How would you like to deal with a company whose owner SWEARS at you. Well, Eddie (Drainworks VP/GM) who said he was the owner (which is strange in itself since their website says Terry is the owner!!)....swore to myself and my wife on the phone. He said the F-word a number of times. We were astonished that such verbal abuse was happening from a supposedly reputable company. We had called Drainworks for an easy job...just needed our dishwasher pulled out for something to be retrieved, and then re-hooked up. As soon as the Drainworks technician reinstalled our dishwasher and ran the dishwasher test cycle there was water leaking out of the door. Never in the 6+ years living in our house has our dishwasher ever leaked! The Drainworks technician said there was nothing he could do, collected $304, and left. We had to call other Appliance specialists to help with the dishwasher leak, and they said the Drainworks plumber who did the job did not level the dishwasher properly when he re-installed it back and also damaged the door seal when pulling it out. We simply called Drainworks back to discuss this situation with someone in a senior position. First, Eddie (Drainworks VP/GM) was abusive to my wife because I was on speaker phone while she was in the room (I do not like having the cell phone right beside my ear). He was saying things to her such as "GET OFF THE PHONE, this is a conversation between your husband and I, you do not matter". Well Eddie, she does matter because she's a co-owner on the credit card which the $304 was made on. And that is not how to talk to people. He was extremely rude and shockingly abusive. I told him that was not the way to speak to customers and hung up. I immediately called Drainworks back again hoping to talk to Eddie after he had a chance to calm down, Eddie picked up the phone and immediately SWORE at me multiple times and also said "you are not a customer, you are a rat!....F-word, F-word". I did not even raise my voice during the phone conversation (my wife heard the entire call from the speaker phone), and we were quite shocked at what was happening. Thankfully our toddler and newborn baby were not in the same room to hear such foul language. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!!
They charged $304 for such an easy job. If you were to buy a completely new dishwasher from somewhere reputable, and had it delivered, installed, and the old appliance removed....it would typically cost you $140-$170. Drainworks charged more than DOUBLE for a simple unhook and re-hook of the dishwasher (very simple job...no new dishwasher needed to be delivered and no old one to be taken away). And on top of that, they SWEAR at customers. Go with someone else.
Please note, we have a newborn baby at home. So time is really a luxury for us. I am using what limited free time I have to write this review (whereas I could be spending this time playing with my kids) because it is important for HomeStars readers to know about this situation. Do not be simply swayed by their "10" ratings. It's easy to give a company a "10" when a job goes right. The most important thing is to see how a company reacts to its customers when a job does not go 100% right. That is a true testament to a company's customer service. I wish I spent more time reading the "0" reviews. If you browse on the Drainworks Homestars reviews, you will find a few different "0" reviews...I encourage you to read those reviews and more importantly read how Drainworks responds to them. My wife and I both work for large Fortune 500 companies, and never would our customer service department or a VP for that matter respond to people in such manner.
Hope this is helpful for others!
** Update July 7'12 in response to Drainworks' comments: Funny Drainworks should say my review is not accurate. That is exactly what they did for all the other "0" reviews, never is it their fault, always the customers. Have a read of Chantelle's review of them on Jan 4, 2012 (you'll have to scroll through a few pages to get there). She copied/pasted an email from Eddie, read the tone of the email and the words used. I wish I had taken my time to read her review and the other "0" reviews before hiring this company. Drainworks response and tone to these customers were very telling. Well, my cell phone records easily show that on July 3'12 I made only two calls to Drainworks. The first one was the one I mentioned above where Eddie was berating my wife who happened to be on speaker phone in the same room. I hung up on him (yes, I admitted to hanging up on my original review) because that was not the way to speak to a woman or anyone for that matter. I called Drainworks back a 2nd time hoping to speak to someone in charge, to which Eddie picked up and immediately knew it was me (guess they have call display) and said "who the F-word do you think you are!!" and then multiple F-words after that. That's also when he said "I AM the boss!". He knows exactly what happened on the call and what words were used. If Drainworks had a recording, great, that would validate what happened. Or maybe Drainworks does not have a recording of the 2nd time I called when Eddie swore...if he's the boss, he may know how to turn off the phone recording. Good thing video recording on cell phones are so easily available now!! We were so surprised at what was going on during the 2nd call, a cell phone was whipped out. Yes, it did take about a week's worth of phone tag with Eddie before I got him live on July 3rd. He mentions he called me and I could not talk, well yes, I was holding my newborn baby at that time just about to put the baby in the crib so I could not talk. When he called back, I was driving, and I do not pick up cell phones when driving (it is illegal here in Ontario). We then had a couple more times of 'he called/I called phone tag'. Drainworks mentions the awards they have won...well...some companies may choose to rest on their laurels over time. Again, my earlier comments....see how a company responds to customers when jobs do not go 100% right. That is the most telling. Read their TONE to these customers. The job Drainworks was hired to do: Easy unhook of dishwasher, move it slightly out, move it back, re-hook. Immediately after it was rehooked and the technician ran the test cycle there was water leaking. We had to get appliance specialists to look at the issue, they could tell that the Drainworks plumber did not balance the dishwasher correctly when rehooking it and damaged the door seal when pulling it out. That was the issue we had with Drainworks, which we wanted to discuss with someone in charge. My wife and I both knew the cost was $304, that was not the issue we had with Drainworks...I already waited 4 hours for the technician to come out (my time slot was 11-2pm, the technician came to my house late at 3pm). I took a half a day off work to wait for him...I did not have time to get another technician to come. However, I was not expecting to pay $304 and be left with a leaky dishwasher from the job! Thanks for reading.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $304.00
- Company Response
Unfortunately, this review is not accurate. Our voice recordings and documented invoice, prove otherwise. This complaint has nothing to do with the work that was done, rather, once our customer, David's wife got home, she decided she had an issue with the price agreed upon by her husband. Secondly, above and beyond the plumbing work we were there to do, their secondary issue was appliance related, which we do not provide service on. David acknowledged and signed off on this (as stated verbatim, on our invoice). Thirdly, David's wife had initially called to talk about this, however, as we had no dealings with her, and we didn't know what she was talking about, we advised her that we would call David to discuss. On our first call to him, he said he was too busy to speak and to call back within the hour, which we did, but he did not answer his phone, so a message was left for him to call us. When he finally did call back, over a week later, unbeknownst to us, his wife was on another phone eavesdropping, and started yelling about the price. He called multiple times only to hang up and call again to try to speak to someone else when he didn't agree with what was being discussed. Further, as evidenced by our voice recordings, we never once swore at David. To engage in such practices completely contradicts the numerous awards we've garnered as a company here on HomeStars, and elsewhere.
This review is about our customer’s wife being unhappy with the price of the job. What more could we have done? Insist that he call his wife to ensure they both agreed to the work? Walk away after he gave the go ahead to proceed with the work? Perhaps if there is a discrepancy between David and his wife about decisions that have to be made regarding service at the home, having both onsite when work is done, would benefit all parties involved.