Len the Plumber Eighty Dollar Coupon Fake Google Reviews Intentional Delays Price Gouging Scam

If you're considering Len the Plumber for your plumbing needs, and/or if you'd rather not pay a thousand dollars to have them spend an hour fixing a clogged drain, read this.  If you get to the end, you'll agree with me that Len the Plumber needs a new motto:

Len the Plumber:  

WE WILL CHEAT YOU IF WE CAN

I'm a somewhat involuntary landlord, having found myself in possession of a condo that I didn't need but was not quite ready to sell.  So I'm learning how to be a landlord.

My tenant called a few days ago to let me know that the kitchen drain wasn't working and that he'd tried a plunger and Dran-o to no avail. I gave him some Liquid Plumr to try, but that didn't work either.  Then I went in with a friend, opened up some pipes, and used a manual snake to clear the drain.  We got a lot of gunk out, and the drain seemed to be working, but it quickly clogged up again.  And in putting the pipes back together, some small leaks appeared that we were unable to stop.  

So it was time to call a real plumber.

I live in Alexandria VA.  Someone had recommended All Seasons Plumbing to me, so I tried to Google them.  Here's what I got:

So I got a bunch of ads first, with the business I had been looking for at the bottom.  And it turned out that All Seasons Plumbing was out in Bladensburg, Maryland, quite a long way from me.  Plus it was after hours, so they were indicated as closed.

I looked at the various ads and those plumbers looked pretty good.  The first one was Len the Plumber, with 4.7 star over 3,600 reviews.  By contrast, All Seasons Plumbing only had one review, and it was only 4 stars.

It seemed to me that with all the internet reviews out there, plumbers nowadays must be on their best behavior.  They've always made a lot of money, so I expected to pay a few hundred dollars to clear the drain, but I figured all plumbers should charge about the same rate -- since if they don't, the reviews will tell.

So Len the Plumber was looking pretty good.  Just to be sure, I went in and clicked on the one star reviews.  Ok, so somebody was mad that they didn't show up when they were supposed to.  But Len the Plumber had already posted a nice apology.  No big deal.  And remember, the vast majority of reviews were five stars, from very satisfied customers.  

For completeness, here's what you see when you click on reviews:

Just a tiny percent are one stars.  On top of that, as you can see from the ad, they were "GOOGLE GUARANTEED" -- "Get it done right or Google pays you back."  All Seasons isn't GOOGLE GUARANTEED, so that's another mark in Len's favor. 

But just to be sure, let's click on the one stars:

Well that's interesting.  Today is two days later, and I see now there was a review accusing them of quoting a too-high price.  I didn't notice that one; perhaps I just stopped at the apology on the previous one.  That's a smart move -- take up space with an apology for a simple "delay" complaint so people don't notice or scroll down to the next one.  

Or perhaps I noted it, but also noted that it was obviously about a much bigger plumbing job than I was looking for -- perhaps installing a new sink from scratch.  If I'd scrolled down a bit further, I would have seen more:

Maybe the one about them not quoting a price would have concerned me.

But based on all those positive reviews, the 4.7 overall rating, and the GOOGLE GUARANTEE, I figured I couldn't go too far wrong.  So I went to their website, and found that they even had an $80 coupon!!

Ok, sorry dear reader, I keep discovering new stuff as I go.  I've been typing all this in and putting in the screen shots, all over the last hour.  So why does Len's website say it has a 4.8 average Google review, when we just saw it was 4.7?  When I clicked on the place on the website, it didn't take me to Google reviews, it just took me to a page with a bunch of glowing reviews.  Another google for Len the Plumber gets me this:

So here, just by doing a different Google search, the business has a 4.8 rating (not 4.7) but about 200 fewer reviews.  Perhaps that's just Google not being up to date.  But it does seem fishy, since Google is historically very up to date.  

The one star reviews that show up here are also less recent, and I couldn't see overlap between this set and the other set, but I didn't spend much time.  These one-stars also did include allegations of price gouging.  But of course I never clicked through them since by now everything seemed so great.

So that all may be fishy but it's a story for another day.  Back to my story.

I called and reached someone pretty much immediately.  I explained the problem -- including mentioning that I was the landlord and the unit was occupied by my tenant -- and asked for a quote.  He told me that the technician would give me the quote and that I could take it or leave it.  I asked about the 80 dollar coupon and he said that would be deducted from the quote.  In hindsight, I should have been more persistent in asking for the quote, but probably wouldn't have gotten one, as one of the reviewers noted.

We set it up for 11-2 the next day.  I gave them the tenant's phone number and let the tenant know.

Around 130, the tenant texted me to say they hadn't shown up yet and he hadn't heard anything.  At 1:58 pm we both got a text with a picture of a technician saying that he was on his way.  But then nobody showed up.  At 3:49 pm they called and said that the previous technician that they thought was coming was actually not working any more that day.  But now a new technician would be coming and they sent me a text to that effect as well.

