Home › Forums › West Seattle Rants & Raves › Beacon Plumbing left me freakin! –
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December 8, 2012 at 11:12 pm #605841
jwestlundParticipantMy experience with Beacon Plumbing left me freakin. Here is why…..
The ignitor went bad on Friday evening so I called Beacon to replace the part. Using the diagnostic codes from the furnace I knew it was the ignitor and told their dispatch exactly what I needed for the specific furnace. For a $75 service fee they would be onsite by noon. At 20 minutes to noon they called and said they’re on the way from Bothell.
When they arrived it wasn’t two minutes and he said, “yup, it’s the ignitor. Here’s a piece of it”. So off they went to the truck to get the part. He asked if I know how much they cost and I said yes, $40 to $200 depending on which on.
He came back from the truck and installed it. It took 20 minutes. I became interested when he made a couple comments to his partner that I didn’t need the box. After the second comment I decided to keep the box and took a picture of it. Good thing for the picture as he ended up keeping the box, saying he wanted the spare parts inside.
This set off alarm bells so I googled the part number from the picture.
Honeywell glowfly Q3200U1004
Amazon: $25.95
Sears $37.95
Pex Supply $25.89
Beacon’s price includes the 20 minutes of labor: $318 + $75 for the service call
If you average the three you get $29.94. Leaving the $75 fee aside, that leaves $288 for 20 minutes labor. At $864 an hour who can afford them?
I’ve called Beacon to ask if this was a mistake and spoke with Jeff. He could not comment other than they have a flat rate book and will look it up. Jeff did say that I should expect a call from Steve on Monday. If Steve calls we’ll see what he says.
December 9, 2012 at 5:56 am #779319
dhgParticipantDecember 9, 2012 at 2:46 pm #779320
anonymeParticipantI called them once – never again. I had an exterior pipe burst, and was freakin’ – so called Beacon. They assured me that someone would be there no later than 5 pm, which was two hours away. At 7 pm, the driver called me to say he was on the road about an hour away. It was already dark. I called Beacon to cancel the call, and the woman on the phone cussed me out, profanity and all. Next morning I went to the hardware store, bought a $3 part, and fixed the pipe myself.
BTW, (per WSB rules) I did try to reason with the woman on the phone, and asked for a supervisor – which she refused to allow. I also reported the incident on Angie’s List, but still received no response from Beacon.
December 11, 2012 at 8:38 pm #779321
wakefloodParticipantHey jwest, it’s not only Beacon doing the gouging. Ever wonder how Southwest can post advertising on EVERYTHING in town? Buses, billboards, etc. That stuff isn’t cheap.
Well, I had them come out to do a simple toilet replacement. I knew an area around the toilet might have been a little rotten so I expected them to quote me for some floor repair too. I knew I could do it myself in a few hours for $100 but I was heading out of town and the wife was going to have to supervise.
Anyway, I get back into town and see two SW trucks in the driveway. Go inside, there’s 5 – count ’em 5 guys milling around the 6×10 bathroom. One guys messing around the toilet and the other 4 are jawing.
One guy grabs me and takes me out to the truck to tell me what my wife had agreed to. Replace entire floor, excavate out to the street, replace entire sewer line, and voila! we’re good to go. Since my wife couldn’t reach me on the plane, she got railroaded into signing the contract within minutes and next thing she knew the 2nd division was in the driveway.
It was only going to be $13,000. You read that right.
I told him to pack up his tools and the gang and cease and desist. I paid him for the time they’d put in to that point $300 and told him to tear up the contract cuz it was a total scam.
I ended up doing the work myself as described and had a guy roto out the line to the street a year later for a couple hundred.
No wonder the guy on the truck is smiling.
December 11, 2012 at 11:29 pm #779322
birdrescuerParticipantFox gauged me too. I had a toilet that wasn’t flushing correctly. After removing it twice/ 2 guys and charging around $300 I FOUND the adjustment screw on the top of the tank iand it works fine now. UGH
I know some private guys that do the work for me now.
December 12, 2012 at 1:08 am #779323
squareeyesParticipantI highly recommend both Joe the Plumber Seattle if you want a one-man-band, and O’Neill Plumbing if you want a larger outfit. Both have done right by me over the years. One interaction w/ SW 11 years ago was enough for me (I might have been a naive brand new homeowner, but managed to get the guy out of my house without agreeing to anything). The O’Neill guy wasn’t happy with the fitting he had to use on my repair, so went to McClendon on his own time, found the fitting he wanted, and came over off the clock a couple of days later to install one he was satisfied with. That’s customer service!
December 12, 2012 at 3:56 am #779324
JayDeeParticipantI’ve had good luck with O’Neil plumbing, and Brennan Heating.
December 13, 2012 at 8:58 pm #779325
realvalueremodelerParticipantI used Tom Beavans at Affordable Plumbing on one of my jobs and found him to be reasonable priced, responsive and a good communicator.
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