Trouble Free Heating Cooling & Plumbing Inc

Let me start my review by explaining the "issue" they were called to fix. My wife read online that it was good preventive maintenance to once a month or so flush your drains with a mixture of baking soda and vinegar to keep them fresh, so she decided to try this one night after I had gone to bed, and the baking soda clogged the U joint in a downstairs restroom, she couldn't fix it herself, but didn't want to bother me with it, so arranged for Trouble Free to come and unclog it in the morning. Before I left for work, she informed me what she did, I told her I could mess with it when I got home, she said no it was her fault and she had already called. I say fine, I head to work figure it'll be something like $80 no biggy, next time she'll get my opinion and we can decide together. Around 10am she calls me sounding very distressed, the "plumber" they sent couldn't unclog the drain, and informed her because our house was so old the pipes were at too sharp of an angle to be snaked (remember this because he claims something different later), and that the only way to unclog this drain is to go to our utility room, pay them to move and re-plumb our water softener so he has access to the lower part of the pipe. I tell her to send him home because that is INSANE, it’s just a simple clog. She asked him to leave the drain plug out, he charges her for his “services” and leaves. On my way home I stop by Walmart, buy a $4 drain snake, go home and clear the drain in no joke 5 minutes. I am 100% serious, I have 0 plumbing skills and I cleared this pipe very easily. At this point I am kind of annoyed, the guy left a mess, he had loosened the drain stopper nut on the back of the sink and water leaked all over the floor, he didn't re-tighten it or clean up the mess he made after he left, so I called to complain about that. During the call I remain calm, and tell the person on the phone, that I would like to place a complaint about the quality service we received, I explain to her that he didn't snake the drain at all, suggested some ridiculous solution, left a mess, and I with no experience as a professional plumber, fixed it in 5 minutes, so I felt he didn't try too hard. She apologizes and says she will talk with the plumber and call me back. She calls me back and explains that he couldn't snake the drain because the snake he had was too big, I counter, what do you mean too big? When my wife called, she said it was a bathroom sink, you would think he would have multiple sizes of drain snakes on his truck, what with being a professional plumber and all. Then she informs me that his ridiculous solution of moving the water softener was so that NEXT time we had a clog it would be easier to fix, I tell her that we have never had an issue with this before and the ONLY reason we had an issue was because it was clogged with backing powder WHICH my wife told him about. She argues with me a bit about me complaining and I ask to see the bill which she keeps saying well your wife signed off on it (my wife knows 0 about plumbing) so she says she will send me the bill with his notes on it, then also says they will cut the bill in half to only $149. This is the first time I heard the price. They charged my wife almost $300 to do nothing at my house for an hour but leave a mess. I had to call twice to get the bill sent to me and low and behold all kinds of different things are written on it, he claims in his notes the clog is behind the wall. I determined the clog was in the drain U bend by simply measuring where the snake I bought got stuck, it got stuck EXACTLY at the U bend well before the wall. This was why he wanted to move the water softener, COMPLETELY unnecessary as again the clog was very clearly in the U joint BEFORE the wall. THEN I notice the billing part - Drain Cleaning - Quantity 2. TWO he charged my wife for TWO drains no wonder they were willing to refund her half since he OVERCHARGED her in the first place. What gets me about that is instead of telling me the truth they act like they are doing us a favor giving back money they wrongfully charged my wife. I have called and asked at least 5 times now to talk with the supervisor for the plumber that came to my house, I feel I have always been very calm in my calls, I really just want to know what went on because it comes down to two things to me: 1) Their plumber is INCREDIBILY incompetent, could not fix a VERY simple clogged drain and recommended an INSANE fix, again I fixed this clog in 5 MINUTES with a $4 drain snake from Walmart (one of the times I pointed this out the lady on the phone she says they don't use cheap tools from Walmart or Lowes it's all professional grade, to which I replied, well maybe you should since my $4 snake fixed the issue and his professional tool did nothing). OR 2) This is a predatory business, the plumber saw a woman struggling with a simple problem and decided he could sell her some BS about the pipes having too sharp of a curve and that he could save the day by doing a completely unnecessary fix but probably charging her an insane amount for the repair. I like to think the best of people but they still haven't called me back even though I have requested MANY times to talk to someone that can explain that exactly happened All I want to know is why their "highly skilled" plumber could not fix an incredibly simple clog, why he suggested this OUTRAGOUS fix for something simple, why he left a mess and didn't clean up or re-tighten that nut, and why my wife got charged for TWO drain cleanings when they didn't even complete one successfully.