A-1 American Plumbing DO NOT CALL THIS COMPANY! EVEN IN AN EMERGENCY! WE ARE NOT JUST A-1, WE ARE AN A-1 BUNCH OF THIEVES Chesapeake Virginia

It's pretty amazing this company is still in business. I can't believe all the people that they have stolen money off of.

This is a definite case of never call anyone to do work for you unless you call around and ask about them.
We were doing some remodeling of a small room. It had a sink in it which we removed very easily. We wanted to cap off the water lines, so we shut the water off with the inside water valve. We capped off the lines in less than five minutes. When we went to turn the water on, my husband felt something in the valve snap. No water......the valve was broken. Now we have one bathroom, and my elderly parents with us. We called A-1. What a mistake.

You know the advertisement with the professional looking plummer telling us how good they are, and the discounts they provide and "yadda yadda yadda".

Two guys show up in a personal vehicle, nothing stating who they were. They both looked like they just crawled out from under a rock. (If my husband wasn't home I would not have let them in). They didn't have tools to shut the water off from outside. My husband did it.
They didn't have a flashlight we had to give them one.
Now the valve was in a large double closet, they could stand and look right at the area they needed to work in ($150 for working in a confined space, isn't that the norm for plumbers? What is so confined about standing and working in a double closet) Then the $180 charge for their time. They came to the house assessed the job, and then left for an hour and a half to go buy the $10 valve. Because they "don't carry any parts" with them. (Work time a total of 20 minutes to replace the valve) Then $500 for the part and installation. Did you get that? The bill showed a $500 charge for the $10 part and 20 minutes of work time.

While they were working they asked for a spray bottle of water so they could spray the area they were welding.
Then my husband had to turn the water back on in the street because they couldn't do it. The "plumber" instructed my husband to NEVER TURN THE WATER OFF IN OUR HOUSE. Then proceded to say that these valves are known to break????!!! What !!!! He replaced a bad valve with the same kind and then told us not to use the one they just replaced. We just spent $700.00 for a valve we are never to use. That just pushed us right over the edge.

They had an attitude with my husband from the beginning because he dared tell them the price seemed high.

The next day while at work my husband saw a plumbing truck and went over and asked them what they would charge to do the same job. He did not tell them we had done it yet. $125.00 is what they would charge and thay said they could have it done for us in the next two hours. Once they finished the job they were on.
This prompted us to call around to other plumbers, the job cost was all in the same price range.When we said the name A-1 to them they all said the same thing, I hope you didn't call them.

What a valuable lesson we learned. Since they advertise on WAVY-10 and " are partners on your side" with WAVY-TV we will never use any company that advertises with WAVY-10 . Can't trust it.

My husband called the phone number on the receipt,because it said if you weren't satidfied call so you can speak with the owner, Skip. Well the secretary said he is a silent partner and didn't speak with anyone.
So we asked for someone else to speak with and we were told they were in a meeting. We never received a return call.

My husband called several times the next day. They finally put him through to a woman who told him;
1. There was nothing she could do about the excessive amount of the charge, and then said "everyone knows we are the most expensive".
2. And she felt the charges were in fair practice even though they were six times the amount everyone else charges.

Here is what I think is fair:
I have reported them to the Better Business Bureau
I am an emergency room nurse in Chesapeake, I see A LOT of people everyday. Nurses, doctors ,patients, families,therapists, paramedics, firemen,policemen, salespeople, technicians. I will tell every single person I see, what happened and to NEVER use this company. I am putting a flyer in all of our staff lounges telling people to come see me so I can tell them this story and to refer them to the internet to show how many others had this same thing happen.

I am going to talk about it at the hairdressers, the nail salon, the grocery store and my gym.
I will tell my family doctor, dentist, my dog's vet and the staff of each one of those offices.
I am going to a wedding this Saturday and I will tell all of those people also.

My husband is a Firefighter/Paramedic for the city of Chesapeake. I really don't think I need to tell you how many people he knows.
We will not let this go.

Terrilee
Chesapeake, Virginia
U.S.A.