Trusted a 5-star review for a plumber, got burned with a $800 surprise

Last month my bathroom sink started leaking bad, so I checked the local shop listings on a popular review site. One guy had almost 200 ratings and a 4.9 average, all saying he showed up on time and fixed stuff quick. I called him, he quoted $150 over the phone, and I thought okay, that's fair. When he got here, he poked around for 10 minutes then said the whole pipe under the cabinet was corroded and needed replacing, which jumped the bill to $800. He even showed me a photo of some green crusty pipe, but I can't tell if that was even mine. Turns out, if I'd looked deeper into the reviews, there were 3 separate one-star complaints about the exact same bait-and-switch tactic, but they were buried on page 4. I asked him why he didn't mention that on the phone and he just shrugged. Has anyone else had a supposedly great rating turn out to be a sales gimmick like that, and how do you filter through the fake five-stars?

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