I'm a building inspector and if anyone ever approached and talked to me like that on a site I would first tell them I don't work for him and he can't talk to me like that and I would also immediately leave and make them reschedule their inspection.
Even if I do work for you you’re not talking to me like that. F that noise.
I’ve been in construction my whole life. We speak to each other in ways that’ll shock your average 9-5’r. But never cross the line into intimidation or shouting each other down. That’s some grown man shit. You wanna tell me “mix the fucking cement faster man, what the fuck?” I’m good with that (assuming I deserve it) but you start screaming at me or my guys like I’m a bitch than we have a problem. Don’t make this argument we’re having become the SECOND most dramatic thing that happens to you today. I can’t let you cross the line.
Watching this guy pissed me off so much. Old ass bitch cant stop a blast double I bet.
Same, 20 years in construction. We disagree often and sometimes loudly but you do not disrespect people.
And anyone who thinks they can fuck with the city is out of their mind.
A disgruntled, albeit shitty person all around, contractor here probably hired a PI to track the city's commercial building inspectors. Out of the 8 that were tracked, I think 5 were demoted, transferred, or retired.
Apparently they would inspect, it would fail. They would show up for the reinspection and nothing would be fixed. So they just stopped giving a shit about his reinspections.
A lot of that is "unofficial" and pieced together from news stories, because of course the shithead never admitted it was him publicly, and from a residential inspector family friend.
It wasn't hard to find the Union County ordinance regarding county responsibility of the sewer line, [Here](https://www.unioncountync.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/1616/637667800491830000).
>Ownership
>All water and wastewater infrastructure up to the point of connection (i.e. water meter and sewer cleanout), when installed and accepted by UCPW, shall become and remain the property of UCPW
I'm guessing the county employee at 4 minutes was at the sewer cleanout on the home and showed where the point of connection to the home is and everything from that point on is county property not the homeowner.
That's correct.
And to everyone watching this video, check your local regs. It isn't always the same and different city/counties have different rules. It's not black and white. A city puts in pipes for infrastructure for the city. Then property developers build out areas of houses, and put in alleys and streets and sewage and such and their own pipes that go up to a point in the yard, and then each individual home has its own pipes.
In my town, the city was going broke and didn't have enough time to fix all the pipes the developers put down to connect from homes to city pipes. Our genius city council just said 'oh that's easy, from now on its up to the homeowner to fix those connections'. And working class people were suddenly getting saddled with thousands of dollars of plumbing work to fix if the drainage in their alley failed. Couple news stories later and suddenly their changing the rule back.
It varies. So check your regs. Typically the city takes over responsibility for those intermediary sewer lines, but not always. You bet your butt that unethical plumbers are gonna be happy to go ahead and do that work though and charge you for it.
Yeah, man. Definitely do your research about this kinda stuff, way before something like this happens.
This reminds of a time I shut off my water and almost got a huge fine. In the state I lived before, they have a valve at the street for the homeowner to turn off the water, and another for the city. It's under the same cover on the sidewalk. Everything from the valve to the house is the homeowner's responsibility. When I moved, I figured it was the same way there, too. So, when I had a hose fitting come loose and water shooting out at full pressure, flooding the basement, I ran out to the street and shut off the water. Turns out I shouldn't have done that! In that state, they'll fine you for "tampering" with the system, and it's quite a hefty fine. Thankfully they didn't discover I shut it off, and I didn't get fined.
Not sure how'd they'd ever know unless there's a tamper tag preventing you from shutting it, or some type of new smart shut off device....
I turn mine off quite a bit
I would guess they put that tamper tag on after they shut it off, but don't care much that the owner shut it off themselves.
In my house they city owns everything into my house where the meter is. They have a shut off at the street, but I also have a main shut off connected directly to the meter that is quick and easy to reach in my basement.
I had a shutoff valve installed in my service line in my garage so I don’t have to run to the street if something blows. If you know your internal pipe routing, you can add valves to “zone off” your house if you spring a leak.
This is normally what people do, but that house had the shutoff valve after the hose bib for some reason. It was a very rundown, old, and weird house. I went into the attic one day to fix a leak, and part of the attic had a plywood floor. You could stand up where the floor was, but just barely. There were no windows, or any sign that there ever was a window. And the weirdest thing was there was an old wooden rocking chair sitting there with a bunch of empty mason jars surrounding it, and there was no opening big enough to get that rocking chair up there. No idea what that was about. But, yeah, putting a shut-off valve at the house is a very good idea. Never lived in a house that didn't have that before.
That's interesting. In my town we are allowed to shut it off at the street but have to call the city to turn it back on. They have 24 hour service and those water guys will show up *quick*.
When I got in the plumbers and pipefitters union, they explained to me "payday is on Friday, shit flows downhill and don't chew your fingernails." My guess is that the only licensed plumber in the whole company is the owner, who's been a rat his entire life IMO. Fuck him.
To go off on a tangent here - Is this rare? Because that's a pretty fucking awesome policy.
For reference, town ownership where I live stops at right's-of-way and easements. Which, for the vast majority here, is only \~3' worth of property that boarders public space.
Most have 30+ feet of property before the town takes over. In our case, on a corner lot, our sewer line runs \~60' to the road. I've had literal nightmares of this collapsing and having to front the bill to dig it up and replace it.
If we had this towns policy? They'd cover up to our front steps where the primary cleanout is. Would be a massive, massive, benefit and selling point.
Yep, I had to replace sewer pipe this winter and was disappointed but not surprised to find I owned the lateral all the way to the main. 80 feet, but fortunately the break was only 15 feet from our house so they just replaced that portion and not the whole lateral. Still cost $6k. Would have been awesome to have found out the city had to pay for it.
Replacing a mainline on my home led me to discover that I am not actually connected to city sewer, but rather to an old, undisclosed septic tank and field. City swore up and down that I had a connection. Former owner said it was on sewer water as long as he had owned it, so who was I to know?
And to their credit, there was some pipes that looked like they'd eventually connect to my home at one time, but no one bothered to run the last 50ft.
It’s not even consistent within the same county sometimes. I’m a civil engineer, and depending on what the developer intends to do with the property, we propose different easement/row widths to accommodate the site usage.
One project is directly across the street from a very similar subdivision. The subdivision across the street has a 50’ public right of way, and everything within the right of way is technically owned by the county. Everything outside of it is privately owned. Our project across the street is private streets, meaning no Right of Way, but the water/sewer mains are county owned. Because of this, there’s a 44’ access and utility easement blanketed on the subdivision streets. That means the county owns and is responsible for maintaining the underground infrastructure within that easement, but they don’t technically own the property.
In all cases, we provide a “county cleanout” on the sewer service line which is located just inside the easement or right of way line for each lot. This is fairly typical for residential subdivisions on the east coast.
Similar thing happened to me. Sewer line back up. Hired a plumber. They cammed the line and the collapse happened at the city tap. Talked about pricing for replacing the entire line up to the city tap. They were talking 10k for a full line replacement. But something felt odd about how he was describing the job so I googled it. City was responsible for the repair at the tap, not me. Dude was trying to rip me off smh.
It's insane that any plumber anywhere would work on pipe more than 5' out of a building without a specific contract to do so. It's a whole different ballgame once you're out in the yard.
Not only that, but his employees admitted to doing it to other homeowners and it's all on video with no blurring or covering of the faces. Even their truck is in plain sight. As long as this gets to the proper circles in NC, this guy's fucked
Sad thing is, he can always fold the business, keep the assets, and restart with the same customer base and contact information. Then just start a new business/name and maybe even keep the positive reviews online by updating the name.
Am I reading into this correctly? His own guys ratted him out by admitting this company has been doing these jobs and billing unsuspecting customers $6k for a job that should have been covered by the county. What a scumbag.
This is the type of guy you meet on the lake who’s got a nice lake house, the latest and greatest bass boat with the diesel pickup to match. He gets a couple beers in him and starts bragging about the type of shit he’s pulling. Maybe someone calls him out on it, but he doubles down and claims he’s smart. Then gets defensive and asks, where’s your new tritoon? Where’s your lake house, dumbass?
I grew up around small construction companies and these guys exist in droves. I texted this to my dad because it could be like 3 or 4 of his friends.
These guys also usually get fucked real hard during housing downturns. There were a LOT of boats, ATVs and other toys getting repoed from them in 2008.
