Hofmeister Plumbing, Westwood, NJ

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Category: Home & Garden

Contact Information
115 Bergenline Avenue, Westwood, New Jersey, United States

Phone number: 201 666-1118

Hofmeister Plumbing, Westwood, NJ Reviews

September 7, 2011

answer

This is Hofmeister plumbings response. We service thousands of customers a year and 99 percent of them are satisfied, but there is always that one percent you can't satisfy . First of all, it was a really hot day and we showed up very fast on Saturday in the morning. There were two technicians in the room at the time of the estimate. it was made crystal clear what the price was going to be before the work was performed. He told the customer it was $495 each unit to chemically clean units add freon (which is not cheep today), and service the air handlers. The technician was there for more then 8 hours It was diner time when he was done and we have trackers on the trucks. The wife told the technician her husband went to the the store. When he called about another problem, he called the technician on his office business phone. he told the technician to not go through the company and work without Hofmeister plumbing knowing. I have it all recorded on the computer and a lot of bad words were said in three phone calls. ( I ask you if the job was done so bad and expensive why is he calling the technician to come and do work without going through the company) So doing the right thing, the technician did not want to go back for a different problem, for fear of loosing his job. Thank you very much Hofmeister Plumbing.

TRUGG July 3, 2011

Excessive overcharging, Dishonesty and dangerous business practices

NEVER USE HOFMEISTER Plumbing/HVAC !!!

It would be difficult to fully articulate the sheer lack of integrity demonstrated by the owners of this company in the allotted space, but here goes. We called them when our AC wasn't working and the home was 85 degrees. They initially said that a technician would be here within the hour. 3 hours later a technician showed up and turned the unit back on (more to follow on that subject). He then proceeded to tell me that it is a good idea to have the units cleaned and checked for refrigerant (freon) levels. He said it would cost $495 and take about three hours to clean the 4 units. While it seemed a bit high, I told him to go ahead and do the job. Nearly 3 hours later I was in the shower and the technician came in and spoke to my wife regarding payment. She gave him a credit card and signed the invoice prepared by the technician. When I came down she commented that the bill was very expensive and that's when I got the news; he'd charged us $495 per unit (OVER TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS) for three hours of labor (no parts at all). I was blown away and called the company immediately and the technician on his cell phone. Neither was responsive. I then had my wife call the credit card company and dispute the charge. The next morning I got Suzanne (the office manager) on the phone and explained very politely the apparent misunderstanding. She assured me that this wasn't their policy and said that either her or Harold (the owner) would call back immediately. Two days later (after numerous calls) I received a call from Fabio (the technician not the owner or office manager, as promised) who proceeded to defend the charges saying that he was "extremely careful" when quoting the job and that he had been clear that the $495 per each of the 4 units. He admitted that he never mentioned $2, 000 and I made it clear to him then he certainly wasn't "extremely careful". To be clear, he never said $495 EACH, let alone $2, 000.

Net result: they continue to refuse to return calls and refuse to refund anything. Including rejecting my over generously offer to just "split the difference" and refund me $ 1, 000 and I'd chalk it up to an expensive lesson. They refused to return calls and continue to say that the "work was authorized"

Gets better - the way they "fixed" the AC unit, was through the bypassing of a condenser shut off switch. They "jumped" the switch which means that the unit will not shut off (like it should) when the water isn't draining properly. The result of this expeditious "workmanship was a flood in my kitchen and bedroom due an AC unit that just kept going rather than shut off (as it is designed to do), prior to the occurrence of water damage.

NET RESULT - NEVER USE HOFMEISTER Plumbing and HVAC. They ripped us off, didn't do the job and have ZERO integrity.