This page documents my experience as a customer of Yelm Plumbing and Pump. Overall I would say that their technicians performed good work, but their charges and follow-up to inquiries about the charges lead me to say, "Stay away from this company!". If you look at the invoice below, you'll see that they charged $1,092.19 to install a new yard hydrant! I was walking through a Home Depot a couple of days after the installation and spotted the exact same yard hydrant that they had installed selling for $53.00!
I called their office the following Monday and asked about this charge. The gentlemen who answered the office phone claimed he couldn't find any record of my invoice even though it was work they had done the previous week. He advised me to call back with the invoice number and then they'd be able to look into my account.
I had my invoice number ready for my next call to the Yelm Plumbing and Pump office. The lady who took this call wanted to take my phone number and have the workers who did the work call me back to explain their charges. Since they had conferred with "their boss" before quoting for the job, and before writing up the final invoice, I suggested they put me in touch with the person who set the prices. I also suggested that they could just prepare an itemized bill that separated parts from labor so I could have a better understanding of how they came to their grand total. She took all of my contact information and promised the Customer Service Manager would call me, but said he might not be in that day. To date, I've never received a call from Yelm Plumbing and Pump.
Two employees come to my property and perform an inspection of my residential water pump system. They take a down payment of $2556.92 and promise to return the next day at 9:30 to perform the work.
Two employees come to my property and perform work on my residential water pump system. They arrived at approximately 9:40 AM and left at approximately 3:00 PM. It took the two employees approximately 4 1/2-5 hours to perform the work. After "consulting with their boss" as they described it, they presented me with invoice #YP14466 which has the following findings/recommendation:
|
"Arrived to customers home and found that the filtration system is bound up, the outside yard hydrant is broke and pressure tank is bad. After installing all I found no issuse. New system is programmed and working great." |
Invoice #YP14466 does not itemize the parts or labor but rather lists the following:
| Quantity | Task # | Description | Standard Rate | Crystal Clear Rate | Tasks Performed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | YWFW01 | Install Sanitizer System | $3643.58 | $3643.58 | |
| 1 | YHB07 | Install Yard Hydrant | $1092.19 | $1092.19 | |
| 1 | YPM03 | Program & setup stages | $228.65 | $228.65 | |
| 1 | YPT99 | Install 81 gal pressure tank | $1090.14 | $1090.14 | |
| Coupon Credit | $-225.00 | ||||
| Subtotal | $5829.56 | ||||
| Tax | $460.54 | ||||
| Grand Total | $6290.10 |
I've been researching the cost of the materials used by Yelm Plumbing and Pump to complete the work they did at my house on December 1st. Using retail pricing (they are probably getting their materials at wholesale prices), I have come up with the following itemized bill:
| Quantity | Task # | Description | Retail Materials Cost |
Labor Cost | Amount Billed by Yelm Plumbing & Pump |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | YWFW01 | Install Sanitizer System | $1500.00 | $2143.58 | $3643.58 |
| 1 | YHB07 | Install Yard Hydrant | $53.00 | $1039.19 | $1092.19 |
| 1 | YPM03 | Program & setup stages | none | $228.65 | $228.65 |
| 1 | YPT99 | Install 81 gal pressure tank | $384.00 | $706.14 | $1090.14 |
| Coupon Credit | $-225.00 | ||||
| Subtotal | $1937.00 | $4117.56 | $5829.56 | ||
| Tax | $460.54 | ||||
| Grand Total | $6290.10 |
Please note that I haven't determined an exact retail price for the Water Right sanitizer filter system that they installed. I was able to find a comparable unit on sale at Budget Water for $1,164.00 and I've rounded that up to $1500.00 to cover the cost of the PVC pipe, pre-filter, and brackets they used in the installation. At this point a disturbing number is appearing in the labor cost column. If you divide the total labor by the time (5 hrs) and by the number of workers on site (2), you arrive at labor cost of $411.756 per hour per worker! My lawyer charges less per hour!
I'm still awaiting a call from their customer service manager. As of today, I would not recommend their services!
Copyright (C) 2010 by Ed
Braaten. All rights reserved.
Last update: Tue, 28 Dec 2010 at 21:01.
http://braaten-family.org/ed/