A restaurant objected to paying twice in a week to have a drain unclogged. The plumber then decided to plug it himself

A Thai restaurant and a plumbing company in Indiana are facing off after a plumber returned to re-clog a pipe over a disputed bill.

Jesse Sanders, Thai Bistro & Bar operations manager, told local news outlet WFIE that their Evansville restaurant recently called Heavrin Plumbing to un-clog a blocked grease trap. That first bill was $235. But the clog returned three days later, and Sanders called Heavrin Plumbing again. After the second job, the new bill was $390 because the plumber returned on overtime, WFIE reports.

The restaurant didn’t pay the bill immediately because they wanted clarity on why they were charged twice for the same issue, Sanders said in a statement to The Independent.

The next day, Heavrin Plumbing returned and re-clogged the grease trap with a balloon, telling the restaurant they wouldn’t remove it until the bill was paid, WFIE reported.

“We were never refusing to pay — we were asking for clarity. The same issue returned shortly after the initial service, and we felt it was fair to question whether the return was due to the quality of the work, especially since this was our first clog in nearly a year,” Sanders told The Independent.

“I’m confident that if we had been given ample time to think it through and discuss the invoice, we would have come to an agreement — especially since we’ve always paid him in the past,” he added.

Heavrin Plumbing owner Joel Heavrin told WFIE the company doesn’t offer warranties on drain cleaning.

“I don’t have a magic wand I can wave and remove all the garbage and debris the drain line,” Heavrin said. “What we can do is, we can snake it; we can make sure that it’s open and working correctly. Which is what we did.”

Still, the restaurant was baffled when the pipe was re-clogged.

“The following day we received a text message saying that he’s on our property,” Sanders told WFIE. “He put a balloon into our grease trap, and he’s not going to remove it until we pay.”

The plumber told Sanders he would be leaving for the weekend in one hour, WFIE reports.

“If we were to leave the balloon in there, it would overflow the restaurant with water, dirty water from the grease trap,” Sanders added. “Basically, we would’ve had to shut down.”

Heavrin told WFIE the restaurant had a history of paying late in the past. The restaurant disputed this claim in a statement on Facebook.

“We have paid all of our bills. We operate on NET 15 or NET 30 terms, meaning invoices are paid by their due dates—including the plumbing invoice (which is on a Net 15),” the restaurant’s statement reads. “Nothing is outstanding or past due. Nothing is overdue, and I’m more than willing to share proof if needed.”

Sanders called the police, asking them to mediate the situation, WFIE reports. The Evansville Police Department said similar matters are typically decided in small claims court, but Heavrin said he didn’t want to go that far.

“Frankly it was not worth me pursuing it in court,” he says. “It was not worth my time, just wasn’t worth it for me.”

Ultimately, the plumber removed the blockage and the restaurant paid the bill, but marked it as “paid under protest.”

“As a small business owner, I believe we had every right to question a charge that felt unnecessary,” the restaurant stated. “We weren’t trying to cause conflict—we were simply asking for fairness.”