SUBMITTED: Thursday, July 09, 2009
POSTED: Thursday, July 09, 2009
In December 2008, I posted my experience with work performed at my residence by Arie Glassman, the independent contractor (plumber) and owner of Plumbco- a full service plumbing company. On Thursday, June 11, 2009, at 10:43 p.m. I received a telephone call on my cellular, from a man who mumbled incoherently about "a blog" I posted about him. Perplexed by his reference to a blog, I asked who I was speaking to. The man replied, "Arie." It was then I realized it was Arie Glassman and that he was referring to a "post" (versus a blog) that I entered on this site. Arie stated he disagreed with what I wrote, stating that in the "more than 6" visits to my home, I never complained about the work he performed and alluded to my opinion as "crap." I interjected that my experience with his services and the opinion I presented are not "crap" whether he agrees or disagrees with these. He tried to back track and explain that when he uses the word "crap" it doesn't mean "crap" (His explanation made no sense to me). I told him that I thought he'd visited my home on 4 different occasions but would have to reread what I posted. He continued to insist it was 6 times and exclaimed, "But you were so polite. You never let me know there was a problem." I explained that during his initial visit which was to install a gasoline, the work went well. During his second visit, he ran a line through the pipeline and dislodged wipeys which were blocking the waterflow, which in turn forced my toilet to overflow and stagnant water to fill my bathtub. Residents living at the front house had dropped the wipeys into the toilet. He kept insisting that I was "wrong" but I replied that I would only have posted the truth based on my personal experience. He then stated that he had more than 55 positive posts on the Internet from people who are pleased with his services. I found it rather perplexing that if he in fact has 55 positive posts, why this one negative post would have such a deep and adverse affect on him. I reminded him that I state a persona l opinion and my experience with his work was not a good one. I also reminded him that during one of his last visits, he again, ran a line through the pipes. At the time, he was here about 15 minutes. The following morning, the toilet had overflowed again and water had backed up into the bathtub. When I called to advise him of the problem had reoccurred, he rudely replied, "I don't work for free!" Oddly enough, it never occurred to me that he visited my home as part of an act of charity. During his 2 visits to unclog the line, he charged $150 per visit and remained a total of less than 35 minutes at the property. He contested stating he works fast, describing this as "the way I like to work." I told him that a few weeks after December 2008, the water in the toilet overflowed and water refilled the bathtub. This time the landlord called a plumbing company he trusts and their representative, a polite young man, came to my residence and remained there for more than an hour, running the line extensively through the pipes. He did not extract wipeys, but did extract roots. What's more, the problem has not occurred again. Rather sarcastically, Arie replied, "Well, I'm happy the guy did the job well." He also said, "I have no control over the wipeys they (the people in the front house) put in the toilet" though the last extraction found that roots had caused the backup. He also complained that in my post, I made reference to a faucet he installed whose cost I calculated at about $29.00 and whose installation came to a total of approximately $120-$130. He exclaimed angrily, "Its not a cheap faucet. It's not a $12 faucet." I replied, but it is a cheap quality faucet and has not operated well. He continued to argue, disagreeing with my "crap." Arie next made the following offers: "I'll return your money" "I'll do the work again." "I can get another plumber to do what you need." I told him we did not want a refund nor did we want him to do any work on the property, as our experience with his services was dissatisfactory. He then implored me to withdraw my prior post. I told him again that I would have to reread it. He continued whining and his efforts were over-kill and frankly, childish and disturbing. He also stated that he thought my post was a response to a falling out I had with a former friend, Angelina, a woman who he has been romantically interested in. I asked that he not confuse the subject at hand and try to muddle the problems with both his work and attitude, with the ending of a former friendship. Earlier today, Arie called my cellular. This is part of the message he left: "This is Arie from Plumbco to follow up on our conversation of the other day. This thing really upsets me. I know you say this is your opinion and that I should respect it and of course I do. But there are a lot of inconsistencies and inaccuracies in there to and I'd like to address it. My object is to , is to, see what I can do to fix this. This is my personal name that you posted out there like that. It means a lot to me. Even if I want to date someone they look at my name and come up with this. So I would like to handle it. I researched a lot of my invoices. and looked back and I printed them all. Some of the earlier work I did for Angie was in 2006. I was in August 2006 and I found two invoices from 2008....." I moved into the residence in 2007 so anything prior to that constitutes work done for the resident of the front house and should have been excluded from my history with Arie. Having decided not to remove or amend my post, I called Arie out of politeness. Arie picked up the phone and said, "Did you think about what I told you." I told him that I found his continued insistence annoying and that in rereading the post found that everything I wrote was true. Arie became Incensed, Arie exploded. He stated, "I'm going to kick your ass! I'm going to hurt you! I'm going to teach you a lesson! You are going to pay, you hear me? You better remove the post or I will kick your ass all over the place!" Unbeknownst to Arie, he was on the loud speaker so that my roommate overheard his tirade. While yelling my roommate motioned for me to hang-up immediately stating Arie was out of control. I hung-up but Arie called back immediately and left the following voice mail messages which I have now transferred to a recorder. Here are some of his statements: "David you're an abuser!" "Angie has told me that you have done this to several persons before. You should answer to your maker!" "How dare you tell me that I'm an annoyance." "You have too much time on your hands." "David you are sick and you do this to people so they are helpless until they beg you to take your comments of the Internet." "Don't take it off. Write what you want. Shame on you." First, I have no idea what he is talking about regarding the subjugation of people through the Internet nor have I ever had anyone "beg" me for anything. Is Arie emotionally undisciplined? Yes, of course. I have now called the Los Angeles Police Department and filed a report regarding his threat. I have been advised that should he come to the property, that they be contacted immediately. In threatening to inflict bodily harm, it never once occurred to him that as a contract in the state of California, he is licensed to do business. He chose to react to a a single opnion about work which is easily corroborated by witness statements, and turned it into a verbal threat to commit assault and bodily harm. If he was genuinely concerned with what people might think of him then he should have exercised personal self-discipline and maintained some semblance of maturity and dignity. I am amazed that my right to exercise "free speech" would be responded to by threats to commit bodily harm. Arie Glassman has consciously and willingly chosen to turn a simple difference in opinion to something possessing legal repercussions. He also slandered my reputation and disparaged me. As a plumber he is licensed by the state of California whose address is referenced below. I intend to write to them and to take out a restraining order. Definitely, business acumen is not something he possesses. California Contractors State License Board P.O. box 26000 Sacramento, CA 95826 800-321-CSLB http://www.cslb.ca.gov Commercial and Residential Contractors License Required. David Los Angeles, California