With a newborn at home and lots of bottles to wash, hot water is a necessity to Jada and Fernando Jarillo. The couple purchased a new water heater from "Same Day Drain Cleaning and Plumbing Repair" of Apex for $1600, but right away they say the problems began.
"We started noticing that it wasn't hot enough," Fernando explained.
The couple immediately tried to get in touch with the man who did the job who told them his name is Brad, but they had no luck.
"The fact that we couldn't even get him to call us back, was really frustrating and kind of insulting," Jada said.
Jada said after several failed attempts to get in touch with Brad, they decided to hire another company. The couple paid an additional $544 to repair the water heater. The second company put it in writing that the mixing valve was not changed out during the hot water install, and that it caused the water not to get hot. The company also claimed the gas line was not done properly and that they had to redo the no drip tee.
The couple decided to write a review on their experience with Brad from "Same Day Drain Cleaning and Plumbing Repair" of Apex.
"We got on Google and Fernando wrote a review and I wrote a review and basically we just explained the experience that we had," Jada said.
The negative reviews caught Brad's attention and he texted the Jarillos promising to reimburse the $544 for the repairs, but there was a catch.
"He told us that he wouldn't pay us unless we took the reviews down. I felt like he was blackmailing us you know, it's our right to put those reviews online and he provided us with the poor service and refused to follow up with us," Jada explained.
The couple got in touch with me and I tracked down Brad. Brad claimed that the Jarillos never called him back about their problems, but said if I could provide proof that they did call him, he would reimburse them. Phone logs showed that the couple made at least 10 calls to Brad's business and he did agree to pay them back, but only if I promised not to do this story.
While getting their money back could have been as easy as the click of a button, Jada and Fernando decided it was more important to warn others.
"I just want other people to know about the experience that we had with him I don't want it to happen with anyone else," Jada said.
Last time we checked, the Jarillos had not seen their money or heard from Brad. When it comes to reviews, whether bad or good, stick to the facts, and also don't make the review personal.