At 4:37 they called me to say that the guy was outside but there was no parking.   I live in a 15-story high rise with a garage which is for tenants only.  But there's plenty of on street parking at all times.  I told them there was tons of on street parking.  They told me that their technicians aren't given credit cards.  We seemed to have reached an impasse, so I offered to go downstairs and pay for his parking.  My tenant had received a similar call so we both found the technician and I paid for his parking for two hours.

The tenant went back to his unit with the technician and I went to mine.  Not long thereafter, the technician called to say he thought the leaks were no big deal, and that he'd be able to clear the drain with his motorized auger.  I asked how much and he said "Nine eighty two."  I couldn't quite process that.  At first I thought maybe my 80 dollar coupon had brought the price down to nine dollars and eighty two cents.  But obviously that couldn't be right.  But 982 dollars for a clogged drain?!  That he could clear in less than an hour, most likely?  Why did I even go to law school?!  I should have been a plumber.

I asked him what it would have been without the 80 dollar coupon, and he said $1062.

I told the technician that I was having trouble processing that.  He assured me that was the going rate.  I googled it while we were speaking and found a site that said it could range from $250 to $750.  I told him that and he said that that was the national average while this was a high rise in Alexandria.  I almost paid for it right then and there -- my poor tenant had been living without a sink and the guy was right there ready to fix it.  As a landlord, didn't I have a duty to get this drain cleared?  

But I asked if it he could give me ten minutes to call someone else.  I called All Seasons, even though the website said they were closed.  I reached a service that asked if it was an emergency.  I said not really but explained the situation and asked if someone could call me back.  Ten minutes later nobody had called me back so I called the Len technician guy and was about to tell him to get to work, but then the call from All Seasons came in.  I took that.

The All Seasons guy said they charge by the hour, but overtime rates (time and a half) apply, and it would be $150 for the first half hour, and I thought he said $37.50 for half hours after that, but I figured even if it was $150 for every half hour, that was still only $600 max.  He said he could have someone there by 7.  Either he, or the dispatcher, had told me that there was no guarantee I could get an appointment during business hours the next day, so I was fine with the "emergency" rates.  

I called the Len the Plumber guy back, with the thought that maybe he'd just come down in price, but he wouldn't.  I made some remark about how it seems like Len's just charges whatever they can get away with, and he took exception to that remark, which made it easy for me to tell him we didn't need his services.  I called All Seasons back and confirmed that I wanted their emergency service. 

My tenant texted me at 7:24 to say the All Seasons guy had just gotten there.  I have a text from when the guy fixed it, but I can't figure out the time on it.  I just remember it was before 9.  A while later the All Seasons guy called me and told me the bill was $460.  I paid without complaint, although he said it was for 2 hours work when I don't think it was quite that long.  He also said I was paying $35 for the equipment; I guess the use of his motorized auger.  Bottom line is perhaps there was even a little bit of inflation there, but all within the realm of acceptability, esp. since it was "emergency service," and his price ended up being less than half of Len's.

So as I thought about it, I convinced myself that Len the Plumber's quote was not just a randomly inflated quote, but a deliberate scam.  Len the Plumber KNEW that this was a landlord-tenant situation, where the landlord was paying but the tenant was being inconvenienced by having to be there for the plumber.  So they deliberately inconvenienced the tenant even more -- they were supposed to be there between 11-2, and only at the end of that window notified us that they were on the way.  But then radio silence until 350 pm, when they called to say the last guy wasn't coming after all, and another guy was now finally on his way.

They knew that this was all making the tenant more and more impatient and annoyed, and would make me all the more likely to pay any price to make sure the tenant was happy.

I'm not sure if making me pay for parking was part of the scam, but it certainly was annoying too, and they had also called the tenant and got him to go down to meet the technician.

So by the time I finally got a quote out of them -- around 5 pm -- I was totally primed to accept it, out of consideration for my tenant.  And as above, they knew all that, and it really seems like they planned it.  In fact, they also knew that at 5 pm, it would be after hours for other plumbers, and I would know that, and so would be worried that calling another plumber on an emergency basis might cost me even more.  So that's all the more reason to think the whole delay was intentional -- not only would my tenant be impatient, but there would be no easy way for me to find a substitute.

I have no idea if all of those 5 star google reviews are fake, but I now know NOT to trust a 4.7 star rating with several thousand reviews.  And I've also been disabused of my fantasy that the fact that there are reviews out there has caused better behavior among plumbers and other contractors.

If you're wondering why I've referred to the guy throughout as a "technician" it's because that's what they called him (and the other guy who didn't come).  I'm guessing that they people they send for these jobs are not even licensed plumbers.  

So if you've read this far, the recommendation is:

STAY AWAY FROM LEN THE PLUMBER . . . THEY WILL CHEAT YOU IF THEY CAN!