In simple terms: in my experience, Bishop Plumbing will ruthlessly take advantage of you to the fullest extent possible. And their billing practices -which do not break down the costs of labor and parts at all - can be used to give them some kind of cover in the event that they screw a customer over. \r
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The full story: my wife's mother and her mother's brother live together - their mother lived there as well, but passed away a couple of weeks ago. They had a clogged kitchen sink, and called Bishop because their mother had used their services for years. Euphemistically, since I don't want anyone to be embarrassed by this review, I will say that my wife's uncle has some very apparent limitations in this kind of situation. But he was home alone for the service call, since the expectation was that the pipe just needed to be snaked out. Lo and behold, as the plumber began to do work, he stated that the pipes needed to be replaced. This may be true - the house is 50 years old. The problem is that Bishop's plumber - I believe his name is Brock, on the nearly illegible bill - proceeded to absolutely abuse the situation. This was a very basic job. There is no dishwasher and no garbage disposal at the home, no new sink or faucet was installed, only the pipes were replaced - yet the final bill came to over $2,100. This was not an all-day job - by all accounts the plumber was at the house for 3-4 hours at most. I spoke to my uncle, who's a master plumber in Michigan, and he told me unequivocally that this kind of a job should cost maybe $200-300 (go ahead and search 'how much does it cost to replace kitchen sink plumbing' yourself if you'd like to confirm.) \r
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In other words, very conservatively, Bishop charged at least five times more than they should have for this kind of job. I called to complain yesterday, but the person who had a copy of the statement had apparently left for the day at 3:30p. She called me back this morning, and - while she refused to say one way or another whether this is how much these kind of jobs normally cost - said that because there was some kind of a signature on the bill Bishop had nothing to apologize for.* Allegedly, the plumber spoke to my mother-in-law, who also has some cognitive and attention issues, over the phone about the work being done. Even if this is true, and even if 'Brock' wants to claim that my mother-in-law seemed perfectly able to authorize the work being done, there's no escaping the fact that every red cent that could have been wrung out of the situation was done so by Bishop.\r
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By the letter of the law, Bishop probably didn't do anything wrong. But it is unquestionably beyond unethical to take advantage of two people grieving the loss of their mother - a woman who was beyond tough and shrewd enough to make sure that Bishop never bilked her out of her money while she was alive - especially when those people are not capable of looking out for their own interests in the face of a tradesperson trying to charge 500% more than a job should cost. It is disgusting. \r
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Avoid at all costs. \r
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*Full disclosure: I finally lost my temper at the end of the call and referred to the technician in question as an a**hole, which I regret. But prior to that point I remained within the bounds of civility, even though I was very obviously angry.\r
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