Great communication and service. Service: Plumbing leak detection
J R on Google
jesse true on Google
Jonathan S. on Yelp
Lets start with the positives. Billy is definitely one of the more knowledgeable plumbers I have worked with. There is no shortage of technicians with tools, and a fixed set of skills. They will try to sell you on their preferred solutions, regardless of whether that is the right thing for you.Billy is experienced enough to have an intelligent conversation about complicated and technical projects, and then execute them. I try my best to be fair to people, so I can say that I have no problems with his skills, or technical knowledge.So why is this a one star review? Settle in, friends, and I will tell you how a project with a plumber can go wrong in so many ways.I had already engaged Economize Property Services for a different project, and decided to reach out to them for some urgent plumbing needs at my building as well. Specifically I needed to every element of my heating system from the boiler to the distribution system to the radiators, all of it. It was a big project, and time sensitive, because it was already late October when we agreed to do it. I gave them a few months to wrap up other work, and patiently waited to start my project.Nope, they just never came. To be fair, the whole region got hit with an Arctic blast, as they say. People all over were likely calling in with burst pipes, failed heaters, and all sorts of emergency needs, so Economize went and helped them. Sure, we agreed to my project, but who cares? What was I going to do about it? By then it was also too late to get some one else, since every plumber was booked solid.Then they finally gave me a contract in January to give the impression that the deal was not real until we signed on the dotted line. So what was in this contract? The first issue is that they gave me a labor only contract so that I would be responsible for material costs. That did two things: it made their project cost seem much lower than other plumbers I interviewed by hiding the full cost of the project, and left me on the hook for whatever materials he decided to use.He gave me a materials list, and prices, and I thought that I could handle that. Nope, that was just enough materials to get through the first few days of work. It was not comprehensive by any means, so every few days he would need more materials, and I would be on the hook for them.Economize also had their own assumptions about how to run pipes in my building, regardless of what preferences I actually expressed. They forgot a totally obvious zone of my heating system, and charged me extra to fix their mistake. They wanted to charge me extra for system design. They charged me extra for running pipes through existing ducts in my walls even when I specified that as a requirement right up front. They cut large holes every where else with no plan or intention of closing them, because why would they be responsible for keeping my space habitable? Respecting my home was a much lower priority than moving to their next payment as conveniently as possible.Add to that the fact that Charles and Billy became very angry, and confrontational when I had trouble keeping up with the payment schedule. Sure, it has no thing to do with the material costs that keep racking up. Why not just yell at me on the telephone? That ought to do it.So then they did what contractors do. They stopped working, which still left me without functioning heat in my building. At this point I was committed, and had to just soldier through their demands to keep warm in a brutally cold winter, and they took full advantage by being as inflexible and demanding as they wanted to be.Ultimately we got functioning heat in my building again in March (I hired them in October), and Charles and Billy then felt that they could just ride off into the sunset without even getting a plumbing inspection. Keep in mind that the city inspectors are your objective, expert resource to ensure that technicians maintain industry standards, not just doing the minimum to fool you as a layman, and then disappearing. Nope, even that was too much to ask.mass.gov/orgs/board-of-s…So I had to educate my self further, and I will leave the results of my education here for you. I complained to the licensing authority for plumbers to get Economize to even answer my calls, and schedule an inspection. I filed a small claim in court to dispute the billed charges, and now I am here on Yelp to save you the trouble of the experience I had.Basically it all comes down to this: all of the knowledge and experience in the world will not do you any good if the plumber uses that knowledge for his benefit, not yours. You pay a technician to earnestly apply his skills to your problems, not to use his greater experience to see what he can get away with. I am sure that Economize is not like this all of the time, but just find some one else, Yelp. It is not worth the risk.
