| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Guest
|
 Posted: Mon, Oct 17 2011, 11:24 am EDT Post subject: Re: Bad experience from RA NICHOLS |
 |
|
| Guest wrote: | Are you missing the two points here?
1. They are posting anonymously
2. They did not have a firm price PRIOR to the work done, no one is that stupid and if they are the deserve to pay whatever the bill came out to be.
I do not beleive the original poster for both reasons. |
Count me as stupid. I did not get firm prices (written quotations if you want to be firm enough) for any work done by a plumber, because I kind of assuming the final price will not be outrageous. But if it is, I'll pay with a credit card and then dispute the charge with my credit card company. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon, Oct 17 2011, 11:28 am EDT Post subject: Re: Bad experience from RA NICHOLS |
|
|
| That is not only being stupid, it is highly unethical and illegal. You cannot dispute a valid charge just because you don’t like the amount. No wonder why you don’t want to say who you are. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon, Oct 17 2011, 11:29 am EDT Post subject: Re: Bad experience from RA NICHOLS |
|
|
| Guest wrote: | | That is not only being stupid, it is highly unethical and illegal. You cannot dispute a valid charge just because you don’t like the amount. No wonder why you don’t want to say who you are. |
You meant ripping people off is legal and ethical? The keyword here is *outrageous*. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon, Oct 17 2011, 11:34 am EDT Post subject: Re: Bad experience from RA NICHOLS |
|
|
| No one was ripped off, the alleged “real” poster did not get an estimate. Your post also sounds like a competitor trying to make the company look bad. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon, Oct 17 2011, 11:47 am EDT Post subject: Re: Bad experience from RA NICHOLS |
|
|
| Guest wrote: | | No one was ripped off, the alleged “real” poster did not get an estimate. Your post also sounds like a competitor trying to make the company look bad. |
I am not the original poster (OP). I never encountered an outrages charge by the contractors I employed (even without asking for a firm price). I assume most of the contractors want repeat business and words-of-mouth recommendations. I won't hesitate to post bad experience if they thought they could take advantage of me because there was no written quotation. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Pari Stave
Guest
|
| Posted: Wed, Oct 19 2011, 6:30 am EDT Post subject: RA NICHOLS |
|
|
I have worked with RA Nichols for years. It is a great local business and I am not afraid to step up and say so. Anthony is the grandson of one of this town's great people (Mr. Herr of the original Herr's plumbing). He is also related to Don Herr, another great local businessman.
Not only do they have more years of experience than any one I know of, they care about this town and will go way out of their way -- in hurricanes, no less -- to help any of us. I've had them come out on a moment's notice to fix an emergency many times. They knew just what to do and they did it instantly. With a smile and a good old neighborly chat.
One great advantage they have over any other plumber is that they know every pipe, every heating system, every connection, in this town. You can't buy that kind of service from an outside vendors. (Same goes for Charlie Smith!)
Buy local, folks. Let's keep Cranbury the close-knit community it is. If you have a gripe about RA Nichols, (or even Teddy's), just talk to the owner. It'll get resolved just the way a chat with a neighbor over the fence resolves conflict.
