1 reviews | Active since Apr 2015
Unprofessional and rude staff and Management
<p>I called Drain Surgeon out to remove from my sewerage pipes and unblock my toilet, they came out and spent about an hour working but left with the toilet no better than before they came. The next day I called another plumber who came out and removed roots and unblocked my toilet. I received an invoice from Drain Surgeon the day afer they had come out which I was not prepared to pay as they had not done the work and was waiting for the other plumber to send their invoice to prove that the same job was done the day after Drain Surgeon had come out. The other plumber invoices sometimes only weeks later so it has taken some time to receive the invoice (it is now two and half weeks and I have still not received the invoice), in the mean time I have been harassed every few days to pay Drain Surgeon and each time I explain that I am not prepared to pay but will furnish proof that I ahd to get another plumber out the next day as soon as I receive an invoice.</p> <p>Eventually I get a call from some lady in Drain Surgeons accounts department who was extremely rude and sarcastic saying things like "Oh, do you just decide that you won't pay us, well we don't work like that!!!" in a screeching overbearing voice. I then went on to explain that the way I work is that I don't pay for a service I didn't receive. She said that they have a guarantee and that I should have called them out and they would have come to do the job again. I said that I didn't want them to come and do the job again when they hadn't done it in the first place. She continued to shout me down and be obnoxious and overbearing until I put the phone down on her.</p> <p> </p> <p>I was so angry at being spoken to like that that I emailed the Manager to report her behaviour and advise that she not be allowed to contact customers as she will drive them away. Below is the reply I got from Mark Pratt who seems to be the son of the owner Glenn Pratt:</p> <p>"I would like to thank you for bringing the below to my attention. Please understand that regardless of the circumstances It will never be acceptable that Drain Surgeon staff ever speak to a customer in an unprofessional manner. I will be investigating the below incident and will be taking the necessary action.</p> <p> </p> <p>I do wish to state the following:</p> <p> </p> <p>· We are a cash company and payment is appreciated directly on completion of the job, at the very latest, in terms of the law a 7 day period is given. Yes certain body corporates and blue chip companies are given an account – based on them providing us with hundreds of jobs per annum and completing an account application form.</p> <p>· Most home service companies will not even leave your premises without payment.</p> <p>· We are a 40 year old company which honours all its guarantees</p> <p>· We treat a go back on faulty work with more priority than a new job – it would have been sorted out ASAP.</p> <p>· It has taken over 2 weeks to get the other plumbers invoice and still we have received nothing.</p> <p> </p> <p>He basically called me a **** and told me that I am unimportant and that if I had been somebody important I woul,.d have received better service.</p> <p> </p> <p>To which I rep****:</p> <p> </p> <p>Thanks for your reply Mark</p> <p>"It has taken over 2 weeks to get the other plumbers invoice and still we have received nothing." - is this a question or a sarcastic implication that I am lying? Not sure what to make of this?</p> <p>I have still not received an invoice from the other Plumber but as I told another lady last week (who by the way was far more polite and professional), I would wait for a few more days and if the other plumber doesn't send the invoice I will send the job card which they left which just shows the date and the work they came out to do. The other plumbers generally only invoice on or around the 25th of each month and since I called them the day after calling Drain Surgeon it would have been the 27th May so they won't send their invoice for another week or two. Your observation of "Most home service companies will not even leave your premises without payment" is not true as is the case with the other plumber I had to call.</p> <p>I understand that you would have preferred I called you again to do the job, but please understand that having a blocked sewerage pipe and flooding toilet is an emergency and I don't have time to wait for the same plumber to come out and do the same job they already did, which made no difference to the problem. I had to call somebody else to open the pipes as soon as possible.</p> <p> </p> <p>I have done as I said and reported this incident on Hello Peter and saw that your company has been reported many times. I would suggest you address the issues otherwise your 40 year old company will not reach 41. A company without clients struggles to keep running and you have already lost one in me.</p> <p> </p> <p>Again explaing for the nth time that the other plumber invoices weeks after the work is done and that all I have at the moment is a signed job card showing the date and what they were coming to do as proof which I would have sent if I hadn't received the invoice this week.</p> <p> </p> <p>Mark then rep**** with the following, making matters even worse, being even more insulting and obnoxious and sarcastic.</p> <p> </p> <p>Please be assured that I will be responding to the incident you report and will be painting the exact picture I did below. The public will decide if Karen De Beer, from (***************X he quotes my address) reacted in a rational manner or not.</p> <p> </p> <p>Can we please agree that the below statement "It has taken over 2 weeks to get the other plumbers invoice and still we have received nothing” is fact, rather than a question.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you think that in general, plumbers only invoice a customer on the 25th of each month for the first time – I truly do not even know where to start with this response, as it is completely inaccurate. That I promise.</p> <p> </p> <p>Again calling me a ****, and then resorting to a threatening, aggressive and demeaning attitude. Quoting my address and implying that I am irrational!!! Well, I work in the financial industry and could access all his personal as well as financial details if I wished to go down to that level. Since the matter had got out of control and was becoming a very immature and unprofessional playground bullying brawl, I decided to just pay them the money they were demanding to get them out of my life as their attitude is just beyond belief. I rep**** with the following:</p> <p> </p> <p>Wow!! Mark you really shouldn't have bothered responding. You have only made things worse.<br />Your attitude is as disgusting as your office staff.<br />Sorry I bothered to contact you. Your arrogance and dishonesty is beyond belief. You clearly have no clue what Hello Peter is about either. Really am so disgusted, but can see now where the sarcastic, rude and arrogant attitude of your staff comes from.</p> <p>I have paid the money you did NOT earn and do not deserve and all I expect in return is to never hear from yourself or your office staff again.</p> <p> </p> <p>I would not advise anybody to do business with this company ever as the attitude of the office staff and the management is beyond belief. I will also be contacting a Consumer investigator with a big newspaper as well as a Consumer investigator with a radio show to see if they would be interested in exposing this appalling behaviour.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>
To summarise the above, can you imagine being called arrogant, dishonest, rude, sarcastic and immature just to name a few of the insults hurled at me.
