Bradley Plumbing Missed Troubleshooting Issues, Refused to Honor Warranty Offered, Overbilled Me and Then Insulted Me and Threatened to Lien My Property In MURFREESBORO, Tennessee

Due to a personal referral and good reviews on Angie's List, I used Bradley Plumbing several times for smaller troubleshooting jobs and repairs.  Everything seemed fine with them and their work.  The plumbers and Terry Bauer (their dispatch person) were always professional and I was always willing to work with them when they had to change scheduling or send out a different plumber.  I was always happy with their service.  However, over time it became clear that problems were missed that their plumbers should have found when they did their troubleshooting service.  Later, Bradley Plumbing admitted to over billing for fairly substantial work performed on an investment property.  See details below.

1st Missed Problem The 1st missed problem was a master bathroom shower floor/drain leak that had damaged the garage ceiling below it.  Since the house was a foreclosure and there was no seller to ask about the problem, I figured that I should hire a plumber to check the problem out and make sure that it was old water damage and not an active leak.  In March 2011, the plumber came out, ran water through the said it was not leaking.  He ran water down the shower drain and said everything was dry and as a result, I had another contractor re-tile the shower floor and repair the damage to the garage ceiling with the knowledge that the drain was fine.  Unfortunately, it only took a few showers for the garage ceiling to clearly show water damage.  I had that contractor tear up the shower floor (again), but this time we went all the way down to the drain and discovered that the builder had nailed the drain through the rubber shower seal.  That contractor fixed the leak, but it cost me 2 shower floor tile jobs and 2 garage ceiling repairs as a result of the missed troubleshooting service by Bradley Plumbing.  At the time, I gave Bradley Plumbing a pass on this missed troubleshooting service since it is possible that they did everything right and no one would have found the leak at the time they did the troubleshooting service.  Also, they were always nice so I just let it go.

2nd Missed Problem The 2nd missed problem occurred when I had Bradley Plumbing out to my house in early April/May 2011 to replace leaking washing machine hookup valves that I discovered shortly after moving into the house.  When the plumber from Bradley Plumbing came out to look at the hookup he confirmed that the valves needed to be replaced.  I told him to make any repairs necessary to prevent a future problem and when he was finished he hooked up the washing machine.  After a few days of using the washing machine, the washing machine drain hose worked itself out of the drain hole and flooded the laundry room floor resulting in my kitchen ceiling being below being significantly damaged, carpet being soaked and the swelling of the next door closet door frame.  When I had a contractor out to the house to fix the damage (after we dried everything out) and assess the washing machine hookup to determine how the hose worked itself out of the drain hole, he was shocked to find out that I had a plumber out to the house to replace the valves and he did not use a simple clamp to secure the washer drain hose.  As a result of something that the plumber should have noted and suggested, it cost me $350 to fix the ceiling damage, plus I had to shampoo and dry the carpets and my closet door still has unrepaired damage.

3rd Missed Problem The 3rd missed problem occurred in August 2011 when I had Bradley Plumbing out to my house to troubleshoot some possible plumbing problems at the house.  My wife and I had noticed a sewer smell in our powder room, the master bathroom toilet clogged a lot and one time when the master bathroom was flushed there was a popping type of sound and sewage came out of the master bathroom shower.  It was pretty nasty.  Also, the water pressure in the house seemed weak on the 2nd floor especially when there was more than one faucet on.  The plumber from Bradley Plumbing came out and after some testing determined that the water pressure was fine.  That issue was resolved.  For the issues with the powder room smell, master bathroom shower drain backup and master bathroom toilet clogging, the plumber flushed the toilets and went under the house in the crawl space and found no issues and no leaks.  He said that the problem was probably due to the builder grade toilets in the house and recommended that we replace them.  Due to his recommendation, I did replace the toilets (handled by another contractor).  Unfortunately, this did not resolve the powder room smell and in April 2012, the guest bathroom tub drain backed up worse than the master bathroom shower did when the master bathroom toilet was flushed.  Due to this same type of problem occurring again I called Bradley Plumbing and scheduled a day for them to come out and do a comprehensive troubleshooting service on 5/4/2012.  I told the dispatcher that I wanted to have the roof checked out since I wanted to rule out the plumbing vents on the roof being clogged as a potential cause of the problem.  He didnt think that the roof vents had anything to do with the problem, but the popping sound that occurred just before the showers backed up made me think that a pressure issue might be the cause of the backups.  As a result, I scheduled for a roofer to come out to my house to check the roof vents in the afternoon of 5/3/2012 (the day before my schedule appointment with Bradley Plumbing).  I called Bradley Plumbing at around 3:15 PM to confirm my appointment for the next morning, but the owner answered and said he was not in the office and did not have access to the calendar and could only say that if Terry (the dispatcher) scheduled it then we were still on.  I was having unrelated work done on my house and that contractor was taking longer than expected, which messed up my afternoon schedule thus pushing work that I had planned to the next day.  At the same time, the roofer informed me that he was running a few hours behind and he would not be able to come by until after 6:30 PM at the earliest, if at all.  Due to my concern of my schedule being changed for the next day (5/4) as a result of having to stay at my house much later than planned and concern that the roofer might not make it all, I promptly emailed Terry at 3:34 PM that I would need to reschedule our appointment for another day.  I really wanted to rule out the roof vents as an issue before I paid Bradley Plumbing $85/hour to root around my house.  As it turns out, the roofer did eventually make it out to my house at around 7:30 PM.  Unfortunately, when he got here he figured out that he did not have a ladder long enough to make it up on my roof.  Since he was already at my house and he does other non-roofing work, he offered to go into the house crawlspace to look for any plumbing problems.  It took him about 30 minutes to find 2 plumbing problems.  The 1st problem, which he found in less than 2 minutes, was a long run of drain pipe that exited the house that was clearly sagging in the middle resulting in it not having a proper run. He determined that the sag was probably due to insufficient strapping since that run has pipes all the way from the 2nd floor draining into it and the weight of those pipes caused the sag.  He stated that he was very surprised that Bradley Plumbing did not notice this problem when they completed their troubleshooting service at my house and went into the crawlspace.  The 2nd problem, which took longer to find, was the powder room plumbing under the sink.  He thought that the toilet flange was never properly installed by the builder.  Further troubleshooting the next day led to the discovery that the builder had installed the flange on the plywood subflooring and then later installed real sand and stain hardwood flooring, which is about 1 think, resulting in a gap between the toilet drain and the flange.  This caused sewage to leak out around the flange and sewer gas to escape, thus explaining the issues in the powder room.