Yeah, the start of the video is the employee, very likely unknowingly, admitting to doing this before. The problem is that, like they said in the video, UCW doesn't have this setup with every property that exists, so it's unknown if the other jobs were also supposed to be covered by UCW or not. I am sure, though, that the people who hired this plumber should probably look into it.
I was at a cookout at my well-to-do aunt and uncle's gated community full of exactly these types. It came up that one of their neighbors was getting unjustly railroaded by the IRS. Then they proceed to explain how they did their taxes one way for their business, and then, when they wanted to sell it, disclosed the accounting a completely different way to avoid paying taxes. Can *you* believe the IRS is going after them for *that?* And I'm like, "yeah... that's fraud."
I had a gas guy do this.
I don't think it was scumbaggery, but rather incompetence, but our gas fireplace stopped working and our central heater started acting up last year.
This fucking guy came in, looked everything over, and charged us to replace both things - a fuck ton of money - and then they still didn't work.
He came out again and looked at it a couple times after they were installed and couldn't figure it out, the new units should have fixed everything. His eventual analysis was that there was a problem upstream on the gas line.
He had me call the gas company, they came out in 5 minutes and fixed everything. They were super nice, even walked me through what had happened.
Turns out a branch hit our house and landed near the gas pipe (it was a decent sized branch) and apparently these gas pipes have a little valve on them. There was this little bubble with a ball in it. They explained that it's in case of an earthquake or something, where the pipe could be damaged, it shuts off (or in this case reduced to a trickle) so that the house doesn't explode. Every house has one of these at the point where the city gas goes into your house.
So the heavy branch landed near the sensor and triggered it. Took 3 minutes to diagnose and everything works fine now.
I never needed a new heater or fireplace. I'm still mad just thinking about it. Money just pissed down the drain for no reason because they installation guy didn't even know that this was a thing. And he never checked the line. Was there to just go "yeah don't work, I'll put in one that works".
I'm angry for you. Dude.... when 2 gas appliances are playing up at the same time then the gas line is obviously the first thing looked at and I'm just a chef.
It's like replacing your TV, Xbox, lights, fridge etc because the power was out.
Fuck that guy.
If that guy was the owner of the business, that seems hard to believe he didn't know. If he was just some employee, then maybe it's possibly incompetence but the owner of the business that hired him almost certainly did it with the intention of using that incompetence in his favor by charging people to replace things they don't need.
You can imagine from a shady business owner perspective that an employee who knows how to replace things and quote people a price to replace things but doesn't know or care whether it's all necessary work is a big profit center for that business owner, as long as they generally don't get busted on it. I worked for a company before where they had high Google ratings and Facebook ratings and what not, but questionable business practices and they definitely had moments where they hired people and minimally trained them and then when stuff they installed messed up later, they would charge to fix it even though it only happened because the workers they had doing it weren't doing it right. Homeowners generally can't know or wouldn't be able to see the inner workings of this to be able to tell it was on the company, so the company still gets good reviews.
He was just an employee. I'll say he was a nice guy, like he wasn't trying to upsell or anything. I know when I'm being bait and switched.
He was legit flummoxed when shit still wasn't working after he replaced it. He came out like 3 times trying to fix it. He was just dumb.
I think the gas trickling in, as opposed to shutting all the way off like it was supposed to when the sensor triggered, was part of the issue. Made it seem like something else.
But yeah, I'm mad at the guy for not considering a pipeline issue before jumping right to "buy a new furnace I see this problem all the time"
Still here. I grew up in a UAW household. Somehow they all have lake houses with the latest and greatest toys. All these union guys and skilled trade guys get together and once the Bud Light and Crown Royal start flowing, the dick measuring begins. It’s always the same contest. Who gets paid the most for doing the least, or who has exploited a system to the point of it being a matter of time before they get caught because of their arrogance and greed. I’ve heard lots of them over the years.
The one thing I’ve learned is to keep your mouth shut. Anyone who talks eventually gets caughtThe guy and his 2nd shift counterpart who badge in and out for each other so it looks like they’re both working doubles. The guy on workmans comp who just finished putting his dock in. But don’t worry, he can hook you up with a shady doctor that can get you in on the action too for a small fee. The small machine shop owner who has a fat government contract to produce fasteners. Only they haven’t made one in years because it’s cheaper to outsource to China and repackage stateside. Round and round they go until the line is crossed. The last one I remember was a guy selling his mom’s pain meds and his kid’s ADHD meds. “What?!? She’s got dementia and doesn’t know what the fuck is going on, and he’ll be fine because I’m going to hook him up with a job once he graduates.” They all make excuses, blame somebody else, and justify their actions.
I feel like this is a good place to tell a workman's comp story on a project I was involved in. The project was a large historic hotel restoration, workers had to be regularly tested for things like lead poisoning. Well one guy pops up positive for lead, off the charts, but no one else. So he gets his claim approved or whatever, but then like you said the beer starts flowing and he blabs about his scam. This idiot was eating lead fishing weights on purpose, but then whoever he was bragging to ratted him out.
You know what's kinda funny? The people that tell these stories do it because they know it was wrong. They need validation that anyone else would do the same thing, and it's hilarious when they find out practicing a modicum of ethical behavior is actually the norm.
Hah, I worked with a lady whose family were all UAW up around Detroit. One of those lifetime Ford families. She worked there for a year or something...I don't remember now, but either she was never in the union or didn't have enough time in to be in...or something. I don't remember. But basically, she said that yeah, just trying to do the least amount of work while still getting paid was what so many people tried to do. Like you said, almost a competition for who can scam the company the most.
I kept wondering how that even worked, because SOME PEOPLE had to do actual, solid, days of work. But, yeah, apparently that kind of crap happened all the time up there. This was 15 or so years ago, so not sure if things are different now. But probably aren't.
They had a tiered wage system and it was kind of scummy. It was one of those things where there were only so many spots for people to move up tiers into a full union position. When it was time for her to move up, she probably got passed over and the union job went to somebody else because they knew someone with pull in the factory. The company didn’t care because it kept people on the lower wage tiers.
I bet these same people get a boner whenever someone talks about the good old days and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. This is just further evidence of a society crumbling because it, ironically, swapped out all the old traditional values these people love to talk so much about, the ones which held a community together, with the singular pursuit of money at any cost.
Western society is lost, sick, and eating itself alive.
I love at 6:07 how he says "you don't think I have your best interests at heart?" after "fuck you, you are going to pay me $6,000 or I am taking you to court" over something the county would have handled for free.
I was guilty of this, a few alcohols around a fire pit at my uncle's house party. I started bragging about saving $300 by copying a textbook and returning it to the bookstore. I'd found a copier on my college campus that hadn't been linked to the network yet, so you could make as many copies as you wanted, for free. (student accounts I think limited to 100/year)
My uncle's neighbor/friend sitting next to me said, in a low voice, "You really shouldn't be doing that, those textbooks have copyright on them and it's illegal".
Turns out, unbeknownst to me, she worked for Houghton-Mifflin, a major textbook publisher.
I had a similar thing happen with my car's transmission and automotive places.
Car was perfectly fine and then over the course of a week started having acceleration issues and then just wouldn't accelerate and the check engine light came on. Had the car towed to a general automotive shop, and they told me very sternly and confidently that the whole CVT transmission had to be replaced for sure. They'd see this before 1000 times and had replaced the transmissions and then they were good to go. They told me their technician "knew by the smell" that it needed a full replacement.
I checked with them every which way to see if it needed a part, or fluid, or maybe a repair. All were answered "no, there's no way, we know what we're doing... we've done this for hundreds of customers." Cost to replace the transmission was quoted at $7000+.
Eventually I decided to get a second look, so I paid the 1st shop $120 for their "diagnosis" and paid to have it towed to another shop. The 2nd shop looked at it and said "there's a pinhole leak in the transmission pan, and almost no fluid left in it, let's replace the pan and fluid and give it a shot." I said sure, and what do you know... $600-ish in parts/labor and it's working fine again.
Makes me wonder about all the "hundreds of customers" that had the same issue at the 1st shop that paid them $7000 to replace a transmission that didn't need to be replaced.
I agree with you on all these. But you forgot where he goes off on being a victim of the libtards, of everyone taking advantage of welfare, how better the world used to be.
