Washer filled with water after water shut off

The repairman sent by the plumbing company was the guy that did the original work. Based on what you said, I believe he should have known about the possibility of the surge you mention and should have taken the proper precautions originally, like running the rinse cycle or at least warning us of the potential problem. Now, they are billing us $150 for the service call. Do you think this is justified?

Hi @kenteicher

Given that the problem may or may not have arisen as there may be a lot of variables, such as age of machine i.e. condition of solenoids, water pressure, amount of water left in pipes, locality of washer outlet to where work was performed etc., it is understandable, not professional but understandable, that the repairman may have overlooked testing the machine especially if the work was not done in the laundry area or even mentioning it if he hadn't experienced the same problem for a while, to jog his memory.

My personal opinion is that perhaps what should have happened is when you rang to tell them of the problem is they should have told you to try a rinse cycle first and then get back to them if the problem was still there, saving them a trip back and you a service call etc if the advice solved the problem.

To me it should be just a part of their after sales service that I would appreciate and that would help to ensure my continued custom with them in the future. I think that the term is called goodwill. Good businesses generate it as it can help their business by word of mouth referrals and also be a part of their overall value if ever they wish to sell the business

If it didn't solve the problem then that is different as it could have been just a coincidence that the problem occurred at about the same time. It happens.

I don't know what the prices are where you are but $150 for a service call is a bit steep, assuming that the repairman was not there for that long either.

Perhaps you may be able to negotiate this with them to something more reasonable given the circumstances

Thanks for your reply jayeff,

Upon receiving the bill I sent a detailed letter to the plumbing company explaining my unhappiness with the bill and the details of the entire event. The machine is less than ten years old and gets little use since the apartment is a second home in which we spend less than four months total per year. A week has gone by and I have heard nothing from the company. I'm hoping that they have thought better of their bill, especially (as you point out) that is rather high for a short service call that (again, as you point out) might not have been necessary if they had done their job correctly or perhaps told us what to try. In any event, when a large amount of water comes pouring out of your washing machine, right after work was done, one has to suspect an issue with that work and a great fear of much more flooding.