Blau Plumbing, Inc. Blau Sudden Service Blau Plumbing, Heating, Air Conditioning, Drain Cleaning Replace Valve before and after water meter Milwaukee Wisconsin

We needed to replace the valve before and after the meter once the Village of Greendale Public Works froze the water because the water could not be turned off any other way.  The valve before the meter was gushing water because I tried to tighten the nut due to the fact that it was slowly leaking and the nut broke in two causing the valve to be dislodged from the pipe and allowing water to continuously pour from that pipe.  The valve after the meter was perfectly fine but it was suggested by the Village of Greendale Public Works to replace both at once while a plumber is already there; the goal was to replace the old valves with ball valves.  I was at work so my able wife was handling this issue.  We were referred to Blau by Greenfield Plumbing and Theo Matt came to the house that day; his proposal was for $967 to replace both valves.  My wife was taken aback by this proposal along with the Village of Greendale Public Works workers and my wife politely refused his proposal and was ready to pay the $39 truck charge and a $30 diagnostic fee.  Theo seemed to have gotten offended by her refusal and got red in the face.  He stated that we are going to get someone who “will use Menards parts to fix it” (I’m pretty sure Menards, whose annual revenue is $9.5 Billion would be offended with his statement).  Also, there was a disagreement between Theo and the Village of Greendale Public Works workers as to why a permit even needed to be pulled. 

I feel this $967 proposal is borderline extortion and Theo Matt’s professionalism and ethics should be in question; I hope he wasn’t playing the gender card either.  Needless to say, we contacted another plumbing service and it was fixed in 30 minutes for 1/5 the cost and no permit was needed.  So, if we would have had Theo fix the issue for us it would have cost us $32/minute ($967/30 minutes).  Now, I ask you is that truly justifiable?  To add insult to injury, Theo charged us $104.54 ($39 truck charge + $60 diagnostic fee + $5.54 tax) even though we were quoted on the phone a $39 truck charge and a $30 diagnostic fee.  His justification for the extra amount is because he was there for 30 minutes.  If he was there for 30 minutes then wouldn’t our bill have been $967?  But I digress.  I have to imagine that 90%-95% of a service industry’s business comes from “word of mouth”, quality referrals, and I am hard-pressed to believe what Theo Matt did is going to be a sustainable business model for Blau going forward; having my own service business I understand the importance of great customer service and going the extra mile to satisfy the individuals who generate the revenue to stay in business in the first place.  With that said, I implore you to have a discussion with Master Plumber #232319 Theo Matt about professionalism, ethics and charging a fair price for quality service.