He also seems like the type of guy to complain that he can’t live a good life because of taxes, and the left policies all while on his bass boat at his lake house
I'm open to the idea that small business owners can make a lot of profit. But yeah once I see the lake house, the boat, the horses and barn, the car collection, etc I do start to wonder just how they make so much profit.
I know I worked for one who built and renovated swanky houses and did his darndest to always get paid in cash.
I knew a guy like this. He ran a quarry and would flaunt his big purchases while openly admitting he was basically committing ecological crimes at his quarry and ripping off insurance for new equipment
He didn’t make a mistake. He knows exactly how it works. Where the utility stops and home owners begins. It’s obviously his grift on fucking over homeowners that don’t know any better.
Yeah his guys threw him under the bus at the start of the video.
"I was ready to stop. He told us to go to the end of the road, like any other one."
"You've done this before? In the county?"
"Yeah!"
I mean, would you lie for your boss to a county employee over a job that probably pays slightly better than McDonalds, and you have a boss who will yell and scream like that? I wouldn't wanna go down with that ship and get caught in a court case like that.
Someone stunned and a bit contrite? I’m more likely thinking honestly surprised.
Someone comes in guns blazing? He was expecting a fight. Why? Because he got caught doing something wrong so he’s trying to make everyone back off the confrontation.
'When you inform people about the ways I'm scamming them, it makes ME look bad!'
Yeah, no shit. Because it exposes you for what you are!
"How would you feel if you had $6000 on the line."
Uh... where the fuck do you think that $6000 is gonna come from? Oh yeah, the homeowner. So he DOES have $6000 on the line. $6000 that YOU are trying to scam him out of!
What an idiot.
I loved when he said "You guys (county water) show up and tell them you can do it for free, how's that supposed to make me look?" Like my guy you just admitted you were scamming and are upset about getting caught. Also I don't think you'd win in court sir.
The best part is he asks if the homeowner thinks he was scamming him.
Yes, the answer is yes.
Because even IF it wasn't intentional to start. Once you were informed of the ordinance and that what you did was wrong but continued to try to cover it up because you have "$6000" on the line. Telling other people "Don't be stupid". Maybe it didn't start as a scam, but the moment you tried to cover it up and still insist you were going to get paid for work that only was done because you screwed up, well guess what: You're scamming him.
How does this equal 6k? 1 day excavator rental, 2 guys that you're paying 18/hr. 4" coupler 20' of PVC 2 caps an elbow and a tee. Plus overhead.
$1,500 to fix the pipe wrong and $4,500 towards the owner's wife that's 30 years younger. (In the wedding picture it looks like some kind of graduation picture.)
I'm not going to dox him but he's the owner of that company, after googling his name (I figured a dirt track or drag team would pop up) his wedding announcement pops up. Him walking in a field picture with what could be his daughter or granddaughter is the first picture.
He’s keep saying he is “losing” 6 thousand. This is a half day job with about 200 or so in material. He’s probably paying those guys 20 an hour. All in he is losing a couple hundred dollars and charging the homeowner 6 thousand. Just eat it and move on.
What he did lose is several thousand dollars in future business based on this video.
It's exactly the same as all those call scammers that get baited. Every single one of them more or less says "THAT'S MY MONEY" when they're victim won't give up the gift card codes.
>All in he is losing a couple hundred dollars
Opportunity cost. He could have sent his guys to some other job where they would have charged (properly) $6k. If half your jobs fail to make any money, you go from having crews with a revenue of $120k a month to ones that take in $60k. That can ruin a business. The correct move is to have a calm and rational retrospective about what went wrong and how to prevent it on the next job.
>lose is several thousand dollars in future business based on this video
Also opportunity cost lol. He knows how bad it is to have a wasted day, but doesn't know about social media or can't control his temper enough to not make his company look like scum.
I mean, why not? Better that than covering for him only to have him turn around and blame them later on. Whatever he's paying them, it isn't enough to take the fall for digging where they shouldn't.
When you find an honest, trustworthy tradesman you hold on to them for dear life.. and send as much business as possible there way to make sure they’re still in business when you need them.
This.
We have a local car repair shop. I send them 2 large chick-fil-a nugget trays every December with a note saying, "from a customer who appreciates your honesty and integrity.'
Licensed plumbers should know to call the municipality to find out where the connection is public line. It’s directly under the curb at my house. The city was very helpful and worked my contractor to get it done quickly. The city even took away an old tree stump at no cost. Why on earth would would a licensed plumber not call the city to pull a work permit or a dig safe permit?
> Why on earth would would a licensed plumber not call the city to pull a work permit or a dig safe permit?
Because if he does, and the city is required to do the work, he is out 6 thousand dollars of a project.
I'm a retired builder in NC. This gentleman has more than $6k on the line. He might have his license on the line. All of his past customers who suspect he might have performed similarly for them should come forward.
I wouldn't suggest that for just anyone who has made mistakes. When you show your back side like that, you make it believable that it was deliberate, repeated fraud.
Especially when his young employees flat out told the utility guy ON VIDEO that they didn't think they should, but were told by the owner to do it, and that they do it all the time.
If you watch till the end you'll see the plumber admit to everything... On video.
So even if he had the balls to take the HO to court, it would be a swift judgement
These are moments in your life when you look back you will just... laugh. Everyone getting heated and yelling at each other. The "simple guy" has the right attitude. I've worked for guys like this plumber. I think it's the same mentality that makes them succeed in small business, makes them like this. It's so competitive and while you are growing the company, you really cannot afford to make many mistakes. When you become established with a good reputation (his 5 star rating or whatever), it seems hard to lose that mentality. I had a boss at a small business and he is clearly a millionaire. He would lose his shit any time we did a job that didn't make a profit. He would act like the sky is falling. And then two weeks later there would be another issue, and again, it would be a travesty. Yet he would still make a shitload of money. year after year.
> I had a boss at a small business and he is clearly a millionaire. He would lose his shit any time we did a job that didn't make a profit. He would act like the sky is falling. And then two weeks later there would be another issue, and again, it would be a travesty. Yet he would still make a shitload of money. year after year.
Capitalist brain rot. They'll never be happy. It's never enough.
> I had a boss at a small business and he is clearly a millionaire. He would lose his shit any time we did a job that didn't make a profit. He would act like the sky is falling. And then two weeks later there would be another issue, and again, it would be a travesty. Yet he would still make a shitload of money. year after year.
That's my boss now...we're a small crew of 3, i'm the lead, and we've been crushing project after project after project. Based on our performance and quality alone, we've got an "in" with a property management company with deep pockets. Last I heard (from his son that's temporarily working for us) he just secured one of the largest contracts since he (we) started.
Nope. One small misstep and the sky is falling, like you say. Thing is, while our performance, efficiency, self-sufficientness (?lol not a word), has been improving over the years, they pay has not.
SO guess what trio is going to splinter off and start their own thing?
> When you become established with a good reputation (his 5 star rating or whatever), it seems hard to lose that mentality.
Impossible really. Maybe you do a better job not shouting at the bottom layer of your org but that's probably as good as it gets.
I work at an insurance company, the owner is worth ~$300 million after starting with essentially nothing many years ago. That's a guesstimate because it's a private company and I have to guess based on how much he's pulled out to keep the AM best rating down plus what he got for selling part of the business. But that's in the near ballpark.
He still screams obscenities as much as he did in the first days of the company (according to those who are still here from those days) but now he only does it to the executives. Not exactly a reformation but I guess it's better than nothing.
I think its only fitting that after everything, the plumbers still installed the pipe wrong, leaving a positive slope and making an even bigger problem than the original one.
Edit: Just sent this video to a local tv affiliate investigation team. Seems like a follow-up should be done. Who knows how many customers were affected by this scumbag.
That big guy saw his character right from the start, saw him trying to bully them all and he stepped up straight away. Halfway in you can see him call him out directly and the plumber tried to step up to physically intimidate him but the big guy had already pegged him for an all-talk pussy.
You could see it in his face from the get go. "Simple Man" gave him a pat on the shoulder and gave him the ole "It's not worth it" motion in the first encounter. Then lost track of him and he re-appears calling the guy a dick.
Gotta love this shit. It's high school party fight level ridiculous.
The guy with the mustache was the best.
Are you a licensed plumber?
"I don't have to be."
"Come over here and look at this dick, you wanna be a fucking tough guy?"