Of course you have your right to free speech, but please don't flame our hard-working local businessmen in a public forum until you have exhausted all the more peaceful and neighborly ways of resolving your conflict. Let's be a town that works together to help local business! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Guest
|
| Posted: Wed, Oct 19 2011, 8:47 am EDT Post subject: Re: Bad experience from RA NICHOLS |
|
|
| I agree with Pari 100%! I have known Anthony and his family for over 30 years and I have used his services many times. There is no way I can see the OP got charged that amount of money for that type of work. I can see a cost like that from Gold Medal but not from Anthony. I have and always will use our local companies and if there ever is a question on service or cost you can go right to the top and get it cleared up. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
just me
Guest
|
| Posted: Wed, Oct 19 2011, 11:29 am EDT Post subject: Re: Bad experience from RA NICHOLS |
|
|
| Remember one thing, you get an estimate, it is exactly that, it's not a contracted price. What may look like an easy job, may very well be a nightmare once you open it up. Ever hear of the saying "there's more than meets the eye"? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Guest
|
| Posted: Wed, Oct 19 2011, 11:39 am EDT Post subject: Re: Bad experience from RA NICHOLS |
|
|
| just me wrote: | | Remember one thing, you get an estimate, it is exactly that, it's not a contracted price. What may look like an easy job, may very well be a nightmare once you open it up. Ever hear of the saying "there's more than meets the eye"? |
After opening it up, the contractors should provide an updated estimate and ask the owner whether s/he agrees to the updated estimate, right? This is what the Toyota dealer did when I took my car there for repair. They gave me an estimate and asked me whether I wanted the jobs done or not. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Guest
|
| Posted: Wed, Oct 19 2011, 11:51 am EDT Post subject: Re: Bad experience from RA NICHOLS |
|
|
| Guest wrote: | | just me wrote: | | Remember one thing, you get an estimate, it is exactly that, it's not a contracted price. What may look like an easy job, may very well be a nightmare once you open it up. Ever hear of the saying "there's more than meets the eye"? |
After opening it up, the contractors should provide an updated estimate and ask the owner whether s/he agrees to the updated estimate, right? This is what the Toyota dealer did when I took my car there for repair. They gave me an estimate and asked me whether I wanted the jobs done or not. |
Which Toyota dealer? Hopefully not Dayton because they are the worst. They have no integrity with their work or what they sell at all. As one example, they sold us new tires. Talked us into the supposedly best ones because we didn't want to mess around or deal with it again soon. They lasted about 19 months and or less than 10,000 miles of entirely local driving. We have a perfect record of taking them in to be rotated and they freely admitted they saw no evidence of abuse. Our tires had always lasted years before with the same driver so there's no pattern of driver behavior. Yet their solution was to want to charge us full price for a new set of tires again, not even discounting the labor or their mark-up on the new tires. They claim that none of their tire companies (by major brands) warranty the tires for even one mile, so the moment we left the lot we were on our own, despite them recommending the tires and having been paid to reguarly check and rotate them. They said they were obviously lemons but that was our bad luck and not their problem. To me, you'd think they would at least offer a discount since this was their recommended product -- they don't have to lose money but why profit off a customer that was hurt by their product sale? But not a dime. A week later they put all the tires on sale, 4-for-3 or something. But they told us at the time it was unsafe to drive off the lot and had us pay full price. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
guest123
Guest
|
| Posted: Wed, Oct 19 2011, 2:37 pm EDT Post subject: Re: Bad experience from RA NICHOLS |
|
|
| Guest wrote: |
I am the person who posted on here about the cost and have no problem sharing details.
Someone came to my home to take out a faucet and replace it with a new one. The total cost was $650. I know plumbers are expensive but that is unreasonable. The faucet cost was $200 and the rest was labour, they were there for only a couple of hours. |
This is not enough to get the full picture. "They were there" implies there were at least two people. "a couple of hours" seems to be a lot of time to change a faucet.
Was there any problem - for example one of the shutoff valves or the main shutoff was stuck and had to be replaced, too? Did they have to replace anything else? Because replacing one faucet is not a couple of hours. Is this an old house? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
quest
Guest
|
| Posted: Wed, Oct 19 2011, 9:02 pm EDT Post subject: Re: Bad experience from RA NICHOLS |
|
|
| Very sad everyone is blaming the home owner. If I everhad to call a plumber to do a kitchen faucet I probably would not have gotten a estimate. Guess I am dumb to think I would be treated fairly . The cost of the faucet was probably doubled which make the cost to install the faucet $ 550. yes thats $ 550. I had heard from someone else these job where being done on a flat rate. How could anyone take the side of the plumber for charging this much. They should go to jail thats $550. to replace a faucet. Wish the poster would post a copy of the bill online. This is not a high tech job. Home depot would be glad to show you how to install the faucet. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Guest
|
