Ok, sorry this is so long ... our Home Warranty Company sent out a plumber on Wednesday to take care of 2 toilets that needed repairs in our empty rent house. He "fixed" one of the toilets in just a few minutes, but on the second repair, the plumber broke one of my ceramic tiles while removing the toilet to check a leak and then he gave us an estimate on the repair for $600. He said he couldn't do the repair until the "mold" was removed and he would need to check with the warranty company to see if the repair was covered to begin with. When I told my husband about it after the plumber left, he said "BS!" in much more colorful terms and said the part that needed replacing was like a dollar. Furthermore, when I got in to look at the stuff he said was "black mold", I saw that it was brown, not black, and as gross as this sounds, it was probably accumulated "waste" residue from where it was leaking, and not mold at all.
The warranty company called us yesterday and said they would not cover the repair the plumber described because it was a result of improper installation. Improper installation??? That toilet's been there 21 years! It only JUST started leaking!!! The plumber had told them the repair would include jack hammering, "floating" concrete, and raising the flange. I explained to the warranty company person that we thought the plumber was trying to cheat us and told them what my husband thought was the issue. My husband has replaced toilets before so he pretty much knew what he was talking about, even though he's not a plumber.
I used bleach to clean the "residue", which cleaned up quite easily and the warranty company agreed to send out another plumber who ended up just replacing the wax ring to fix the leak. We didn't tell the second plumber anything about the first plumber. We just told him the toilet had been removed and we thought it needed a new wax ring and maybe a new flange. He said there was just some paint missing on the flange but that it didn't need to be replaced. I think he charged the warranty company $60 to replace the wax ring and reset the toilet.
Oh, and one more thing, earlier this morning, I got a call from the "Crooked" plumber saying that the warranty company told him they would not cover the repair. He said "I know I quoted you $600 but there's a way I could fix it where I wouldn't have to jackhammer and it would be much cheaper." I asked how much cheaper and he said $250. I told him I needed to find out from the warranty company why they wouldn't cover it. He said ok and that I could call them back to schedule the repair when I was ready. Hmph!
So, what do I do now? The warranty company did not make me pay another service call fee so I'm not out any extra money. My tile is broken, but I don't know if I should expect the plumber to pay for that repair or not since it's consequential damage. Should I pursue it more with the warranty company to see if they are going to take the first company off their approved list or "discipline" them in some way for their dishonest practices? Should I contact the better business bureau even though at this point I don't really want a remedy other than to fix my tile, which the plumber couldn't do anyway? Technically, they could just say the difference in choice of repair is a judgment call between plumbers, and I know the warranty company wouldn't do anything about the broken tile because they have wording in the contract about subsequent damage not being covered.
I just hate the idea that some people might fall for this kind of stuff if they don't know better. Specifically, and this is probably really the reason, I was there by myself with the first plumber and today, my big husband in his water department shirt was there. I'm sure the plumber today thought my husband had been the one to remove the toilet, hence had more knowledge than a naive woman. He could have been perfectly honest though, whether I was there alone or not, but I didn't want to chance it. That's why my husband took off work to be there with me.
What would you do? I want to do something, but maybe I should just be happy we didn't get cheated. Thanks in advance for your opinions on this one.