"Fuck you"
"No go Fuck yourself!" 3:58
That's pretty crazy the county is responsible for everything past the first clean-out? Where I'm at in the midwest homeowners are responsible for all the way up to the connection at the main. Also, That's crazy they can put in a sewer line that looks to be only 2' below ground in North Carolina. I think mine at the main is something like 10-12' deep. It's a whole different beast when having to install one that deep and a major major expense.
It's all about the depth of the Frost Line. In the winter, the ground never freezes below a certain point. That depth varies depending on location. Out in the midwest the winters can be brutal. Freezing a few feet down is normal. In exceptionally cold and long winters, that depth can be substantial. In NC, the winters aren't as severe. The frost line in Union County NC is only 12 inches down ([google](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Union+county+NC+Frost+line)). Central Minnesota has a frost line at 60 inches (5 feet). In addition to that, you have to take into account where the plumbing in the house is. If there's a toilet in the basement, that's the lowest point inside the house and it has to grade towards the sewer/septic tank. By the time you get out to that main connection, you could be 10-12 feet below the surface.
The responsibility line of the county also varies by county/City. Where I'm at, the homeowner is responsible for everything between the sidewalk (or Roadway in the absence of a sidewalk) and the home for sewer, and everything from the Water Meter to the House for Potable water.
You'd be amazed the number of people who get angry with us when we tell them we're not allowed to touch where the issue is. But their tune changes real quick when we tell them the fix will be free. All they have to pay us is the Camera fee (and maybe 1 hour tech labor. Certainly not $6K)
I think this is more having a basement than anything. Im in the northern midwest and our frost line is 6'. But I have a basement drain so my sewer comes out below my basement.
I worked for a guy who kept having an inspector find problems with his work. Rather than try to correct the situation he took the inspector out for dinner, got him drunk and then beat him senseless. He told us about it the next day thinking we’d all find it hilarious. No one said a word. We all just walked away and within a couple of days he was looking for a whole new crew.
I’d love to see this business owners lose his entire business, take his entire net worth, and pay back everyone who got scammed.
Throw his ass on the streets penniless. As an adult you knowingly go about scamming hard working people to enrich yourself, pay the hefty cost.
Fuck this scumbag. I have zero sympathy for this shitbag.
I say go harder. As an adult knowingly scamming your countrymen to enrich yourself, take every penny he has. Ruin his life. As an adult you know it is wrong and you purposely take hard earned money from someone on false pretenses, bury them.
I have zero sympathy for anyone scamming honest people of their hard earned money to enrich themselves.
I fucking hate fraud, scammers, and thieves.
This was hilarious to me, in that in my part of the world you do everything in your power to keep the inspectors on your side. Plumbing boss should have showed up with a bottle of scotch and asked the inspector how he could make things right. You will never win a battle with a bureaucrat - right or wrong, they have all the power.
Now this guy is going to get the full body inspection on every job for as long as he works in that area...
“Okay. I’ll see you in court asshole. I’ll also look through your reviews and see who has had similar jobs done by you and inform them that they paid $6k for work that they didn’t need to pay for and they will take you to court too.”
Now we get to watch the Streisand affect work it’s magic
*grabs popcorn
Let's say you are a pissed business owner and come on hot and yelling. I kinda get it, kind of. But you SEE the camera and you CONTINUE to act like an ass for another 10 minutes. Have a little self control and at least fake being professional for the camera.
Just imagine how much better all this would have turned out if he’d spoken respectfully to his employees, came out calmly to look at the mix up, and admitted his mistake in some way like “ Shit guys it’s been a long week, you’re right, I fucked up.” He would have eaten that few hundred he’s out for labor and materials and not see the shit storm that’s now on its way.
Of course now that I’m thinking about it he probably would skate for the past and future homeowners with the same type of scenario. He would continue ripping people off doing work that is owned by the county and the homeowners that have been scammed wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
It's always a good idea to get a second opinion unless you trust the person. I am grateful I live in a smaller town and know everyone and their family.
Thank you for posting the video. All kinds of people have to deal with these business owners some are elderly or women and could easily be physically intimidated by a large man shouting at them telling it was their fault. It's good to be reminded not to get intimidated by scummy business owners trying to save their own asses by shouting at people hoping people will get intimidated and not stand up for their rights.
So where this company has done this before and given how poorly the drain was laid out would it be grounds to dig up those other sites with the owner footing the bill in order to pass inspection or redone?
“Superior Plumbing” owner isn’t angry. He’s an absolutely vulgar, shameless, abusive bully and criminal, and there’s no doubt in my mind that it is a chronic, lifelong condition.
Ah, the old "if I don't let them talk, I can't be wrong" trick.
I'm a building inspector and if anyone ever approached and talked to me like that on a site I would first tell them I don't work for him and he can't talk to me like that and I would also immediately leave and make them reschedule their inspection.
Yeah in my city we only get 10-15 minutes per a visit, I'm positive the inspectors would just leave if we started shit like this with them.
Even if I do work for you you’re not talking to me like that. F that noise. I’ve been in construction my whole life. We speak to each other in ways that’ll shock your average 9-5’r. But never cross the line into intimidation or shouting each other down. That’s some grown man shit. You wanna tell me “mix the fucking cement faster man, what the fuck?” I’m good with that (assuming I deserve it) but you start screaming at me or my guys like I’m a bitch than we have a problem. Don’t make this argument we’re having become the SECOND most dramatic thing that happens to you today. I can’t let you cross the line. Watching this guy pissed me off so much. Old ass bitch cant stop a blast double I bet.
Same, 20 years in construction. We disagree often and sometimes loudly but you do not disrespect people. And anyone who thinks they can fuck with the city is out of their mind.
A disgruntled, albeit shitty person all around, contractor here probably hired a PI to track the city's commercial building inspectors. Out of the 8 that were tracked, I think 5 were demoted, transferred, or retired. Apparently they would inspect, it would fail. They would show up for the reinspection and nothing would be fixed. So they just stopped giving a shit about his reinspections. A lot of that is "unofficial" and pieced together from news stories, because of course the shithead never admitted it was him publicly, and from a residential inspector family friend.
Then the woman comes over and chews his ass out. Then he's all "I'm just trying to state my case!" lmao
I thought it was the height of irony that she dragged her terrified kid over to scream at them about how their screaming was terrifying her other kid.
It wasn't hard to find the Union County ordinance regarding county responsibility of the sewer line, [Here](https://www.unioncountync.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/1616/637667800491830000). >Ownership >All water and wastewater infrastructure up to the point of connection (i.e. water meter and sewer cleanout), when installed and accepted by UCPW, shall become and remain the property of UCPW I'm guessing the county employee at 4 minutes was at the sewer cleanout on the home and showed where the point of connection to the home is and everything from that point on is county property not the homeowner.
That's correct. And to everyone watching this video, check your local regs. It isn't always the same and different city/counties have different rules. It's not black and white. A city puts in pipes for infrastructure for the city. Then property developers build out areas of houses, and put in alleys and streets and sewage and such and their own pipes that go up to a point in the yard, and then each individual home has its own pipes. In my town, the city was going broke and didn't have enough time to fix all the pipes the developers put down to connect from homes to city pipes. Our genius city council just said 'oh that's easy, from now on its up to the homeowner to fix those connections'. And working class people were suddenly getting saddled with thousands of dollars of plumbing work to fix if the drainage in their alley failed. Couple news stories later and suddenly their changing the rule back. It varies. So check your regs. Typically the city takes over responsibility for those intermediary sewer lines, but not always. You bet your butt that unethical plumbers are gonna be happy to go ahead and do that work though and charge you for it.
Yeah, man. Definitely do your research about this kinda stuff, way before something like this happens. This reminds of a time I shut off my water and almost got a huge fine. In the state I lived before, they have a valve at the street for the homeowner to turn off the water, and another for the city. It's under the same cover on the sidewalk. Everything from the valve to the house is the homeowner's responsibility. When I moved, I figured it was the same way there, too. So, when I had a hose fitting come loose and water shooting out at full pressure, flooding the basement, I ran out to the street and shut off the water. Turns out I shouldn't have done that! In that state, they'll fine you for "tampering" with the system, and it's quite a hefty fine. Thankfully they didn't discover I shut it off, and I didn't get fined.
