I had a situation come up this week that took me by surprise. I have water problems at the home I am building, high iron and manganese content and am in the process of trying to find a company to install a filter for it.
I had called several to get an idea what I needed to do and most said that they would need to come out and take a look and to properly size a system and take a water sample. Many of these advertise that this is a free service. Others charge for the water test. Others just have a phone number and no other info.
I set up an appointment with a company to come out and give look at my situation and take a water sample. No mention was made about any charges but they did say that they send all sample to a lab for testing so I expected a charge for that. (A lot of the free testing services do it on site and can manipulate the results) I received a bill yesterday for $200.00, 50.00 for the test and 150.00 for 2.5 hours labor to collect the sample.
I was very srprised by this. Had any mention of this been made I would have taken the sample to the lab myself, i drive past it frequently. I had assumed that the initial visit was free of charge as it has been with any other contractor that came out to look at doing various jobs on the house from foundation to roofing to plumbing and electrical contractors.
This seems like a lousy business practice to me. There should have been some mention of the fact that there would be essentially a service call charge for the opportunity to bid my job.
What would you do? (from either perspective)
Replies
Charging a fee for collecting a sample in itself doesn't seem out of line to me, but it is odd they didn't bother to mention there would be a cost.
I agree that the cost needs to be disclosed prior to the service call.
I'd offer to pay half and suggest that they need to be more up-front about their costs or "people" might file a complaint with the better business bureau.
Way too many rip off artists in the water treatment business.
------------------
"You cannot work hard enough to make up for a sloppy estimate."
Way too many rip off artists in the water treatment business.
Aint that the truth. I've spoken to at least 10 water treatment specialists in the area, with the same water test resluts, and gotten different solutions from all of them ranging from $3500.00, down to $1000.00, and everything in between.
I have learned a lot though and from what I can tell through my research, and some documentation form the local extension office, is that the 1000.00 solution is probably the best and most effective method.
Of course the guy that recommended that doesn't do installs in my area, (I stopped in his shop on my way to the airport), but he will sell me everything i need to set it up myself and provide tech support if I need it. I'll likely go that route. knocking of the install price actually gets it down to around a $700.00 system.
iI had one tell me that replacing the well with a drilled weel to the tune of at least 7k was the best way to go and another that wouldn't even come out unless both my wife and I were present (sounded like a setup for the hardsell to me).
I haven't come away with a good impression of the water treatment business to say the least.
Edited 8/21/2007 4:52 pm ET by TomW
We have several sharks and one angel in our town. Every time I refer that good guy to my friends I earn major brownie points with bot him and the customers. I'm a plumber and can sell and install the systems but I won't compete with this guy he's just such a great guy and a straight up businessman. I'm sure you can do the install if you are at all handy. I just shipped a system up to my mother in Maine and she had a handyman install it for her and he did a great job. Be well.------------------
"You cannot work hard enough to make up for a sloppy estimate."