Given that one the plumbers from Bradley Plumbing went under the house in August 2011 to troubleshoot for water pressure issues (no problems were found), shower backup and sewage smell issues (2 of the same issues I am dealing with now) I am a bit disturbed that these problems were not discover and corrected at that time.

In between the troubleshooting services and work performed by Bradley Plumbing, but before the crawlspace plumbing issues were discovered by the roofer, I had Bradley Plumbing do a larger job on an investment property (a property that was vacant) in April 2012. When I received the bill on 5/4/2012 via mail, the bill total of $1,483.25 seemed outrageous.  When I questioned the bill and the missed troubleshooting issues (now known and repaired by the roofer- I felt obligated to have the roofer repair the problems after he spent his time finding the problems) via email to Terry Bauer, he said he would look into the problems.  On Monday 5/7/2012, Terry met with me at my house.  He went into the crawlspace and saw where the strapping was installed by the roofer and where the powder room toilet had leaked.  He had no explanation as to how these issues were missed by their plumber.  Terry stated that he wished that I had contacted him to make the repairs since he viewed this as a warranty issue (see the warranty offer parts later) as a result of Bradley Plumbing missing the problems. He said that they would have repaired the problems for free since they messed up.  I told him that I paid the roofer $250.00 to fix the problems so I would like the investment property bill reduced by that amount.  He said he wasnt sure he could do that.  I told him it would be cheaper than sending their plumbers out to my house for the 7-8 hours it took the roofer so it was actually a better solution for all.  He said that I would have to speak with the owner, Brad Rayls.  While Terry was at my house, he reviewed the investment property bill, spoke to my contractor (who was there when the plumber came out and purchased parts for the plumber) and spoke to the plumber.  After 15 minutes or so Terry determined that I was overbilled by $160.00 for parts that were never used.  My contractor still insists that he gave the plumber more parts and, as a result, I am still being billed for parts that the plumber did not provide.  As a result of Terry already admitting that the bill was $160.00 too high, my continuing concern that the bill was still wrong and the undiscovered problems at my house along with Terrys warranty offer, Terry set up a day and time for me to meet with the owner of Bradley Plumbing, Brad Rayls, on Friday 5/11/2012 at 1601 Flat Rock Rd, Murfreesboro, TN 37130.  I arrived at the meeting and after a few short minutes it became clear that this was not a meeting intended to make a customer happy.  It was an assault on me.  Brads position was that the warranty offer that Terry gave me was not correct and that Bradley Plumbing would not have repaired the items for free.  The best he would offer on that issue was to refund the $85.00 troubleshooting invoice I paid in August 2011 since the problems were not correctly identified.  Regarding the investment property bill, Brads position was that the bill was now correct (after the $160.00 was taken off) and that I should be happy that the bill was correct.  When I expressed my concern that the bill was still not correct he said it was correct.  When I told him that if I had not brought up that the bill seemed too high I would have overpaid by at least $160.00 and that as a result of the inconvenience of receiving an incorrect bill and having to spend time with 2 meetings (with Terry and Brad) just to get the bill corrected that I deserved to have the bill reduced further.  I brought up examples of other businesses who provide excellent customer service and bend over backwards to make customers happy when those businesses mess up.  Brad did not want to hear it.  Terry slammed his fist on the counter and told me that I was the problem with America because I wanted something for nothing.  I took exception for this since all I wanted was a correct bill and by the admission of Brad and Terry the bill was not correct at first and I still thought it was not correct.  I told them that I felt ripped off and that they should rectify that.  Brad said that the bill was a mistake by their billing people, but not done intentionally.  I told Brad and Terry that I did not think the bill was purposely inflated, but that I had no confidence that it was correct even after the $160.00 was taken off and that I should not be happy that the bill was correct now.  I told them that is was Bradley Plumbings duty to give me a correct bill, not something that I should be happy about.  At that point Terry threatened to place a mechanics lien on the investment property if I did not pay the bill right then.  Given that I only had the bill for 7 days at that point and have a legitimate reason to believe that it is not accurate, that statement made me very angry.  However, due to having to sell the property (which Terry knew), I had no choice and paid the full bill less the $85.00 and $160.00.  Needless to say, I am very dissatisfied.  No legitimate business would take such an attitude with a repeat customer who has legitimate concerns over the service quality and incorrect billing and threaten to lien their property when the bill had only been out for 7 days.  I was treated poorly, and in my opinion, in bad faith by a business that I used to have high regard for.

In summary, my experience with Bradley Plumbing included troubleshooting issues missed, being over billed for work performed, getting accused of what is wrong with America and then threatened with a mechanics lien when engaged in legitimate billing dispute.