I am a “priority plus” member with an HVAC company called My Plumber in the DC area. It basically means I pay $20 a month and get two HVAC services a year (spring and fall), annual electric and plumbing home inspection, annual camera sewage line inspection, and 10% off their ridiculously overpriced service. I just pay the $20 for their HVAC service because their electrical and plumbing services are a rip off.
Anyway, I had the plumbing and electrical inspections done a few weeks ago and the plumbers always try to upsell the entire time. They never claim anything is broken, they just quote you stuff like $1,000 if you want a new efficient toilet or $600 to install a new bathroom faucet (I do my own plumbing and electrical work). I really just want them to come out and flush my water heater and leave so I don’t have to bother with it.
The electrician came out and he was a super nice guy. He diagnosed a problem with my 4-way light switch (they’re a bitch) and said his company charges $360 to replace it but I can do it on my own after he found what the problem was. I made a joke about how I hope his company pays at least $360 an hour if they’re charging people $360 for 15 minutes of work. He laughed and said, “No, they only pay me $20 an hour and I don’t get paid commission to sell services.”
That got the ball rolling about the company and I found out they’re stealing from their employees. The technicians drive company work trucks from their homes to the work sites every day, but they aren’t “on the clock” until the company says so. If they drive two hours to get from Virginia to Maryland, they aren’t paid but are driving a company vehicle (and are therefore not eligible for company insurance if they get in an accident off the clock—according to the company.)
If they have a job at a house and have to wait on an home inspector to check their work for a home purchase, they are told to get there at least two hours early and wait for the home inspector, but they aren’t paid for their time waiting. They aren’t paid for their time traveling from job site to job site and they cover all of DC, southern Maryland, and half of Virginia. They get scheduled all over the place and one of the guys that came to my house lives in the middle of VA, had to drive to Maryland that morning for one job, then back down to VA for my house, then had to go back to DC during rush hour for another job. That was three jobs for the entire day, easily 5 hours of driving and he was only getting paid for the time he spent at the customer”: homes—a total of 3 hours for the whole day.
I had to deal with this with my brother getting scammed from his company (he’s also an electrician) so I wrote down the DOL website and phone number for the guy visiting my home. I told him to call the DOL number and just tell them what’s going on and they’ll come out and investigate the company and pay him back pay for all the time they were stealing from their employees. I informed him in all the ways the company was stealing from their employees and how it’s illegal (and that I’m not doing business with them any more after finding this out). I really hope he calls and makes the complaint. It’s disgusting that they charge outrageous prices and turn around and steal from their employees.
I just wanted to share this experience. Anyone know of good local electricians and plumbers in the DC/NOVA area? In exchange, I can share the name of the best, most honest mechanics in the area (seriously, having mechanics you trust 100% is such a relief to have).