Customer Review #1:
Date Entered: 2020-09-14
Job description: Water and sewage repairs
Overall experience: bad
How much were you charged? $17,000
Was the charge fair? unfair
Comment: Rodney Lane Morales is NOT licensed to do plumbing in the state of Georgia, which I only found out after he charged in advance and never returned to do any work and refunsed to refund me. It turns out he has a massive history of this, as below. He operates under these names:
A1 Best Plumbing Services / A-1 Best Service / A-1 Best Plumbing & Septic / A-1 Best Services & Easy Plumbing
1247 Athens Rd
Winterville, GA 30683
https://porch.com/winterville-ga/plumbers/a-easy-plumbing-and-septic/pp https://www.facebook.com/A1-Best-Plumbing-Services-105067910916239/ https://www.facebook.com/rodney.morales.9699 https://www.facebook.com/pg/A1-Best-Plumbing-Services-105067910916239/reviews/?ref=page_internal
He also seems to still be claiming he is a Atlanta area plumber here:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/A1-Best-Plumbing-Services-105067910916239/reviews/?ref=page_internal https://aonebestplumbing.wixsite.com/a1bestservices
I have since been unable to find any current licenses for his business in the state of Georgia, Athens-Clarke County nor Winterville, all of which require them for plumbing works. I am in the process of reporting him to the Better Business Bureau, the state licensing board and various other authorities and am about to file a small claims court action in an attempt to be repaid my money, although I doubt this will succeed as he has numerous small claims court judgements against him already from his Gwinnett days of which I have obtained a copy. I also intend to notify the police in Athens-Clarke County (which covers his current address) in case I have a claim for fraud.
He is most likely operating the same advance payment scam against others as he has done me.
He has had multiple arrests for various offenses.
https://jailalert.com/arrest-search/
Inmate Name Year of Birth Arrest Date Arresting Institution State
Rodney Morales n/a 05/26/2015 Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office GA
Rodney Morales n/a 03/01/2016 Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office GA
Rodney Morales n/a 11/16/2015 Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office GA
Rodney Morales n/a 12/14/2015 Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office GA
He was the subject of a major Atlanta TV news report in 2016 for the same cons, yet is still able to practice them in 2020.
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/plumber-accused-of-scamming-customers-1/112635365
Author: Jon Shirek
Published: 6:34 PM EDT March 31, 2016
Updated: 7:23 PM EDT March 31, 2016
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GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. – A plumber accused of taking customers’ money and not doing the work is now in jail -- on an unrelated charge of aggravated stalking.
Rodney Morales had already earned an “F” from the Better Business Bureau before the criminal charge arose.
Sam Freeman of Lawrenceville said he had had a leak coming from his garage ceiling, so he called Morales -- who was doing business as Paige Plumbing -- based on favorable, word-of-mouth online reviews that Freeman saw.
Morales told him the upstairs toilet was leaking.
"He convinced us that it'd be cheaper to just buy a whole new toilet,” Freeman said. Freeman bought the new toilet, but it didn’t stop the leak.
Morales came back to the house and said the leak was coming from another part of the upstairs bathroom.
He tore up custom tiles to get to the pipes.
"His conclusion is that we need to replace all of the copper piping, which, of course, is expensive,” Freeman said.
Freeman paid Morales $760 as a first payment, but Morales never came back to fix the leak and Freeman could not reach him.
It was a similar situation for Brian Gardner, whose house was flooding. He said that he paid Morales $1,500 to fix the drainage, but the house still floods in the rain.
Paige Plumbing has had a rating of F from the Better Business Bureau since October 2014, but people who didn't think to check the BBB instead often relied on word of mouth online reviews and hired Morales -- to their regret.
One customer who sued Morales says he's still trying to get back the $1,500 dollars he says he paid for work that Morales never completed. He filed the claim in 2006. He says Morales insisted he didn't have the money to pay him back, but then Morales hired a lawyer to fight the claim and has been fighting it now for 10 years.
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Customer Review #2:
Date Entered: 2021-01-12
Job description: Septic repair
Overall experience: bad
How much were you charged? $12000
Was the charge fair? unfair
Comment: Had to give $3500 upfront. Then never returns calls, voicemail always full. Paid down-payment back in June 2020 now January 2021. No work has been done still having issues with septic. Voicemail full and never returns calls. Always has an excuse as to why stuff isn't done.
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Customer Review #3:
Date Entered: 2021-01-16
Job description: Plumbing overflow
Overall experience: bad
How much were you charged? $20,000
Was the charge fair? unfair
Comment: Google Rodney Morales before you hire him or A-1 Services! I own a gym and contracted them on 10/28/20 to help with an overflow. After over 1mo, our bathrooms are still not working. He promises over and over that he will fix them but doesn’t show up, and if he does it’s just to make a mess, and then leaves and doesn’t return for days. We paid him $20k already and he still hasn’t completed the job, and our members have been without a bathroom for over 1mo now. It’s now 12/3/20, and he still hasn’t completed it and left our bathrooms in a mess the last time he was here, over a week ago (see pic). He gives every excuse for why he doesn’t show up, sick/deaths in family/car accident/transmission dropped out of car/too cold outside/you name it! STAY FAR AWAY! Now he cashed another $1500 check that was not supposed to be cashed and won’t answer when we try to reach him. Complete SCAM ARTIST! Again LOOK HIS NAME UP BEFORE YOU HIRE HIM!!!! We now have to pay another Comany $12,500 to fix the poor “work” he started and never completed! SCAM ARTIST!!!!
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