Meredith Plumbing & Heating

"Mr. Southworth contacted me and asked if I would be willing to install a kitchen faucet that he was supplying. He asked if I could complete the job before Christmas. I told him that I could. He reached out to me about 3-4 days before our original appointment to reschedule. I set up a second date & time with him. He called the morning of to confirm I was still coming. I confirmed that I was. I was finishing up a job and would be on my way as scheduled. I arrived at the job. I started to remove the old faucet in order to install the owner's supplied faucet. Mr. Southworth asked if everything looked like it would fit. I advised him that yes it's a typical faucet installation. I installed the new faucet & was making the final connection on the cold water side when the supply tube that is made with the faucet came out and hit me in the head. I had to remove the faucet again to see what was wrong. I found there was a manufacturer defect in the faucet the press fitting for the supply tube was not pressed in properly from the factory. I showed the homeowner, he said it looks like it just screws in and tried screwing it in himself. I told him that it looks like threads but it's a press bob fitting that has to be pushed in by the factory. He continued to fiddle with the faucet. I told him that I would install the old faucet since that one could not be used & he needed to contact the online manufacturer where he bought it from. I told him I'd recommend buying a faucet locally where he can easily get replacement parts for it in the future. I gave him a few suggestions like Moen, Grohe & Franke. I explained that I have never heard of, I believe the name was, California.com and to save him aggravation that is why I recommended other brands he could get locally. Mr. Southworth asked what he owed me. After removing the old faucet, installing the new faucet, removing the new faucet & reinstalling the old faucet & 45 minutes of travel time to the job, I charged him $500.00 for my time. Mr. Southworth wrote a check to my business for $500.00. I told him to give me a call once he got a replacement faucet and I would come and install it. I received several calls from Mr. Southworth on my business land line which I returned, leaving him messages to call me on my cell phone. Finally , I was able to get in touch with him I identified myself as Fred from Meredith Plumbing & Heating & apologized for playing phone tag with him. I explained the best way to get in touch with me is on my cell phone. He said he refused to contact my cell because he wants to speak to the owner. I told him that I am the owner. He got upset with that saying that I ruined his faucet, that there's metal wires coming out of the faucet, which there are no wires in the faucet. He said he was going to have his attorney contact me and sue me and that he was going to go on every website and badmouth me. I tried to explain that if I supplied the faucet there would be no additional charge to him, that I did not damage his faucet. When I left him with the faucet there was no damage other than the supply tube issue from the factory. He accused me of stretching his supply tubes, which I did not & that I took the extension pieces off the faucet, which I did because I supplied them for the new faucet and took them off because the old faucet did not need them. I did not charge him for the supply line extensions that I did not need on the old faucet. Mr. Southworth became very argumentative, threatening with his attorney. I calmly told him to give his attorney my cell phone number & I would be happy to speak with him. He said he will not give his attorney my cellphone number. I apologized that he was unhappy with something that was out of my control. I told him to have a nice day & ended the phone conversation."