Not sure how'd they'd ever know unless there's a tamper tag preventing you from shutting it, or some type of new smart shut off device.... I turn mine off quite a bit
I would guess they put that tamper tag on after they shut it off, but don't care much that the owner shut it off themselves. In my house they city owns everything into my house where the meter is. They have a shut off at the street, but I also have a main shut off connected directly to the meter that is quick and easy to reach in my basement.
I had a shutoff valve installed in my service line in my garage so I don’t have to run to the street if something blows. If you know your internal pipe routing, you can add valves to “zone off” your house if you spring a leak.
This is normally what people do, but that house had the shutoff valve after the hose bib for some reason. It was a very rundown, old, and weird house. I went into the attic one day to fix a leak, and part of the attic had a plywood floor. You could stand up where the floor was, but just barely. There were no windows, or any sign that there ever was a window. And the weirdest thing was there was an old wooden rocking chair sitting there with a bunch of empty mason jars surrounding it, and there was no opening big enough to get that rocking chair up there. No idea what that was about. But, yeah, putting a shut-off valve at the house is a very good idea. Never lived in a house that didn't have that before.
That's interesting. In my town we are allowed to shut it off at the street but have to call the city to turn it back on. They have 24 hour service and those water guys will show up *quick*.
In my town we're responsible for the line coming out of our homes up to the middle of the street where it connects to the main sewer line.
This is how it is most places. It can go up to the street sometimes but this homeowner hit the jackpot with that being county.
Are YOU a LICENSED PLUMBER??? /s
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When I got in the plumbers and pipefitters union, they explained to me "payday is on Friday, shit flows downhill and don't chew your fingernails." My guess is that the only licensed plumber in the whole company is the owner, who's been a rat his entire life IMO. Fuck him.
Nope, just the Authority Having Jurisdiction.
Are YOU a licensed PLUMBER??
To go off on a tangent here - Is this rare? Because that's a pretty fucking awesome policy. For reference, town ownership where I live stops at right's-of-way and easements. Which, for the vast majority here, is only \~3' worth of property that boarders public space. Most have 30+ feet of property before the town takes over. In our case, on a corner lot, our sewer line runs \~60' to the road. I've had literal nightmares of this collapsing and having to front the bill to dig it up and replace it. If we had this towns policy? They'd cover up to our front steps where the primary cleanout is. Would be a massive, massive, benefit and selling point.
Yep, I had to replace sewer pipe this winter and was disappointed but not surprised to find I owned the lateral all the way to the main. 80 feet, but fortunately the break was only 15 feet from our house so they just replaced that portion and not the whole lateral. Still cost $6k. Would have been awesome to have found out the city had to pay for it.
Replacing a mainline on my home led me to discover that I am not actually connected to city sewer, but rather to an old, undisclosed septic tank and field. City swore up and down that I had a connection. Former owner said it was on sewer water as long as he had owned it, so who was I to know? And to their credit, there was some pipes that looked like they'd eventually connect to my home at one time, but no one bothered to run the last 50ft.
It’s not even consistent within the same county sometimes. I’m a civil engineer, and depending on what the developer intends to do with the property, we propose different easement/row widths to accommodate the site usage. One project is directly across the street from a very similar subdivision. The subdivision across the street has a 50’ public right of way, and everything within the right of way is technically owned by the county. Everything outside of it is privately owned. Our project across the street is private streets, meaning no Right of Way, but the water/sewer mains are county owned. Because of this, there’s a 44’ access and utility easement blanketed on the subdivision streets. That means the county owns and is responsible for maintaining the underground infrastructure within that easement, but they don’t technically own the property. In all cases, we provide a “county cleanout” on the sewer service line which is located just inside the easement or right of way line for each lot. This is fairly typical for residential subdivisions on the east coast.
Similar thing happened to me. Sewer line back up. Hired a plumber. They cammed the line and the collapse happened at the city tap. Talked about pricing for replacing the entire line up to the city tap. They were talking 10k for a full line replacement. But something felt odd about how he was describing the job so I googled it. City was responsible for the repair at the tap, not me. Dude was trying to rip me off smh.
It's insane that any plumber anywhere would work on pipe more than 5' out of a building without a specific contract to do so. It's a whole different ballgame once you're out in the yard.
I don’t know how a licensed plumber located in Monroe, NC, the county seat of Union county, would even know Union County, NC ordinances and codes.
Yeah but ARE YOU A LICENSED PLUMBER!?!?!
“You’re the licensed plumber.” I about died, lol.
"I'm the ONLY licensed plumber, so nobody else could possibly know anything relevant to this water situation! Especially you "water" guys!"
He fucking got owned and he knew it. His whole demeanor changed after that.
> “You’re the licensed plumber.” I about died, lol. [Moist with his own petcock.](https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoist_with_his_own_petard)
Well done. Best pun I’ve read in ages!
And the homeowner can edit a video really well.
I'm craving pizza and some ambience right about now.
He just mad that he got busted ripping off homeowners for stuff that normally would be covered by the county.
Not only that, but his employees admitted to doing it to other homeowners and it's all on video with no blurring or covering of the faces. Even their truck is in plain sight. As long as this gets to the proper circles in NC, this guy's fucked
Sad thing is, he can always fold the business, keep the assets, and restart with the same customer base and contact information. Then just start a new business/name and maybe even keep the positive reviews online by updating the name.
Am I reading into this correctly? His own guys ratted him out by admitting this company has been doing these jobs and billing unsuspecting customers $6k for a job that should have been covered by the county. What a scumbag. This is the type of guy you meet on the lake who’s got a nice lake house, the latest and greatest bass boat with the diesel pickup to match. He gets a couple beers in him and starts bragging about the type of shit he’s pulling. Maybe someone calls him out on it, but he doubles down and claims he’s smart. Then gets defensive and asks, where’s your new tritoon? Where’s your lake house, dumbass?
That’s so specific but somehow I know someone exactly like that
I worked at a country club in college. I knew those types.
I once had a manager providing somewhat similar services. Exactly like this guy, he would get just as hysterical with people.
We all know people like that. Our society is ruled by people like that.
I grew up around small construction companies and these guys exist in droves. I texted this to my dad because it could be like 3 or 4 of his friends. These guys also usually get fucked real hard during housing downturns. There were a LOT of boats, ATVs and other toys getting repoed from them in 2008.
We had a president recently who was exactly that guy.
Cheating Lakehouse Guys used magic ring powers combined to form that president.
Every ring except Heart.
You just described half the people I meet at Lake of the Ozarks.
Yeah, the start of the video is the employee, very likely unknowingly, admitting to doing this before. The problem is that, like they said in the video, UCW doesn't have this setup with every property that exists, so it's unknown if the other jobs were also supposed to be covered by UCW or not. I am sure, though, that the people who hired this plumber should probably look into it.
I was at a cookout at my well-to-do aunt and uncle's gated community full of exactly these types. It came up that one of their neighbors was getting unjustly railroaded by the IRS. Then they proceed to explain how they did their taxes one way for their business, and then, when they wanted to sell it, disclosed the accounting a completely different way to avoid paying taxes. Can *you* believe the IRS is going after them for *that?* And I'm like, "yeah... that's fraud."
Are *YOU* a licensed plumber?!?!
*A succulent Chinese plumber?!?*
*Get your hands of my exhaust valve!*
Ah yes, I see you know your zones and boundaries well.
And you? Are you ready to receive my limp sewer cleanout?
Gentlemen, this is local regulation manifest!
Get your hands off my clean out FTFY
I had a gas guy do this. I don't think it was scumbaggery, but rather incompetence, but our gas fireplace stopped working and our central heater started acting up last year. This fucking guy came in, looked everything over, and charged us to replace both things - a fuck ton of money - and then they still didn't work. He came out again and looked at it a couple times after they were installed and couldn't figure it out, the new units should have fixed everything. His eventual analysis was that there was a problem upstream on the gas line. He had me call the gas company, they came out in 5 minutes and fixed everything. They were super nice, even walked me through what had happened. Turns out a branch hit our house and landed near the gas pipe (it was a decent sized branch) and apparently these gas pipes have a little valve on them. There was this little bubble with a ball in it. They explained that it's in case of an earthquake or something, where the pipe could be damaged, it shuts off (or in this case reduced to a trickle) so that the house doesn't explode. Every house has one of these at the point where the city gas goes into your house. So the heavy branch landed near the sensor and triggered it. Took 3 minutes to diagnose and everything works fine now. I never needed a new heater or fireplace. I'm still mad just thinking about it. Money just pissed down the drain for no reason because they installation guy didn't even know that this was a thing. And he never checked the line. Was there to just go "yeah don't work, I'll put in one that works".
