It can be really hard to find contractors you can trust. It seems that a lot of contractors are really scam artists in disguise.

What would you do if you hired someone to help you with a kitchen remodel but they claimed you needed something else to be fixed? Would you believe them, or would you report them?

In today’s story, one homeowner encounters a plumber who tries to scam him. He doesn’t fall for it. Instead, he does some research and gets very satisfying payback on the plumber.

Let’s see what he does.

Turned the tables on a scamming plumber

Hired a plumbing company for a kitchen remodel. They sent a young guy for several days work.

Plumber notifies me that the furnace exhaust flue is corroded and installed “backwards”.

He wasn’t hired to mess with the furnace but says this is something he is supposed to check.

Company owner calls me, tells me that for $1800 he can fix the flue, and threatens to “red tag” the furnace in the middle of a Vermont winter.

OP did some research.

So, I sent the flue manufacturer pictures of the flue and the manufacturer verified that the stainless steel flue is not corroded and is not installed backwards.

Now I know this is a scam.

Here’s where it gets good.

The state has an online database of certified plumbers and the young plumber is not on the list. It is illegal for a non certified and unsupervised plumber to work on a house in our state.

Time to make the plumbing company owner really worry!

So, I called the owner and asked him who to contact to verify that the plumber is certified, knowing that he is not certified.

Boy, did that owner start kissing up.

I hung up on the owner and let him sweat the fine and sanctions if I turned him in for the violation.

When I got the bill for the job I sent a payment for what I thought the job was worth.

A little research really saved this homeowner a lot of money. Hopefully that scamming plumber learned his lesson.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person shares what they did when their furnace got red tagged.

He shouldn’t let the plumber get away with this scam.

This person doesn’t think he should’ve paid anything at all.

It’s not too late to report him.

This person rants about Vermont.

Always be wary of a plumber trying to upsell you.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.