, etc.
Good job fixing it yourself! Make sure your new outside faucet is well attached to the house and not only the pipe. (regardless of how it broke)
#4
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The only reason why we had the warranty anyway was when we bought the house 2 years ago it was a foreclosure (unknown working appliances etc) it has a real old heap pump from the early 1980's and if you get the warranty when buying a house (I know a lot they still won't cover) there is no 3 month waiting period like if you decided to get it some other time down the road.
That part worked out because the heap pump needed a few things at different times. Reversing valve (it was stuck in cooling and it was cold outside, compressor needed life support "kickstart" and a fan motor etc. (All at different times)
We were thinking of canceling the insurance anyways soon just wanted to see if the A/C was still going to be good in the hottest months.
Crawls are not my Cup Of Tea
I know I could of fixed it myself because most likely it was simple job but had a lot of stuff going on and I had a bad experience with crawl spaces before.
The last few days including the day this happened I working on a Car all day, didn't have a car to go get parts and don't really like crawl spaces.
When the guy came at 6:30pm I was a real grease monkey with no water so I think he saw the opportunity that I am dirty need to get cleaned up but have no water the skies the limit on fixing it.
Crawl spaces are new to us we always had basements or on a slab but...
When we first moved to the area we rented and that turned out to be a nightmare, found out there were rat droppings behind the refrigerator. Told the landlord to find out were they were coming in from and they had someone go down in the crawl and clean up, supposedly there were like 12-15 dead rats few live snakes etc.
Then it was time to move
When We first moved to this house I did down down in the crawl to run Ethernet cable, didn't see any dead bodies, live bodies but seen lots of OLD feces from a cat-racoon-possum something that size.
That part worked out because the heap pump needed a few things at different times. Reversing valve (it was stuck in cooling and it was cold outside, compressor needed life support "kickstart" and a fan motor etc. (All at different times)
We were thinking of canceling the insurance anyways soon just wanted to see if the A/C was still going to be good in the hottest months.
Crawls are not my Cup Of Tea
I know I could of fixed it myself because most likely it was simple job but had a lot of stuff going on and I had a bad experience with crawl spaces before.
The last few days including the day this happened I working on a Car all day, didn't have a car to go get parts and don't really like crawl spaces.
When the guy came at 6:30pm I was a real grease monkey with no water so I think he saw the opportunity that I am dirty need to get cleaned up but have no water the skies the limit on fixing it.
Crawl spaces are new to us we always had basements or on a slab but...
When we first moved to the area we rented and that turned out to be a nightmare, found out there were rat droppings behind the refrigerator. Told the landlord to find out were they were coming in from and they had someone go down in the crawl and clean up, supposedly there were like 12-15 dead rats few live snakes etc.
Then it was time to move
When We first moved to this house I did down down in the crawl to run Ethernet cable, didn't see any dead bodies, live bodies but seen lots of OLD feces from a cat-racoon-possum something that size.