John Moore Plumbing Houston Using free estimates to lure you into spending too much for repairs. Internet

I called John Moore Services because one of my rental properties had an occasional odor that my tenants were complaining about.  My normal contractor could not find the source of the odor and suggested that I use a plumbing company that had more technical means of locating the odor.  The John Moore services representative provided me with two approaches to find and fix the problem. 

The first was to use cameras that he would place in each drain to take pictures to find the source of the leak.  The second he described as a smoke bomb that would exert smoke at the source of the leak.  The first was around $900 and the second was around $1,600.  I chose the first one and left for lunch because the guy said that it would take a couple of hours to run his test.  When I came back in about an hour he had completed his work and did not find anything.  He worked alone and used an camera to place in each drain one at a time.

So by my calculations that is $800 per hour.  I was concerned about the smoke test and the excessive costs even before the problem was fixed.  I went on the Internet and looked for someone that specialized in finding odors in houses.  I found a company that specializes in using smoke to find the source and asked for an over the phone estimate.  He said that the maximum someone should pay for this service is $295.  Which is why I am writing this report.  John Moore services can make a good living without ripping people off but until they do someone needs to call attention to there over-pricing schemes.