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I am writing to you on behalf of Darlene Coon (my 80 year old landlord) who has received a summons from Collections Law Group.
I called Darlene on 6/2 to report that the sinks in the bathrooms were draining slow. She called Elite Rooter who came out and attempted to snake the sink. They advised that the connection from the sinks to the pipeline was not the correct connector so they were unable to snake the sink. They then went up on the roof and ran a camera down through the pipes and told her the pipes under the house needed to be replaced and this guy from Copper State was there (not sure why he was called out already), but he had paperwork and was telling her that she had good insurance and they were going to pay for everything, she wouldn't even have to pay a deductible and that they wouldn't do any work until insurance had approved it. They basically forced her to sign the paperwork even though she told them she didn't have her glasses and she wasn't well. She had to leave for the doctor's and while she was gone, they brought in a fan / dehumidifier to "dry things out". At this time, there was no water anywhere, just the sinks draining slow. After they left later that afternoon, I went into the back of the house and there was water all over the floor in the hallway and master bedroom. I couldn't pin point where the water was even coming from. I called Darlene and Brandon at Elite and they said since it was all in the same area they would get it all fixed. We were later told by another plumber that the water was coming from a hole in the pipe caused by the plumber that attempted to snake the sink. I have pictures to send as well. They came out the next day and added a second dehumidifier in the master bedroom. The humidifiers were left in our home for a week before Elite came back out and told us we had asbestos in the house and they had to treat it. We weren't given any kind of notice sooner, they just showed up and started taping everything off. They came back out the next day and started removing drywall and treating for asbestos - we never received any proof that there even was asbestos. We didn't hear back from them, but finally after us calling, they sent someone back out to test again, said it was clear, but they kept up all the plastic. At that time, Darlene had heard back from the insurance company that they were not going to cover all of this and she had talked to several other companies and was told that Elite and Copper State do this to people all the time - that it is a scam - they work together. She made the decision that she didn't want them to come back and do any more work. They never did any plumbing work and she never received an invoice from them for the claimed amount of $16,000. We were also told they didn't need to tear the walls out or any of that... by multiple other plumbers.
Overall, we were basically out of our home for close to 4 months for something that was not even necessary. This is a clear case of taking advantage of the elderly. Please call Darlene when you get a chance to see what can be done about all of this. Her # is [protected] or [protected].
Respectfully,
Deb Ketner
tenant at 4414 W Yucca St. - Glendale, AZ 85304
Desired outcome: This issue to be resolved for this woman.
Sounds VERY similar to what happened to my elderly mother:
Choose ANYONE ELSE! Copper State was requested by a plumber my mom hired to fix her dishwasher. My mom ended up buying a new dishwasher but had this plumber install a PRV at his suggestion (amongst all sorts of other suggestions she did NOT hire him for). This plumber said it would cost $300. The job ended up costing $1269 and he charged her card the next day for $3500 with no invoice or explanation (police report and ROC complaints have been filed). During this work, the plumber claimed there were multiple leaks in her bathroom wall, called Copper State to rip her bathroom apart. Prior to doing that, Cooper State tested for lead and asbestos (which left a chunk out of her wall), scanned her bathroom walls with a thermal imaging gun (which apparently is broken as it detects things that AREN'T there), they ran fans/dehumidifiers for two days to dry out a supposed "active leak"... anyone else think that's weird?My mom was told by the plumber that this all of this would be covered by insurance. That's when she let my husband and I know what was going on. My husband raced over to her place and was trying to make sense of what was going on. When he asked if the plumber had used the access panel to see if he could locate and repair from there instead of ripping apart her bathroom, he said that was "impossible". At this point we realized that no party provided my mom with an invoice or explanation of costs or potential costs to her. We stopped any further work and had our plumber come in for a second opinion. Her bathroom never smelled or showed signs of any leaks, so it seemed strange that after hiring the plumber to help with her dishwasher, that her bathroom was now going to be ripped apart. When we called our plumber, they informed us that they NEVER do work without giving a thorough itemized quote of work to be done and would get a sign off before ever starting any work. Our plumber spent 1.5 hours looking over the area, going into the access panel that apparently the plumber and Copper State couldn't operate (taking some screws out is too difficult for some to look into before doing completely unnecessary work). Our plumber wrote up a very detailed report that no evidence of a past or present leak was found. During our investigation, we've found that the plumber my elderly mother hired is operating without a license and yet Copper State is willing to do work with him?! To blindly accept his claim of leaks without doing ANY basic inspection of their own?! To rack up a bill for my mom of over $2700! To boot, their itemized bill is ridiculous. They have a charge for emergency services. This wasn't an emergency! It was even a THING! THERE WAS NO LEAK! Running their THERMAL IMAGING GUN which apparently is the biggest scam ever! They charged for plastic sheeting, which wasn't used. I could go on and on. What this boils down to is INSURANCE FRAUD and taking advantage of an elderly woman. Both are extremely sick and not something a reputable, honest and ethical company would do. As stated before, use ANYONE but Copper State to do any work you need.