Tanner Merritt

TL;DR: Paid $307 for a quick water softener check that didn’t include everything I asked for, and was quoted $330 to replace a “broken” faucet that just needed a bolt tightened. When my family moved to Jacksonville, we bought a house that already had a water softener. We’d never lived anywhere that needed one before, but pretty quickly learned they’re common here and in a lot of Florida, basically a must. I’m not a home improvement expert by any means, but I can handle most small stuff, and if not, there’s always YouTube. I knew nothing about water softeners though, and every video I watched seemed to say something different. The previous owner had left the receipt and warranty info from Fenwick Plumbing, who installed the system in late 2024, so I figured I’d just call them. I reached out to have someone come take a look, make sure everything was good, clean the brine tank, and just walk me through how it all worked. The phone rep quoted me $89 for a service fee, which I was fine with. When the technician showed up, he said he was actually the one who installed it before, which I thought was a good sign. He pointed out some salt residue on the outside of one of the tanks and said he wanted to check for leaks. Fair enough. He also said he’d test the water and show me how to use the system. I mentioned I wanted the brine tank cleaned since there was buildup, and also showed him a runoff hose outside that had broken and was letting water pool near the foundation. He said he wouldn’t replace the hose but would cut me the right length so I could fix it myself. That seemed easy enough, so I agreed. For everything, he quoted $307. He was there maybe 20 to 30 minutes total, said the water tested fine, showed me how to use the softener, dumped in two bags of salt I already had sitting there, and cut about 6 feet of ½” tubing. While he was there, he also pointed out that my kitchen faucet was leaking under the sink. It hadn’t been going on long, there was just a little water built up. He told me the faucet was bad and needed to be replaced, and said he’d send over a quote if I wanted them to install one I provided. I already know how to replace a faucet, but I said yes just to see what they’d come back with. Here’s where I have an issue. I’m not even mad about the $307. I agreed to it, and in hindsight I probably should’ve just figured it out myself. Water softeners seemed intimidating at first, so lesson learned. What does bother me is that the brine tank was never cleaned, even though I specifically asked for it and considering what was actually done, figured that would have been the least they could have done. And the bigger issue, my “broken faucet” just needed a bolt tightened on the sprayer handle. Took me less than a minute, including grabbing pliers. Their quote to replace the faucet I was supposed to supply? $330. I’m just putting this out there so other people are aware. In my experience, they made things sound a lot more serious and urgent than they actually were, to the point of quoting over $330 for a full faucet replacement when it was a one-minute fix.

← Back to all reviews