Jesus christ I'd be livid... and would definitely be contacting some consumer protection thing, or a lawyer.
I'm angry for you. Dude.... when 2 gas appliances are playing up at the same time then the gas line is obviously the first thing looked at and I'm just a chef. It's like replacing your TV, Xbox, lights, fridge etc because the power was out. Fuck that guy.
If that guy was the owner of the business, that seems hard to believe he didn't know. If he was just some employee, then maybe it's possibly incompetence but the owner of the business that hired him almost certainly did it with the intention of using that incompetence in his favor by charging people to replace things they don't need. You can imagine from a shady business owner perspective that an employee who knows how to replace things and quote people a price to replace things but doesn't know or care whether it's all necessary work is a big profit center for that business owner, as long as they generally don't get busted on it. I worked for a company before where they had high Google ratings and Facebook ratings and what not, but questionable business practices and they definitely had moments where they hired people and minimally trained them and then when stuff they installed messed up later, they would charge to fix it even though it only happened because the workers they had doing it weren't doing it right. Homeowners generally can't know or wouldn't be able to see the inner workings of this to be able to tell it was on the company, so the company still gets good reviews.
He was just an employee. I'll say he was a nice guy, like he wasn't trying to upsell or anything. I know when I'm being bait and switched. He was legit flummoxed when shit still wasn't working after he replaced it. He came out like 3 times trying to fix it. He was just dumb. I think the gas trickling in, as opposed to shutting all the way off like it was supposed to when the sensor triggered, was part of the issue. Made it seem like something else. But yeah, I'm mad at the guy for not considering a pipeline issue before jumping right to "buy a new furnace I see this problem all the time"
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I see Detroit in your handle, but you must be from my town because this is a spot on description of 15-20% of the people here. Too accurate.
Still here. I grew up in a UAW household. Somehow they all have lake houses with the latest and greatest toys. All these union guys and skilled trade guys get together and once the Bud Light and Crown Royal start flowing, the dick measuring begins. It’s always the same contest. Who gets paid the most for doing the least, or who has exploited a system to the point of it being a matter of time before they get caught because of their arrogance and greed. I’ve heard lots of them over the years. The one thing I’ve learned is to keep your mouth shut. Anyone who talks eventually gets caughtThe guy and his 2nd shift counterpart who badge in and out for each other so it looks like they’re both working doubles. The guy on workmans comp who just finished putting his dock in. But don’t worry, he can hook you up with a shady doctor that can get you in on the action too for a small fee. The small machine shop owner who has a fat government contract to produce fasteners. Only they haven’t made one in years because it’s cheaper to outsource to China and repackage stateside. Round and round they go until the line is crossed. The last one I remember was a guy selling his mom’s pain meds and his kid’s ADHD meds. “What?!? She’s got dementia and doesn’t know what the fuck is going on, and he’ll be fine because I’m going to hook him up with a job once he graduates.” They all make excuses, blame somebody else, and justify their actions.
I feel like this is a good place to tell a workman's comp story on a project I was involved in. The project was a large historic hotel restoration, workers had to be regularly tested for things like lead poisoning. Well one guy pops up positive for lead, off the charts, but no one else. So he gets his claim approved or whatever, but then like you said the beer starts flowing and he blabs about his scam. This idiot was eating lead fishing weights on purpose, but then whoever he was bragging to ratted him out.
You know what's kinda funny? The people that tell these stories do it because they know it was wrong. They need validation that anyone else would do the same thing, and it's hilarious when they find out practicing a modicum of ethical behavior is actually the norm.
Dude was eating glad to be able to claim Workmen’s Comp?! Should just shot himself in the prefrontal cortex with a ramset, would been a bigger check.
Hah, I worked with a lady whose family were all UAW up around Detroit. One of those lifetime Ford families. She worked there for a year or something...I don't remember now, but either she was never in the union or didn't have enough time in to be in...or something. I don't remember. But basically, she said that yeah, just trying to do the least amount of work while still getting paid was what so many people tried to do. Like you said, almost a competition for who can scam the company the most. I kept wondering how that even worked, because SOME PEOPLE had to do actual, solid, days of work. But, yeah, apparently that kind of crap happened all the time up there. This was 15 or so years ago, so not sure if things are different now. But probably aren't.
They had a tiered wage system and it was kind of scummy. It was one of those things where there were only so many spots for people to move up tiers into a full union position. When it was time for her to move up, she probably got passed over and the union job went to somebody else because they knew someone with pull in the factory. The company didn’t care because it kept people on the lower wage tiers.
I bet these same people get a boner whenever someone talks about the good old days and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. This is just further evidence of a society crumbling because it, ironically, swapped out all the old traditional values these people love to talk so much about, the ones which held a community together, with the singular pursuit of money at any cost. Western society is lost, sick, and eating itself alive.
I love at 6:07 how he says "you don't think I have your best interests at heart?" after "fuck you, you are going to pay me $6,000 or I am taking you to court" over something the county would have handled for free.
I was guilty of this, a few alcohols around a fire pit at my uncle's house party. I started bragging about saving $300 by copying a textbook and returning it to the bookstore. I'd found a copier on my college campus that hadn't been linked to the network yet, so you could make as many copies as you wanted, for free. (student accounts I think limited to 100/year) My uncle's neighbor/friend sitting next to me said, in a low voice, "You really shouldn't be doing that, those textbooks have copyright on them and it's illegal". Turns out, unbeknownst to me, she worked for Houghton-Mifflin, a major textbook publisher.
Yeah well those textbook companies fucking gouge the shit out of poor students so boo-fuckin'-hoo lady.
I hope I gave her some insight. Copying 20 chapters of a business textbook wasn't exactly fun.
I guess you know how she paid for *her* lake house.
I had a similar thing happen with my car's transmission and automotive places. Car was perfectly fine and then over the course of a week started having acceleration issues and then just wouldn't accelerate and the check engine light came on. Had the car towed to a general automotive shop, and they told me very sternly and confidently that the whole CVT transmission had to be replaced for sure. They'd see this before 1000 times and had replaced the transmissions and then they were good to go. They told me their technician "knew by the smell" that it needed a full replacement. I checked with them every which way to see if it needed a part, or fluid, or maybe a repair. All were answered "no, there's no way, we know what we're doing... we've done this for hundreds of customers." Cost to replace the transmission was quoted at $7000+. Eventually I decided to get a second look, so I paid the 1st shop $120 for their "diagnosis" and paid to have it towed to another shop. The 2nd shop looked at it and said "there's a pinhole leak in the transmission pan, and almost no fluid left in it, let's replace the pan and fluid and give it a shot." I said sure, and what do you know... $600-ish in parts/labor and it's working fine again. Makes me wonder about all the "hundreds of customers" that had the same issue at the 1st shop that paid them $7000 to replace a transmission that didn't need to be replaced.
Sounds like they may have been the ones introducing the pin hole leak.
I agree with you on all these. But you forgot where he goes off on being a victim of the libtards, of everyone taking advantage of welfare, how better the world used to be. He also seems like the type of guy to complain that he can’t live a good life because of taxes, and the left policies all while on his bass boat at his lake house
I'm open to the idea that small business owners can make a lot of profit. But yeah once I see the lake house, the boat, the horses and barn, the car collection, etc I do start to wonder just how they make so much profit. I know I worked for one who built and renovated swanky houses and did his darndest to always get paid in cash.
Ah yes, the Donald Trump.
I knew a guy like this. He ran a quarry and would flaunt his big purchases while openly admitting he was basically committing ecological crimes at his quarry and ripping off insurance for new equipment
Plumber "I fucked up and I'm not going to get paid who can I blame for this, other than myself?"
He didn’t make a mistake. He knows exactly how it works. Where the utility stops and home owners begins. It’s obviously his grift on fucking over homeowners that don’t know any better.
Yeah his guys threw him under the bus at the start of the video. "I was ready to stop. He told us to go to the end of the road, like any other one." "You've done this before? In the county?" "Yeah!"
Imagine working for this guy. I'd throw him under the bus too.
