Personally, I wouldn’t say or do anything. You’ve communicated everything you needed to. If he wants to escalate the matter that’s fine but let him do it.
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Just a FYI -
A hose bib costs somewhere between $150-200 to be replaced by a professional, and that’s in crazy-expensive NJ. I DIYed my own for maybe $50.
$500 is absurd.
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Hose bibs also fail in time (likely more often in frigid climates like Alaska). Unless he claims you overzealously took a wrench to it to damage it, then it may have just been its time… Just because you were the last one to touch it (even if true) does not mean you “broke” it.
November 2024 - Bloomfield, NJ - Window cleaning job…
Pulled up to the house and realized that it was going to be a bigger pain than anticipated. Through broken English, we agreed on the new price for the additional time that would need to be spent there.
I went outside to make sure the spigot (there was only one on this house) was working. Turned it on and off no problem. Then I proceeded to gently unscrew the customer’s hose and the whole assembly just evaporated. Water shooting everywhere, including all over myself. FYI it was 40 degrees and windy as well, so being soaked wasn’t fun. The hose “bib” was nothing but a few copper pipe fittings sticking out of a hole in the brick.
I ran directly into the basement to find the shut off valve for the hose bib. It was about 15 feet deep into a 2 foot high crawlspace. I’m a big guy, so I wasn’t even going to try that. All the other ballcocks in that basement were either leaking or corroded, so I wasn’t about to try any of them either.
Eventually I just turned off the main to the house, explained to the homeowner that they need a plumber and I was done here. They knew there was issues, and there was no way I was going to pay for it, and they didn’t even ask lol.
On the other hand, I’ve had crew members literally snap bibs off the wall before. At that point, I’ll pay for it, even though it was probably a pre-existing condition. It all depends on the situation.
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This condition is something they added on top months later through a consumer complaint and never mentioned to me so I’m going to say it’s somewhat suspect. I wrote a response saying that they can get roof fixed and hose bib fixed and I’d be more than happy to come back, or they can have 500 refunded and this concludes our business interaction. Kind of hoping they take the 500 and i just blacklist them.