When the following occurred:
Called Karen De Beer (Pinelands) a week after completing the work to inquire about payment, to be told we never fixed the problem and she had to get another plumber out. Then in trying to assist her just asked for proof of work done by the plumber, as this would have resolved the situation. After many requests and even more weeks passing by, would you not too be a little suspect that Karen De Beer from Pinelands was unable to produce a single shred of evidence of work being done by this "other" plumber. I just needed you to help me help you.
It has now been a few months and you still have done nothing to prove that you were not being dishonest.
Attention all suppliers to Karen De Beer from Pinelands - exercise extreme caution if performing any form of work for her.
To summarise the above, can you imagine being called arrogant, dishonest, rude, sarcastic and immature just to name a few of the insults hurled at me.
When the following occurred:
Called Karen De Beer (Pinelands) a week after completing the work to inquire about payment, to be told we never fixed the problem and she had to get another plumber out. Then in trying to assist her just asked for proof of work done by the plumber, as this would have resolved the situation. After many requests and even more weeks passing by, would you not too be a little suspect that Karen De Beer from Pinelands was unable to produce a single shred of evidence of work being done by this "other" plumber. I just needed you to help me help you.
It has now been a few months and you still have done nothing to prove that you were not being dishonest.
Attention all suppliers to Karen De Beer from Pinelands - exercise extreme caution if performing any form of work for her.
As I said in my last communication...I paid the invoice which was not earned and would not be having any further dealings with Drain surgeon. Once the invoice had been paid I see no reason why the manager of Drain Surgeon would think I should still provide them with proof of having to get another pl;umber in the day after having a drain surgeon plumber had been there? It is no longer any of their business. I was only waiting for the invoice from the other plumber so that I could dispute the invoice from them and show why I was not happy to pay it. Since I had paid I have no further reason to deal with them at all.
What a joke to try to warn other suppliers against doing any work for me...again showing his extremely unprofessional and, quite frankly, childish response to a complaint against his company. My credit rating is perfect thanks very much and all my other service providers have never had any problems with my payments. I have also used Drain surgeon many times before and have always paid promptly....check your records. I had a dispute this time and hoped that the employees would handle my complaint professionally. When they didn't I approached the manager/owner of the company hoping for professionalism there...sadly it was even worse.
These dealings have been the most unpleasant and atrocious I have ever received from anybody and the response from the manager/owner has been personal attacks, passive aggressive threats and insults. This company has no idea about customer service and Mark Pratt seems to forget he is a service provider and I am a customer. Even seems to be personally injured that I have reported his company on Hello Peter and refers to this site as a social media attack rather than a customer complaint site .
Really an all round unpleasant transaction with an even m ore unpleasant, rude, unprofessional and disrespectful staff who are claarly taking their lead from the most unpleasnat, rude and unprofessional manager/owner I have even had the misfortune to come across. Save yourselves and call another plumber there are thousands of others to choose from.
As I said in my last communication...I paid the invoice which was not earned and would not be having any further dealings with Drain surgeon. Once the invoice had been paid I see no reason why the manager of Drain Surgeon would think I should still provide them with proof of having to get another pl;umber in the day after having a drain surgeon plumber had been there? It is no longer any of their business. I was only waiting for the invoice from the other plumber so that I could dispute the invoice from them and show why I was not happy to pay it. Since I had paid I have no further reason to deal with them at all.
What a joke to try to warn other suppliers against doing any work for me...again showing his extremely unprofessional and, quite frankly, childish response to a complaint against his company. My credit rating is perfect thanks very much and all my other service providers have never had any problems with my payments. I have also used Drain surgeon many times before and have always paid promptly....check your records. I had a dispute this time and hoped that the employees would handle my complaint professionally. When they didn't I approached the manager/owner of the company hoping for professionalism there...sadly it was even worse.
These dealings have been the most unpleasant and atrocious I have ever received from anybody and the response from the manager/owner has been personal attacks, passive aggressive threats and insults. This company has no idea about customer service and Mark Pratt seems to forget he is a service provider and I am a customer. Even seems to be personally injured that I have reported his company on Hello Peter and refers to this site as a social media attack rather than a customer complaint site .
Really an all round unpleasant transaction with an even m ore unpleasant, rude, unprofessional and disrespectful staff who are claarly taking their lead from the most unpleasnat, rude and unprofessional manager/owner I have even had the misfortune to come across. Save yourselves and call another plumber there are thousands of others to choose from.