“Jeffrey & Brenda Thorpe / Great Falls VA — My Plumber Plus was bought out by Sila Services last year backed by Morgan Stanley Capital Partners. John Nugent & Sons, again bought by Silia Services back in 2024. We had used both these small business back in the day but they are not the same companies they were. Sila Services is a massive, corporate home services platform that operates as a textbook example of the private equity consolidation sweeping the trades. They keep the old names but behind the scenes, the backend operations, pricing models, management systems, and revenue targets are entirely controlled by the corporate private equity platform…..and they want to squeeze as much money out of you as they can. Our experience with them was that they were more interested in upselling you a new system or repair than simply fixing something.”
Jay Jackson — If she disputes the credit card the vendor simply has to produce an invoice, they don’t have to “defend the outrageous price”. The (national) credit card company has no idea what is or is not reasonable pricing for our local area and they aren’t going to get into that. If OP agreed to have them change the faucet (which sounds like is the case) and she didn’t get the price quoted in advance then she will lose the credit card dispute guaranteed. In terms of small claims court, you cannot claim emotion harm in small claims court, only tangible financial losses. Also the vendor doesn’t have to hire an attorney, they could just show up themselves. In order for OP to win there, she would have to find another plumber to come and give her a written estimate for the same work that was already done that she could bring to court – good luck getting that. It does sound like OP was taken advantage of here but its not so egregious that she would likely win in court especially absent some proof that will be hard to come by. Best to take it as a lesson learned and always get a written price quote before letting anyone do any work.
