Larabee Plumbing Services

Larabee quoted me at $99 for a service charge to visit a property to check out a slowly leaking bathtub faucet. They called back and quoted me at $1,600 to access the shower valve through the drywall, and replace the valve with pro-press compression fittings. I told them I wasn't interested in that service at that price. He called back 2 minutes later and stated since he was already on site, he said he could now do the job for $1,000. I told him thanks but no thanks. Next, the billing department calls me with a $345 bill for diagnostic. I asked that they send an itemized bill as I am confused by the charges. It says "Diagnosis of running hot water $345", zero mention of the $99 service charge. In the notes all it says is "Turned water on to house, faulty cold line to hot water tank" I was on the phone with the billing department and I stated that I didn't understand the fees and that the invoice wasn't itemized. She put me on a three way call with the plumber, and I asked him what the deal was. He said the "$99 service fee is to get the contractor to your door". I said, ok, so what's the additional $246 charge? He stated it was for "everything he did". He later goes on to say he was there for 20-30 minutes. Tells me it is an hour drive to get to this house than an hour to the next job, and I said, well isn't that what the service fee is for? He gets elevated, tells me he "knows my game" and if I don't want to pay "go punt". Anyway, I asked the billing department if I could talk to a supervisor. She said the supervisor is on break, then just legit hung up mid sentence. She calls back 5 minutes later and said that the charges were indeed only $99. I paid and that was that. So, quick summary: - Quoted at $99 for service fee regardless of work. - Plumber tries to sucker me for $1,600, realizes it isn't going to work, pivots and tries to charge me $1,000. - When I say no, he adds a random "shut the cold water off" fee. - Billing department won't send an itemized invoice, tries to up-charge, eventually realizes that I'm not going to pay a service fee on top of my service fee, and charges me the correct amount. Thanks for nothing Larabee, go punt.

During the infamous "deep freeze" night of Feb 3-4 2023 in the Boston area (minus 32 degrees outside) the cold water pipe (1/2 inch copper) underneath our bath tub froze and then burst. Mr. James Lee of Larabee Plumbing fixed it in the most incredible way imaginable: fast, courteous, creative, on-time, and most importantly truly caring about the well-being of us the customers. Our plumbing layout in the ancient 1880's building is truly bizarre, extremely difficult to work on, but James worked tirelessly for two consecutive afternoon shifts (4:30 to 10:30 p.m.) until he finally found the crack, in an extremely hard to reach place, and then fixed it very rapidly. My wife and I feel really privileged to have found James, and will never consider bringing anybody else for any plumbing or similar work. You will not be disappointed if you hire James, that is guaranteed.

I didn't use this business because it costs $300 just to get someone out for an estimate. The $300 is on top of the final cost for work... Unreal.