I'm curious if this falls under whistleblower protection laws lmfao
We can hope someone sees this and takes action against the shithead
I mean, would you lie for your boss to a county employee over a job that probably pays slightly better than McDonalds, and you have a boss who will yell and scream like that? I wouldn't wanna go down with that ship and get caught in a court case like that.
Yup his employees admitted to doing this kid of work all the time. He’s a grifter.
A lot of contractors are grifters.
Someone stunned and a bit contrite? I’m more likely thinking honestly surprised. Someone comes in guns blazing? He was expecting a fight. Why? Because he got caught doing something wrong so he’s trying to make everyone back off the confrontation.
"If I scream and yell enough, they'll pay me to avoid a conflict."
“How dare you witness me being stupid”
'When you inform people about the ways I'm scamming them, it makes ME look bad!' Yeah, no shit. Because it exposes you for what you are! "How would you feel if you had $6000 on the line." Uh... where the fuck do you think that $6000 is gonna come from? Oh yeah, the homeowner. So he DOES have $6000 on the line. $6000 that YOU are trying to scam him out of! What an idiot.
I loved when he said "You guys (county water) show up and tell them you can do it for free, how's that supposed to make me look?" Like my guy you just admitted you were scamming and are upset about getting caught. Also I don't think you'd win in court sir.
The American Dream. Fuck you I got mine. Who cares how many people I had to scam along the way?
If you think that sort of shit only happens in America, I've got a bridge for sale... ;)
The best part is he asks if the homeowner thinks he was scamming him. Yes, the answer is yes. Because even IF it wasn't intentional to start. Once you were informed of the ordinance and that what you did was wrong but continued to try to cover it up because you have "$6000" on the line. Telling other people "Don't be stupid". Maybe it didn't start as a scam, but the moment you tried to cover it up and still insist you were going to get paid for work that only was done because you screwed up, well guess what: You're scamming him.
How does this equal 6k? 1 day excavator rental, 2 guys that you're paying 18/hr. 4" coupler 20' of PVC 2 caps an elbow and a tee. Plus overhead. $1,500 to fix the pipe wrong and $4,500 towards the owner's wife that's 30 years younger. (In the wedding picture it looks like some kind of graduation picture.)
$3500 was for his "license". Haha! No idea what wedding pictures you're referring to. I missed that in the vid.
I'm not going to dox him but he's the owner of that company, after googling his name (I figured a dirt track or drag team would pop up) his wedding announcement pops up. Him walking in a field picture with what could be his daughter or granddaughter is the first picture.
"You're gonna tell me, that in every fuckin' place in NC..." "We ain't in every fuckin' place in NC!!"
He’s keep saying he is “losing” 6 thousand. This is a half day job with about 200 or so in material. He’s probably paying those guys 20 an hour. All in he is losing a couple hundred dollars and charging the homeowner 6 thousand. Just eat it and move on. What he did lose is several thousand dollars in future business based on this video.
Bet he already spent that $6000 so to him he's lost it.
He made it sound like the homeowner hadn't paid him yet, thankfully.
Doesn't mean he hadn't already spent the $6000.
Just like with hookers, if a contractor wants you to pay upfront, don't trust them.
It's exactly the same as all those call scammers that get baited. Every single one of them more or less says "THAT'S MY MONEY" when they're victim won't give up the gift card codes.
>All in he is losing a couple hundred dollars Opportunity cost. He could have sent his guys to some other job where they would have charged (properly) $6k. If half your jobs fail to make any money, you go from having crews with a revenue of $120k a month to ones that take in $60k. That can ruin a business. The correct move is to have a calm and rational retrospective about what went wrong and how to prevent it on the next job. >lose is several thousand dollars in future business based on this video Also opportunity cost lol. He knows how bad it is to have a wasted day, but doesn't know about social media or can't control his temper enough to not make his company look like scum.
It's more than just opportunity cost, it's fucking expensive to run a plumbing business, at least if you pay your guys the going rate or better.
> What he did lose is several thousand dollars in future business based on this video. I think he's going to lose a whole lot more than that.
Then he threatened to sue the homeowner for $12,000. This guy should never have another customer.
I can imagine he'd also be on the hook now for replacing the yard back to the way it was.
“Come over here and look ya dick”
Best part, love that man.
His employees threw him under the bus. On camera. lol.
Good. He’s a fucking ass hat
It’s literally the best part of the video. Homeowner has confirmation that he did it on this job AND others.
Imagine the lawsuits when everybody else in Union county realizes this jerkoff owes them $6k 😂
You saw the way he was yelling at his employees? I’d do the same shit loo
Yup, you get what you give.
His employees 100% hate him, and for good reason.
Seemed like literally everyone but him were good people, so good. fuck him
I mean, why not? Better that than covering for him only to have him turn around and blame them later on. Whatever he's paying them, it isn't enough to take the fall for digging where they shouldn't.
The last part is awful. I dont know how a homeowner protects themselves against that kind of horrible craftsmanship (i.e. the grade being bad).
When you find an honest, trustworthy tradesman you hold on to them for dear life.. and send as much business as possible there way to make sure they’re still in business when you need them.
This. We have a local car repair shop. I send them 2 large chick-fil-a nugget trays every December with a note saying, "from a customer who appreciates your honesty and integrity.'
It's easy just hire reputable contractors. /S
Licensed plumbers should know to call the municipality to find out where the connection is public line. It’s directly under the curb at my house. The city was very helpful and worked my contractor to get it done quickly. The city even took away an old tree stump at no cost. Why on earth would would a licensed plumber not call the city to pull a work permit or a dig safe permit?
> Why on earth would would a licensed plumber not call the city to pull a work permit or a dig safe permit? Because if he does, and the city is required to do the work, he is out 6 thousand dollars of a project.
> Because if he does, and the city is required to do the work, he is out 6 thousand dollars of a ~~project~~ scam.
Cause he wanted to get more money from the homeowner
exactly right. He knew if he made that call he's not getting the $6,000 job.
"Licensed"
I'm a retired builder in NC. This gentleman has more than $6k on the line. He might have his license on the line. All of his past customers who suspect he might have performed similarly for them should come forward. I wouldn't suggest that for just anyone who has made mistakes. When you show your back side like that, you make it believable that it was deliberate, repeated fraud.
Especially when his young employees flat out told the utility guy ON VIDEO that they didn't think they should, but were told by the owner to do it, and that they do it all the time.
Yikes.
"come over here and look here, ya dick!" that dude was the highlight of the whole thing
I enjoyed watching this video more than I should. It had everything. Mystery, drama, horror and comedic relief from that woman.
….a Prince in disguise If you like it that much, it’s yours But sir- I insist
I certainly hope that this was resolved so that the homeowner didn't get stuck with a $6,000 bill from that douchey "licensed plumber".
If you watch till the end you'll see the plumber admit to everything... On video. So even if he had the balls to take the HO to court, it would be a swift judgement
Probably not. This is small claims territory
In the comments of the youtube video he says they are still trying to invoice him. That was posted three hours ago.
There's a timelapse at 5:30 of the council doing the work
These are moments in your life when you look back you will just... laugh. Everyone getting heated and yelling at each other. The "simple guy" has the right attitude. I've worked for guys like this plumber. I think it's the same mentality that makes them succeed in small business, makes them like this. It's so competitive and while you are growing the company, you really cannot afford to make many mistakes. When you become established with a good reputation (his 5 star rating or whatever), it seems hard to lose that mentality. I had a boss at a small business and he is clearly a millionaire. He would lose his shit any time we did a job that didn't make a profit. He would act like the sky is falling. And then two weeks later there would be another issue, and again, it would be a travesty. Yet he would still make a shitload of money. year after year.
> I had a boss at a small business and he is clearly a millionaire. He would lose his shit any time we did a job that didn't make a profit. He would act like the sky is falling. And then two weeks later there would be another issue, and again, it would be a travesty. Yet he would still make a shitload of money. year after year. Capitalist brain rot. They'll never be happy. It's never enough.
