A-1 Drainage, Plumbing and Heating

I am a design and contracting professional in West Vancouver, we took on a quickie bathroom reno for a friends parents, so obviously we did not charge a ton, actually just cost on the job, but we worked on a quote. My usual plumber called in sick on the day of the job, so I had to scramble and find a replacement. On such short notice we were referred to A-​1 through our plumbing supplier. Worst experience with a trade in all of our years of building. They sent a plumber to do a bathtub replacement and plumbing rough in replacement as well as toilet, sink and faucet. This was all explained before anyone was sent out. The guy arrived and was completely unable to complete the job as he did not have the necessary skills (?how…seriously). So a second guy was sent out to help him do the job. It was a standard thermostatic pressure valve from Riobel that we were installing, nothing crazy, no steam showers or electronic controls. They could not figure out how to install it, had to call the Riobel supplier in town (And did not tell me, the supplier called to let me know). They finally managed to install it, the bathtub and the toilet after being at the site for 2.5 days (with two people each day-​this job type usually takes my regular plumber (1 person) 4 – 6 hours). They did not install the sink, but one of my other regular trades had no issue installing it after the fact so I thought, what the heck, they are done and we can finish this job. We had just finished the grout, painting, and were putting the finishing touches on when we found a leak. I am not kidding, they did not do their welds correctly and the whole thing was leaking. So, A-​1 then came back to the site, cut a hole in the wall, fixed their problem, patched the hole (1 week+ it took to do this). (this was great service, but the fact that a simple install went this wrong was scary.) We had promised the client that the renovation would take 7 days, we were now in about 2.5 weeks. At this point we were losing money on the job, but when you make a promise you keep it. Whatever, we repainted, cleaned up the site and handed it over to the client. I then received a bill from A-​1 for 3 days labour for 2 men. I was shocked. They scaled it back significantly only charging me for 1 man, but still 3 days labor, plus parts, plus gas. (Insane as I had to drive around myself to the supplier to get parts that they didn’t have.) I told them that their screw up had increased the cost of my labor significantly as I had to have a guy on site the whole time basically waiting for them to get out so he could start, and that they should scale back what they were charging again (seeing as it was still double what my normal plumber charges). They refused. Long story short, I got sick of fighting with them, paid the full amount they asked, but I would NEVER recommend them to anyone ever. I am a female contractor, but all of my trades always treat me with respect as do I them. This sort of thing has not been my experience at all with trades, but this company is the worst. And I am pretty sure they don’t pay their staff enough, or hire qualified staff. Stay away. Sorry for the long ass rant. :)

The actual work was fine; no problem with that. However, BEWARE, your invoice will come with a ‘fuel surcharge’ regardless of the distance they travel. At no time was this mentioned until arrival of the invoice. Seems like a bizarre business practice for a service where they have to come to the customer (unless the customer can take their toilet, sink, etc to them). Surely fuel is a cost of doing business! If downtown, go with Yaletown Plumbing; pleasant reliable service with NO surprises!