Vilardi Plumbing & Heating

My girlfriend and I purchased new shower fixtures to spruce up our shower in August of 2018. We didn't know how to install the parts so we called John, on the advice of a coworker. She had a great experience with John; we did not. Here are the details: My girlfriend called him initially, described the situation and got a price of $150. She did mention that our drain control lever was stuck. We sent him pictures of all the parts we purchased to try to avoid any problems down the line. John showed up at our place at 8 am on a Saturday and woke us out of a sleep with the doorbell. He was supposed to show up at 9 am. Apparently a block of time freed up on his end and he decided it would be easier or more convenient for him to service us at 8 am rather than 9. He did try to call a few times around 7:30, presumably to ask if it was OK that he show up early. We never got the calls because when we go to bed we put our phones on "do not disturb". Undeterred, he showed up at our place at 8 am without confirming with us and woke us up. We did not like this at all. In regards to the drain control lever, he said he might have to open the wall to get at the pipes to fix it and that he would have to come back another time to finish the job because he had another job scheduled. He also said the job would be 2-4 hours at a cost of $90/hour, so in dollars that would be $180-360. A few days before he was supposed to come back, my girlfriend again called him to confirm the appointment. He confirmed, but then added he was going to bring another person to help him and it would be $150/hr for 2-4 hours, or $300-600. John also said he would rather buy new parts for us to look at and then sell them to us at a 10% discount because he thought we would like them better. This was after he agreed the original brand we sent him photos of was fine to use. At this point we decided to go with another plumber. Cons: Showed up at a new customer's house an hour early and before normal business hours without confirmation/permission We couldn't get a straight answer as to how much the job would cost, even after repeated questioning Price increased after the job was started Price increased multiple times before the job was finished Difficult to communicate with - he takes days to return phone calls, never returned a text message and his voice mailbox was full, preventing us from leaving him a message Not personable in any way The work we needed done was clearly explained to him, yet he said he didn't have the time to finish it and needed to come back He said he could not return to finish the job for 2 weeks Didn't provide written estimates for the job Pros: Didn't charge us for the hour that he was at our place. He did replace a few of the fixtures, so we were open to paying him for is time Left the shower in a usable state Final note: We hired another plumber to come in and finish the job. We got upfront pricing, written estimates, the wall did not have to be opened, it took about 2 hours and was completed in 1 visit by 1 person. The cost was under $300. Keep our situation in mind when you are deciding whether to hire John Vilardi.