| Posted: Wed, Oct 19 2011, 9:23 pm EDT Post subject: Re: Bad experience from RA NICHOLS |
|
|
| quest wrote: | | Very sad everyone is blaming the home owner. If I everhad to call a plumber to do a kitchen faucet I probably would not have gotten a estimate. Guess I am dumb to think I would be treated fairly . The cost of the faucet was probably doubled which make the cost to install the faucet $ 550. yes thats $ 550. I had heard from someone else these job where being done on a flat rate. How could anyone take the side of the plumber for charging this much. They should go to jail thats $550. to replace a faucet. Wish the poster would post a copy of the bill online. This is not a high tech job. Home depot would be glad to show you how to install the faucet. |
I don't know why you suggest these rates are so high as to be criminal. If so, then pretty much any contractor I have used around here should join them in jail as you say. I always ask for quotes and always review the breakdown of labor versus parts on invoices and it is typical that the labor cost is at least as much as the parts. We had to get our dryer vent blown out the other day and it was $180 for 10-15 minutes of work. No parts involved and that would work out to even more for 2 hours. We needed the freezer seal repairs and it was $165 just to have them come out and evaluate the problem before I could even get the quote. When we have had trees planted the costs of labor is more the trees themselves. Etc. Local, non-local, it hasn't mattered in terms of labor rates. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Guest
|
| Posted: Wed, Oct 19 2011, 9:37 pm EDT Post subject: Re: Bad experience from RA NICHOLS |
|
|
| Guest wrote: | | quest wrote: | | Very sad everyone is blaming the home owner. If I everhad to call a plumber to do a kitchen faucet I probably would not have gotten a estimate. Guess I am dumb to think I would be treated fairly . The cost of the faucet was probably doubled which make the cost to install the faucet $ 550. yes thats $ 550. I had heard from someone else these job where being done on a flat rate. How could anyone take the side of the plumber for charging this much. They should go to jail thats $550. to replace a faucet. Wish the poster would post a copy of the bill online. This is not a high tech job. Home depot would be glad to show you how to install the faucet. |
I don't know why you suggest these rates are so high as to be criminal. If so, then pretty much any contractor I have used around here should join them in jail as you say. I always ask for quotes and always review the breakdown of labor versus parts on invoices and it is typical that the labor cost is at least as much as the parts. We had to get our dryer vent blown out the other day and it was $180 for 10-15 minutes of work. No parts involved and that would work out to even more for 2 hours. We needed the freezer seal repairs and it was $165 just to have them come out and evaluate the problem before I could even get the quote. When we have had trees planted the costs of labor is more the trees themselves. Etc. Local, non-local, it hasn't mattered in terms of labor rates. |
There is a fixed cost of coming over to your home. The $180 for 10-15 minutes of work you mentioned includes this fixed cost. That is, if a 15-min job costs $180, then a 5-min job does not cost $60. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu, Oct 20 2011, 4:06 pm EDT Post subject: Re: Bad experience from RA NICHOLS |
|
|
| Guest wrote: | | Guest wrote: | | quest wrote: | | Very sad everyone is blaming the home owner. If I everhad to call a plumber to do a kitchen faucet I probably would not have gotten a estimate. Guess I am dumb to think I would be treated fairly . The cost of the faucet was probably doubled which make the cost to install the faucet $ 550. yes thats $ 550. I had heard from someone else these job where being done on a flat rate. How could anyone take the side of the plumber for charging this much. They should go to jail thats $550. to replace a faucet. Wish the poster would post a copy of the bill online. This is not a high tech job. Home depot would be glad to show you how to install the faucet. |
I don't know why you suggest these rates are so high as to be criminal. If so, then pretty much any contractor I have used around here should join them in jail as you say. I always ask for quotes and always review the breakdown of labor versus parts on invoices and it is typical that the labor cost is at least as much as the parts. We had to get our dryer vent blown out the other day and it was $180 for 10-15 minutes of work. No parts involved and that would work out to even more for 2 hours. We needed the freezer seal repairs and it was $165 just to have them come out and evaluate the problem before I could even get the quote. When we have had trees planted the costs of labor is more the trees themselves. Etc. Local, non-local, it hasn't mattered in terms of labor rates. |
There is a fixed cost of coming over to your home. The $180 for 10-15 minutes of work you mentioned includes this fixed cost. That is, if a 15-min job costs $180, then a 5-min job does not cost $60. |
I can't speak to RA Nichols pricing because I haven't used him. But with a lot of the services I get the fixed cost is for diagnosis only. That's how it worked for my freezer and my dryer for example. They were clear that any labor for an actual repair would not be included in the up-front fixed visit cost. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri, Oct 21 2011, 9:13 am EDT Post subject: Re: Bad experience from RA NICHOLS |
|
|
Now if i were Anthony, I would be on here defending my name. I guess he doesnt care. We all know that he has posted before!!
So RA Nichols, is that price true?? Do you really charge that much are you in line with all the other plumbers in this area? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
