Southern Irrigation is a complete joke and a total ripoff. They’ve “serviced” our house multiple times, but their so-called professional technician completely botched the winterization. He only shut off the above-ground valve on the backflow leg and didn’t touch the underground valve like every other normal house has. Because of their incompetence, the pipe froze and burst right below the valve they DID shut off. We called them to fix their own screw-up, and these company had the nerve to send us a $484 bill for repairs! When I called to demand why we were being charged for their mistake after paying them to winterize properly, their rep Shauna was an absolute nightmare. She started yelling, got extremely rude, and told me it wasn’t her problem that our house had a valve on the backflow leg, that I needed to get with whoever had that valve on the backflow, as she kept on trying to explain to me in a very aggressive way how that was not her problem and I told her she was wasting my time and that was not the way to run a company, she responded that I was the one wasting her time, Then she told me she was gonna transfer me and hung up on me. Stay far away from Southern Irrigation. Incompetent, rude, and unprofessional office staff who refuse to take responsibility for their errors. Absolute garbage service. I don’t know if Shauna is the owner or an employee but she does not need to be in customer service at all!!
We take customer concerns seriously; however, this review contains a number of accusations and characterizations that do not accurately reflect what occurred. First, Southern Irrigation has winterized this particular irrigation system one time. During that winterization, our technician shut the irrigation system off at the visible shutoff valve provided for the system. What was later discovered is that this property has two shutoff valves, including a secondary underground shutoff that is not visible from the surface. This is not a typical configuration, Southern Irrigation did not install this system, and we were not provided information indicating that a second concealed shutoff existed. When a system has a clearly visible shutoff, it is not standard practice for a technician to begin searching underground for an additional hidden valve without any indication that one exists. When the issue arose, one of our technicians—with more than 20 years of experience—returned to the property immediately, diagnosed the problem and completed the necessary repairs. The invoice referenced in this review was for that repair work. I would also like to address the description of our phone conversation because it is considerably different from my recollection of what occurred. I was patient while listening to both individuals on the call, who were understandably frustrated but were also extremely aggressive in their communication. They repeatedly spoke over one another and over me while blaming our “incompetent technician,” making it very difficult for me to respond or explain what had actually occurred. When I was finally given an opportunity to speak, I explained that the system had been winterized at the visible shutoff and that we could not reasonably have known there was an additional concealed underground shutoff when we did not install the system and had not been informed of its existence. I did not tell anyone that I simply “didn’t care” or that the situation was “not my problem.” I attempted to explain that the unusual configuration of a system we did not install cannot automatically be attributed to negligence by our technician. The issue was that you and your sister were not happy with the facts and that the repair needed to be done and was not our responsibility due to the original installation of the backflow/irrigation system. It is also important to clarify that the individual who posted this review does not reside at the property in question and was not our customer at this address, but chose to become involved in the dispute on behalf of the resident. We completely understand that receiving an unexpected repair bill is frustrating. However, frustration does not make it appropriate to publicly characterize a highly experienced technician as incompetent or to make accusations about our company that omit important facts about the property’s irrigation system. Southern Irrigation stands behind the professionalism and experience of our technicians, and we are comfortable allowing the facts of this situation to speak for themselves.