There are two times when either I have used Countryside Services or an immediate family member has. The first time we were reasonably satisfied when my father had them repair a water main which involved a small excavator, added material (gravel), and of course the pipe repair... The total coming in just under a grand (very reasonable).



The second time we used them I had a frozen baseboard heating pipe. We called them out to thaw it, when involves the use of a small device that shoot electricity through the copper pipes at around 6 volts 300 amps, the causes the pipes to warm and thaws the frozen part of the system. The device costs around $800, and I figured I would never need it again so I called them out to thaw the system.



The guy who showed up didn't seem to understand electricity and spent over two hours with the machine hooked to the incoming and outgoing pipes right near the boiler, which took the path of least resistance and heated the water inside the boiler near boiling point (around 220 degrees), when the max the boiler should ever heat water to is 190 degrees. He refused to listen to my suggestion that he simply go from register to register. He spent much of the time in my driveway on his cell phone smoking cigarettes talking to someone else about how to solve the problem. I had to leave to work and come to find out, after I left he and later his boss showed up and spend several hours thawing another zone that wasn't even frozen! The total bill for all of this incompetence was almost $800 (the cost of the machine).



Disgusted I called the boss Phil (who was on site for part of this fiasco), and after a heated discussion we agreed that I should pay 2 hours at pipe thaw rate (a whopping $160 an hour), and 1 hour at service rate $75 an hour (for a copper coupling that he sweated). We agreed this would be the maximum amount of time it would have taken someone who knew how to use the machine to thaw the pipes.



I would be more satisfied with the service I received because (though I should never have to deal with all this incompetence) because Phil agreed to make it right. But when my insurance company called them to get the amount owed, Phil never made good on his word and they swore that the $800 figure was correct.



So as a frustrated customer, here I am writing this review... waiting for Phil to call me back, again.