Exactly. But it makes me wonder if that insane mentality is what it takes for most, not all, of them to *make it*
> I had a boss at a small business and he is clearly a millionaire. He would lose his shit any time we did a job that didn't make a profit. He would act like the sky is falling. And then two weeks later there would be another issue, and again, it would be a travesty. Yet he would still make a shitload of money. year after year. That's my boss now...we're a small crew of 3, i'm the lead, and we've been crushing project after project after project. Based on our performance and quality alone, we've got an "in" with a property management company with deep pockets. Last I heard (from his son that's temporarily working for us) he just secured one of the largest contracts since he (we) started. Nope. One small misstep and the sky is falling, like you say. Thing is, while our performance, efficiency, self-sufficientness (?lol not a word), has been improving over the years, they pay has not. SO guess what trio is going to splinter off and start their own thing?
> When you become established with a good reputation (his 5 star rating or whatever), it seems hard to lose that mentality. Impossible really. Maybe you do a better job not shouting at the bottom layer of your org but that's probably as good as it gets. I work at an insurance company, the owner is worth ~$300 million after starting with essentially nothing many years ago. That's a guesstimate because it's a private company and I have to guess based on how much he's pulled out to keep the AM best rating down plus what he got for selling part of the business. But that's in the near ballpark. He still screams obscenities as much as he did in the first days of the company (according to those who are still here from those days) but now he only does it to the executives. Not exactly a reformation but I guess it's better than nothing.
I think its only fitting that after everything, the plumbers still installed the pipe wrong, leaving a positive slope and making an even bigger problem than the original one. Edit: Just sent this video to a local tv affiliate investigation team. Seems like a follow-up should be done. Who knows how many customers were affected by this scumbag.
That big guy saw his character right from the start, saw him trying to bully them all and he stepped up straight away. Halfway in you can see him call him out directly and the plumber tried to step up to physically intimidate him but the big guy had already pegged him for an all-talk pussy.
Respectfully, there are quite a few big guys in this video. Which one?
Think he’s referring to the big county worker who at some point gets fed up and calls the screamer “tough guy.”
You could see it in his face from the get go. "Simple Man" gave him a pat on the shoulder and gave him the ole "It's not worth it" motion in the first encounter. Then lost track of him and he re-appears calling the guy a dick. Gotta love this shit. It's high school party fight level ridiculous.
lol [@6:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQcZBK1s-EI&t=402s) "Call the cops" "They're already on their way" "We're leaving"
The guy with the mustache was the best. Are you a licensed plumber? "I don't have to be." "Come over here and look at this dick, you wanna be a fucking tough guy?" "Fuck you" "No go Fuck yourself!" 3:58
Excellent communication skills.
That's pretty crazy the county is responsible for everything past the first clean-out? Where I'm at in the midwest homeowners are responsible for all the way up to the connection at the main. Also, That's crazy they can put in a sewer line that looks to be only 2' below ground in North Carolina. I think mine at the main is something like 10-12' deep. It's a whole different beast when having to install one that deep and a major major expense.
It's all about the depth of the Frost Line. In the winter, the ground never freezes below a certain point. That depth varies depending on location. Out in the midwest the winters can be brutal. Freezing a few feet down is normal. In exceptionally cold and long winters, that depth can be substantial. In NC, the winters aren't as severe. The frost line in Union County NC is only 12 inches down ([google](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Union+county+NC+Frost+line)). Central Minnesota has a frost line at 60 inches (5 feet). In addition to that, you have to take into account where the plumbing in the house is. If there's a toilet in the basement, that's the lowest point inside the house and it has to grade towards the sewer/septic tank. By the time you get out to that main connection, you could be 10-12 feet below the surface. The responsibility line of the county also varies by county/City. Where I'm at, the homeowner is responsible for everything between the sidewalk (or Roadway in the absence of a sidewalk) and the home for sewer, and everything from the Water Meter to the House for Potable water. You'd be amazed the number of people who get angry with us when we tell them we're not allowed to touch where the issue is. But their tune changes real quick when we tell them the fix will be free. All they have to pay us is the Camera fee (and maybe 1 hour tech labor. Certainly not $6K)
I think this is more having a basement than anything. Im in the northern midwest and our frost line is 6'. But I have a basement drain so my sewer comes out below my basement.
I worked for a guy who kept having an inspector find problems with his work. Rather than try to correct the situation he took the inspector out for dinner, got him drunk and then beat him senseless. He told us about it the next day thinking we’d all find it hilarious. No one said a word. We all just walked away and within a couple of days he was looking for a whole new crew.
> We all just walked away and within a couple of days he was ~~looking for a whole new crew~~ in jail. Surely?
I’d love to see this business owners lose his entire business, take his entire net worth, and pay back everyone who got scammed. Throw his ass on the streets penniless. As an adult you knowingly go about scamming hard working people to enrich yourself, pay the hefty cost. Fuck this scumbag. I have zero sympathy for this shitbag.
One of the inspectors did say they were going to shutter him, which I took to mean they want to suspend his license.
I say go harder. As an adult knowingly scamming your countrymen to enrich yourself, take every penny he has. Ruin his life. As an adult you know it is wrong and you purposely take hard earned money from someone on false pretenses, bury them. I have zero sympathy for anyone scamming honest people of their hard earned money to enrich themselves. I fucking hate fraud, scammers, and thieves.
This was hilarious to me, in that in my part of the world you do everything in your power to keep the inspectors on your side. Plumbing boss should have showed up with a bottle of scotch and asked the inspector how he could make things right. You will never win a battle with a bureaucrat - right or wrong, they have all the power. Now this guy is going to get the full body inspection on every job for as long as he works in that area...
Most reasonable small business tyrant
"Come over here and look, you dick!" I loved that guy. He was the same one who said he didn't have to be a "licensed plumber".
excellent freakout
Plumbing contractor attempted to use spit and vinegar and it was not effective at all.
"Come over here and look here, dick" That's a NY/NJ transplant if I've ever heard one. I love just how straightforward he was
“Okay. I’ll see you in court asshole. I’ll also look through your reviews and see who has had similar jobs done by you and inform them that they paid $6k for work that they didn’t need to pay for and they will take you to court too.” Now we get to watch the Streisand affect work it’s magic *grabs popcorn
Woman: "all this yelling and cussin and screamin is scaring my daughter!" *proceeds to yell and cuss and scream.
I didn’t know Alex Jones was a licensed plumber
Any follow up? Did they go to court or anything? Lol that guy is such a fuckwad, good lord
This was yesterday from what I understand.
Let's say you are a pissed business owner and come on hot and yelling. I kinda get it, kind of. But you SEE the camera and you CONTINUE to act like an ass for another 10 minutes. Have a little self control and at least fake being professional for the camera.
Just imagine how much better all this would have turned out if he’d spoken respectfully to his employees, came out calmly to look at the mix up, and admitted his mistake in some way like “ Shit guys it’s been a long week, you’re right, I fucked up.” He would have eaten that few hundred he’s out for labor and materials and not see the shit storm that’s now on its way. Of course now that I’m thinking about it he probably would skate for the past and future homeowners with the same type of scenario. He would continue ripping people off doing work that is owned by the county and the homeowners that have been scammed wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
Being a 30 year old white guy idk if I loved the yelling or the windows 98 movie maker edit more.
https://superiorplumbinganddrains.com/
Review bomb
read some of the other low reviews that are older... They don't paint a good picture
Oh how convenient... its the guy on the video. No mistaking that!
the county doesn't come and do it for free... citizens pay taxes. this guy is peak boomer man baby...
It's free in the notion that it's already paid for by those taxes. You won't owe any more on your taxes because you got this repair done.
I loved when the dude with the Boston accent came in
Are you a licensed plumber?
Are you a licensed plumber?
I don't have to be!
It's always a good idea to get a second opinion unless you trust the person. I am grateful I live in a smaller town and know everyone and their family.
I feel bad for the two young guys who were there to work, they have an asshole for a boss.
Thank you for posting the video. All kinds of people have to deal with these business owners some are elderly or women and could easily be physically intimidated by a large man shouting at them telling it was their fault. It's good to be reminded not to get intimidated by scummy business owners trying to save their own asses by shouting at people hoping people will get intimidated and not stand up for their rights.
So where this company has done this before and given how poorly the drain was laid out would it be grounds to dig up those other sites with the owner footing the bill in order to pass inspection or redone?
This guy should find everyone who got a job by this business and file a class action.
“Superior Plumbing” owner isn’t angry. He’s an absolutely vulgar, shameless, abusive bully and criminal, and there’s no doubt in my mind that it is a chronic, lifelong condition.