Nikki H

DMS plumbing -only money

Based on rave reviews seen on Mark Sham's social media I called after 5 last Thursday; there was an issue with the contact page on their website which was why I called. Darren was amazing, and helpful. I thought the pipes were blocked and needed clearing with some care; as I didn’t want burst pipes in the wall. Darren came out on Friday morning and assessed the situation. But it wasn’t a simple “clear the pipes with some pressure.” Turns out I need a new geyser. I discussed the issue with Darren and queried the price of a new geyser (verbal discussion). He mentioned that it was in the region of 5.5K but I could go smaller (100l) to cut some costs as I am a single person. I stated that I this did not make logical sense and I agreed not to turn on/fill the geyser once the existing geyser had been drained, & would go ahead with installation hopefully on Monday once I had spoken to my insurance. Friday was a cost of almost 3,4K and I did an immediate EFT with POP sent to Darren as there was no email address on the invoice. I called the insurance first thing on Monday & then called Darren straight afterwards. He mentioned that access in the cupboard was tight and I would need a carpenter to remove the cupboards. He promised to get back to me with a quote. By 1:30 pm I hadn't heard from him, but I did have an 'overdue' invoice for Friday's job in my inbox, despite having done an EFT on Friday. I called Darren to follow up on the promised quote and queried the 'overdue' invoice. He stated that that it was admin issue because the funds didn't reflect. Darren then sent through a quote for R16,194.64. I was really shocked at this because to my knowledge, the geyser unit was in the region of of R5.500 + labour and sundries and I would also have to pay a carpenter. Darren sent me the name of the a carpenter and told me he would be briefed and he would call me. When I queried, the cost, Darren was impatient and told me he 'was doing me a favour' by finding a carpenter to assist. He "didn't have to, and I can do what I want.' Darren's attitude change when I queried the cost was obvious. He denied ever saying that the geyser unit was in the region of R5500, when I queried the amount of the job on the phone. The initial quote shows no breakdown of costs & Darren's reasoning was because it was an insurance claim. In fact, it appears as if he is basing the quote on what the insurance will pay, and adding a bit. I specifically discussed that the quote should not reflect a burst geyser - it wasn't, yet the initial quote had burst geyser on it. Drew (carpenter) eventually called me at 4pm and stated that he hadn't seen pics, so I climbed ladders and sent him pics. He told me, that he would chat to Darren and revert. That still hasn't happened. I did some research over the weekend, and the geyser is available at a number of retail outlets for around R4850.00. I was willing to pay a little extra to get the job quickly and seamlessly, but this was not just a little bit extra. My suspicions were confirmed when I received another quotation late on Monday, - this time for R17,251.84 - clearly a thumb-suck figure. It is likely that if the amount had been close to the insurance figure, I would have not queried it at all, but the business is about money and it wouldn't seem like 'that much' if insurance is covering most of it. DMS is doing jobs that people will pay anything to get rid of and therefore seldom question the cost - even when it is a bit more than expected I was prepared to do that - I am on my own. But it’s not sewerage thank goodness, and I will have to live without hot water a bit longer and shower at the gym until I can get it sorted by someone with ethics that doesn’t take advantage of people who need things fixed fast. it wouldn't seem like 'that much' if insurance is covering most of it. DMS is doing jobs that people will pay anything to get rid of and therefore seldom question the cost - even when it is a bit more than expected I was prepared to do that - I am on my own. But it’s not sewerage thank goodness, and I will have to live without hot water a bit longer and shower at the gym until I can get it sorted by someone with ethics that doesn’t take advantage of people who need things fixed fast. It didn't stop there. After messaging Mark Sham to tell him about my experience DMS Plumbing contacted me to ask about my experience. I sent them this review on Wednesday morning, but despite this I get SMS and email messages every day asking for a good review (or bad) but clearly they think that they are only going to to get good reviews and even though they maintain they take their bad reviews seriously, their continued messaging is really intrusive and it's time to make my review public.