Frequently Asked Questions

You describe your plumbing problem (text, photo, or video) and our AI — trained on thousands of real plumbing issues — classifies the problem, estimates the severity, and provides a recommended fix. The diagnosis typically takes under 30 seconds.

Our AI achieves over 90% category-level accuracy on common plumbing issues in internal testing. However, AI diagnoses are informational estimates only. A licensed plumber will always perform their own on-site inspection before beginning work.

If your plumber is 20 or more minutes past their ETA with no update or communication, the Destilus no-show policy automatically triggers: a $35 penalty is charged to the plumber, you receive a full refund option, and your job is re-dispatched to the next available plumber.

Your payment is held in Stripe-secured escrow and is never released to the plumber until you approve the completed work. If you have not approved, you can open a refund request at any time before approval. After approval, refunds are handled through our dispute process.

When you book a job, your payment is held by Stripe in escrow. The plumber can see the escrow amount but cannot access it. After the job is complete, you review before/after photos and either approve release or open a dispute. Funds are released only on your explicit approval.

Any plumber who is 20+ minutes late past their committed ETA with no update is automatically charged a $35 no-show penalty. You receive a full refund option and Destilus re-dispatches your job at no additional cost.

Apply at the Jobs page, upload your license and proof of insurance, pass our background check, and complete identity verification. Most applications are reviewed within 48 hours. Once verified, you'll receive a Verified badge and gain access to job listings.

Standard jobs carry a 15% platform commission taken from the job total at escrow release. Emergency jobs carry a 25% commission due to priority dispatch infrastructure costs. Pro Plan subscribers pay a reduced 9% commission on all job types.

The Pro Plumber Plan costs $49.99/month and reduces your commission to 9% per job — saving 6% on every standard job. Pro members also receive featured placement in search results, priority job notifications, a Verified Pro badge, dispute protection, and a dedicated account manager. If you do $835 or more per month in jobs, the Pro Plan pays for itself.

Destilus opens a formal dispute review. Both parties submit evidence (photos, messages, before/after documentation). A human reviewer assesses the dispute within 24–48 hours. During the dispute, escrow is frozen. If the dispute is resolved in your favor, funds are released in full.

If you are 20+ minutes past the committed ETA with no status update in the Destilus app, a $35 no-show penalty will be automatically charged to your account. Repeated no-shows may result in account suspension. You can always update your ETA in the job tracking screen to avoid triggering this.

After you mark a job complete and upload before/after photos, the homeowner receives a notification to review and approve. Upon their approval, escrow funds minus the platform commission are transferred to your connected Stripe account, typically within 1–2 business days.

As a homeowner, you authorize payment when confirming a booking. The funds are immediately held in escrow — you are not charged until the job is booked. You are never charged for a cancelled job before a plumber is dispatched, and escrow is fully refundable if the plumber no-shows.

Yes. All payments are processed and held by Stripe, a PCI DSS Level 1 certified payment processor. Destilus never stores your full card number. Funds held in escrow are protected by Stripe's fraud monitoring and are not accessible to the plumber until you approve.

Escrow is a neutral holding account managed by Stripe. When you pay for a job, the money goes into escrow — not directly to the plumber. The plumber can see the escrow amount as confirmation you've paid, but cannot receive the money until you approve the completed work.

Yes. After you approve the completed work, Destilus offers an optional tip screen where you can select 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, or a custom amount. 100% of the tip goes directly to your plumber — Destilus does not take any commission on tips.

No. The commission (15% standard, 25% emergency) is already reflected in the quote you see before confirming. There are no booking fees, service fees, or surcharges added at checkout. The only additional cost is the optional tip you choose after the job.

Destilus currently accepts USD only. We support all major credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. International cards may incur a small foreign transaction fee from your card issuer, but Destilus charges no additional currency conversion fees.

Destilus uses a custom fine-tuned multimodal model trained on over 50,000 labeled plumbing cases, combined with a large language model for natural language reasoning. The system accepts text descriptions, photos, and short video clips to classify issues and estimate repair complexity.

The AI returns a confidence score with every diagnosis. When confidence is above 85%, a full diagnosis and cost estimate are shown. When confidence is below 85%, the AI flags the result as uncertain and recommends an in-person assessment. You will always see the confidence level before booking.

The plumber always performs their own on-site inspection before beginning work. If the actual issue differs from the AI diagnosis, the plumber will provide a revised quote before proceeding. You are never locked into the AI estimate — you can accept or decline the revised quote.

Photos and videos you submit for diagnosis are stored temporarily to generate your diagnosis result. If you proceed to book a job, your media may be shared with the assigned plumber to help them prepare. You can request deletion of your media at any time via your account settings or by contacting support.

Great news — if the AI determines your issue is straightforward enough for a DIY repair, it will show you a free DIY card with step-by-step instructions, a tool list, and a cost estimate. There is no charge for a DIY diagnosis, and you are under no obligation to book a plumber.

Destilus treats the following as plumbing emergencies: burst or actively leaking pipes, sewage backup, no hot water (in winter), flooding, broken water main, and severe drain blockages causing backflow. Gas leaks and structural flooding are safety emergencies — call 911 first.

Yes — if you smell gas, see electrical hazards near water, or face immediate risk of injury, call 911 immediately and leave the property. Destilus provides plumber matching, not emergency services. For life-threatening situations, always contact emergency services first.

Emergency jobs carry a 25% commission instead of the standard 15%. This reflects the cost of priority queue infrastructure, 24/7 dispatch operations, and guaranteed 45-minute SLA. There is no separate dispatch fee charged to homeowners — the 25% is built into the job total.

For emergency jobs, Destilus guarantees a 45-minute service-level agreement (SLA) from booking confirmation in covered areas. If no plumber accepts your job within 15 minutes, the job is automatically escalated to premium dispatch partners. You will receive live ETA tracking once a plumber is assigned.

Go to the Support page and use the form on the right side. Select your issue type, include the Job ID if applicable, describe the situation, and set the urgency level. Cases are triaged within 2 hours and a human agent reviews within 24 hours for all non-urgent cases, sooner for Urgent.

AI chat responses are instant. Formal support cases are reviewed by a human within 24 hours. Dispute resolutions (where escrow is involved) typically conclude within 48–72 hours. Urgent cases flagged at booking or involving safety concerns are escalated immediately.

Disputes are reviewed by trained Destilus Trust & Safety agents — not AI. Both parties submit evidence, and the agent makes a binding determination based on the documentation, before/after photos, job chat history, and platform policies. Determinations are typically issued within 48 hours.

Yes. If you are not satisfied with an AI chat response or an initial agent ruling, you can request escalation in the support case thread. Escalated cases are assigned to a senior agent. There is no limit on escalations, but repeated frivolous escalations may be reviewed under our abuse policy.

Do not approve escrow release if you are not satisfied. Open a dispute before approving. Once you submit evidence (photos, description), a Destilus agent will review within 48 hours. Depending on the outcome, you may receive a full refund, partial refund, or the plumber may be required to return and correct the work.