Erling Rohde Plumbing

Erling Rohde Plumbing has been in business for 106 years. The current owner and grandson of the founder has been with the company for 43 years. We as a company have always offered knowledgeable, honest and fair pricing for our service. We would not have been in business for 106 years had we been a rip off company. We were called out to this job to fix a shower valve on a fiberglass shower unit. The wall behind the shower was stained wood paneling. We had 3 choices to solve the problem. We could cut out the fiberglass and replace the valve with new and use a smitty plate to hide the cut out. In doing this you can't guarantee the old plastic won't crack and cause a larger problem. 2nd we could cut out the stained wood paneling in the back to replace the valve. To repair the paneling a carpenter would have to frame in our cutout or remove the whole length of wood and hope you could get a new piece of wood that would match the existing. The 3rd choice would be to replace the existing valve stems, seats and trim on a high quality proven valve body whose manufacture has been making shower valves for over a 100 years. We as a company have replaced hundreds of these stems without having a problem with the valve body. The whole job was $332.00. I know to replace the valve would have been at least $300.00 to $500.00 dollars more. The valve the owner could buy for $75.00 to $150.00 would not have been as good as the old proven rebuilt shower valve. I have no idea of my costumers plumbing knowledge but I do know ours and I stand behind replacing the stems and trim at a very fair price of $332.00

So, I believe Erling Rohde Plumbing took advantage of my 102 year old mother-in law and my wife. They were called to work on a 40+ year old shower unit that had easy access to the valve body. Instead of replacing the complete unit, they decided to search for antique valve stems/seats and replaced them at over $160.00 in parts. A brand new Moen or Kohler Valve assemble runs $75.00-$150.00 but they decided to install new seats and stems in a 40 year old corroded valve body. Now that $160.00 is parts, labor is additional. Unfortunately my wife did not ask for a written estimate, so they can charge as much as they think they can bleed from a customer. I called Mike and explained how I felt this situation was totally inappropriate and was told basically to live with it or pay an $80.00 restocking fee and pay for the labor. Be sure to get a written estimate and understand exactly what these guys are proposing or consumer beware.