Kutscher Drilling, Ltd

Be prepared for surprises when they send you the bill! They won’t tell you if they replace parts while diagnosing if each is less than $500. They tried to charge us $300 for an expansion tank that didn’t fix the problem (we bought our own tank for $100), but on our bill, they charged $400 for a transducer, that didn’t fix the problem. Short version: Our well is 8 years old. A year ago, they replaced our motor (they said the pump was good) and that bill was $3,200. There were charges on there we did not know about, but we paid it. Now, our well stopped working again, and we called them. Both times we were right next to them, we were part of the process and asked questions. This time they could not figure out what was wrong after hours of testing and diagnosing, and they told us that they had to pull the pump and motor again. When we agreed, they pulled it and said the pump (which was good a year ago) now had to be replaced. We agreed to replace it, they put everything back together, and it worked with the new pump. But then our $3,400 bill includes a $400 transducer they hadn’t told us about, and which was NOT the issue, our issue was a bad pump (which again, a year ago THEY said was good). DJ and his crew that came out were really nice and we appreciate that they got our water working twice. But the office and their practices, that’s a different story. Long version: We bought a 6 year old house. After 1 year in the house, our well stopped pumping. We found out Kutscher Drilling had done the install, so we had them come out. After some diagnostics, they told us they had to pull our pump. The crew was great, they took care of the problem, and $3,200 later we had water again. The whole time they were here, we were with them, asked questions, and were engaged throughout. Then 14 months later our well stops pumping again. We call them and they came quickly. But after hours of diagnosing and testing, they could not tell us what was wrong. They check the expansion tank and tell us we need a new one (see above). Apparently, they did the same with a $400 transducer, except they didn’t tell us about it, and it did not fix the problem. Then they tell us we have to pull the pump and motor again. We agreed, knowing we committed to another big expense, but this time they tell us it’s the pump that has gone bad (remember we just replaced the motor a year ago). They offered to rebuild the pump, and after waiting for an hour they say the rebuild would be $1,200 to $1,400 with no warranty, so we decided to pay $1,800 for a new pump with 5-year warranty. They put things back together with the new pump, and voila, we have water again. Once again, we were with them watching what they did. Before the crew left, we confirmed what they had done and what we can expect on the bill, no mention of the transducer or $200 in other parts. Then we get the bill by email, and this time it’s $3,400 and it has the items the crew did not tell us about. We emailed the office, and they tell us the crew usually doesn’t tell homeowners when they replace things less than $500. So basically, they can rack up $2000 in 4 little items while diagnosing before they even get to what the problem is. In our case, the office tells us they replaced the transducer, but the crew didn’t tell us about it, and when we questioned the charge, they said that it was after they replaced the pump, that the well didn’t work so they had to replace the transducer. I was there, and that is not true. But even if it was, then they would have done a $3,000 job when all they needed to do was replace a transducer. And when we said to bring us the old transducer, they said they likely threw it away, but now that we questioned them, they said they would bring “our old” transducer to show us it’s not working, but we have to pay a trip fee. How do we know they won’t bring any bad transducer. They don’t make sense, but you can’t reason with the office, they just want you to pay the bill. They also damaged the door to our well house, but when we brought it up to them twice, they ignored us.

Although they are very busy, they were able to squeeze us in on a well repair that same day! The workers were super professional and knowledgeable about their craft. I highly recommend them for any emergency or repairs in general!