I really should have read the negative reviews on Milani before I hired them! The 4.7 stars is definitely misleading as they have dozens of negative reviews! Buyer Beware!!!! We hired Milani in late September 2020 as we were experiencing pooling water in the utility room of an investment property. When I called Milani to get someone sent to the property, I was clear that we could not see anything actively leaking (wet walls, burst pipes, etc) but that water was pooling on the floor of the utility room intermittently. They sent a plumber and we got a $200 invoice with zero follow up or resolution to our issue. When I called back to follow up and determine next steps, their Customer Service Manager - Nicole, told me that they could not diagnose this type of issue unless there is an 'active leak'. Gosh, that would have been helpful to know before you sent someone out there for 10 mins and charged me $200!!!! Apparently he tried 'some things' and couldn't figure out what the issue was. Subsequently, our tenant notified us that he noticed that water was pooling on the floor of the utility room when the washing machine was on and I communicated this to Milani in a subsequent phone call (Nicole again). My husband and I went to the house ourselves to see if we can trouble shoot the issue and very quickly (5 mins) it was clear that the drain in the utility room was clogged and needed to be snaked. DUH!!!!! I called Milani back and they refused to accept that their 'best guy' had done a half-assed job diagnosing the issue. To be clear, my husband and I work in Finance - we are not plumbers or drain techs. Nicole was very focused on the fact that we apparently had an advantage in diagnosing the issue over their 'best guy' as he wasn't aware that it was happening (among other times) when the washer was on. Well my tenant notified me that despite suggesting that he would gladly turn on some appliances while the plumber was there, he refused and said it was not necessary. He did do a couple of useless checks (check to see if hot water tank was leaking - which I was clear on the initial call was not the issue as the pooling was intermittent). Milani and Nicole feel that having a living, breathing person come to your house to do handstands warrants a $200 charge. There is no requirement to make a reasonable attempt to find the issue. If you are still reading this - DONT HIRE MILANI. As other reviewers suggest, you are better off hiring an independent plumber or tech as you will just be passed around to various CSR's and dispatch, none of whom seems to communicate with each other and have any idea what decent customer service is. To top it off, Nicole was extremely rude and even raised her voice at me on the phone. Apparently there is no one above her and I will never get the owners on the phone either. I bet the owners would love to know what is happening behind their backs at their 'family run business'.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $200.00
- Company Response
Hi, Thank you so much for sharing your recent experience with us. I am happy to say that you have spoken multiple times on the phone with Nicole our Customer Service Manager regarding this situation and I would like to go over some of the key points you mentioned in your complaint to provide some insight and clarity. I can completely understand the situation from your point of view but I would like to also provide some more information from our point of view. To start at the beginning, we were called by yourself the landlord on September 19th as your tenants had notified you that they had noticed water leaking in the mechanical room of the home. You requested a leak investigation to find the cause of the leak, our customer service representative probed and gathered as much information as possible, had it happened before, are any walls wet, is it actively leaking etc. All of these questions will aid us in making sure that we have the correct technician scheduled out to the job. Based on the information provided it was a standard plumbing leak investigation, although the water had been cleaned up. We scheduled an experienced plumber to the home on September 22nd, the technician met with your tenants on-site and asked them further questions and began his research and diagnosis, as the water was not visible and the leak was not active at the time of service it was very difficult to determine the source. The technician completed a thorough inspection of the area and based on the information provided checked all of the water piping within the mechanical room, checked the pressure of the home to determine if this was causing the relief valve of the water tank to leak water and checked the tank for leaks ( I will mention that we later found a hidden floor drain underneath the furnace and is not accessible ). Upon completion of the inspection he could not determine where the leak’s source was, he asked the tenants to keep an eye on the issue and if it returns make note of when and where the water was coming from, at that point we could return and trace the leak. If the water heaters relief valve was the source we would then replace the pressure relief valve, this information was taken from his written report. September 30th you called to say that the tenants reported that the water had returned, at this point Nicole spoke to you to explain that we need to be sure before coming out that we can see the leak actively taking place, the reason for this is so we avoid having a tech return and then run into the same issues as the first service call. On this call, you mentioned to Nicole that the tenant had reported that the water appeared recently when the washing machine was running, (I must highlight here that the water appeared only when the washer was running, you mentioned in your review that it appeared other times as well which is unfortunately impossible due to the fact that when we cleared the line it was from the washing machine and no other drains were connected to the floor drain) Nicole asked you to do another quick test before scheduling a technician out to confirm if there was a correlation between the water appearing and the washing machine. She also mentioned at this point to check and see if there was a floor drain in the mechanical room, this would be a very rare occurrence but sometimes the washing machine drain is hooked up to a floor drain and if that has become plugged then this could be the source of the problem. Your tenant and yourself then continued to test this to see if this was the case, October 1st we received a call from you to say that yes it was consistently happening when the washing machine was running (the washing machine is in a different room and technicians will not go around the home testing all appliances when they are there to do a diagnostic unless they have reason to believe they have issues). Based on this key and important information we scheduled a drain cleaning technician out to your property on October 5th, although it is very unusual he was able to test and confirm that the washing machine was causing the backup, I must mention that it was only based on the fact that we knew the washing machine was causing this issue that allowed us to find the floor drain, as I had mentioned earlier the floor drain is not visible in the mechanical room as it is hidden underneath the furnace, you also cannot access the floor drain from the mechanical room. The drain cleaning technician he was able to locate a cleanout behind your fridge, he augured the line and pulled out a big hairball that fixed the issue and resolved the backing up drain. The main points I would like to highlight here that upon booking the original call we were asked to complete a leak investigation, we were not provided with any more information other than that. The information we are provided on that first call is crucial and will determine what type of technician (skillset) is dispatched to your property, based on the information provided we dispatched a plumber and not a drain cleaning technician (had we been provided with the key information that the water occurred when the washing machine was running this would have prompted us to send a drain cleaning technician as this would have meant that a drain was causing the issue). As we didn’t have that information the plumber came in and did a thorough and detailed investigation into the cause of the water, as there was no active leak he advised to keep an eye on things and update us if it continues to happen, a side note here to say that if by random chance the first technician had figured out that it was the floor drain then he would have still had to call in another technician as he doesn’t have the equipment or correct skill set to deal with a backing-up drain, again as the notes provided did not warrant a drainage tech. So no matter the situation in this case without the information regarding the washing machine upon booking the call we would still be in the same situation and the charges would have been exactly the same. At Milani we truly care about customer service, we provide efficient service to the highest quality and stand behind our work wholeheartedly. When we make a mistake, which I am happy to say is a rare occurrence, we put our hands up and make the situation right no matter what. With that said when we provide our standard high level of service, we have 2 great technicians on-site and resolve the issues you face then we also stand behind our work and our technicians, based on my investigation we did everything right in this instance based on the information we provided and all charges are valid. I just want to add that you had also posted this complaint on our BBB platform and I have offered as a gesture of goodwill a credit that will be added to your account for $208.95 for any future, plumbing, drainage or HVAC work. I would be happy to discuss this situation further if you wish and can be reached at 604-430-2603. Warmest regards, Ryan P.