Rubens Plumbing

We called around and received several bids to install a replacement fiberglass bathtub that we had purchased. The new tub was the same size as the old tub, with the exact same footprint.

The best price from known sources was HomeDepot, where we purchased the tub, but it was still a bit high for our budget.

Ruben bid exactly half of that price, so we made an appointment for him to install.

First, He made the appointment for 9 am. At 10 am, I called and he said he was on the way. He showed up a half-hour later, which means that he didn't even leave his house until after I called.

Then, when he walked in the door before he did anything, he doubled his price. He was there, and we had missed the window to get Home Depot to install, so we said okay.

The new tub had pvc "legs" to level the tub. Ruben refused to level it, so one end sticks up above the counter about a quarter inch.

His apprentice did 95% of the work and did a sloppy job. He cut a hole in my wood subfloor and was just going to leave it until I insisted that if he wasn't going to do anything, I wanted to staple hardware cloth over the hole. Ruben made his apprentice do it instead. This minimal effort did not stop the drafts. If they had not thrown away the piece that was sawed out of my floor, it would have been more appropriate to fill the hole.

When the tub was installed (without leveling) and the apprentice had to finish caulking, Ruben told me that he needed to pick up his child from school and wanted to be paid before he left. He took the check directly to my bank and cashed it for cash (the time/date stamp shows that he must have sped to get there so quick).

Meanwhile, the apprentice did a horrible caulking job and then tried to rinse it off his hands in my bathroom sink. When I caught him, I stopped him and told him that acetone would do a better job. Meanwhile, I have hardened caulk in my bathroom sink that causes water back-up whenever the sink is used. I've tried several times, using everything from scrub brushes to acetone, to clean up the mess of caulking that was left on and around my tub; none have worked so far.

Ruben is deceptive, lazy, and a liar. I would not recommend this plumber to my worse enemy.