1ST CHOICE SEWER & DRAIN

While trying to replace a spigot outside our 60+ year old galvanized pipe broke. This pipe provided water to our home. We called another company but they couldn't come out until hours later. So, we called 1st choice plumbing and someone did come within an hour of our call. He was a very nice young man who said he could fix the pipe for $97. I said okay but he told my husband that he could get another company to do it cheaper, so my husband decided to get a quote from another company. Well, that company came over and quoted us nearly $400. So, we called 1st Choice again and requested the same plumber we had seen before. Instead they sent over someone else and he said that the job was $255. We showed him the estimate from the previous plumber and he said that the previous plumber didn't write everything down correctly so that estimate was invalid. I felt that this was a classic bait and switch but we were desperate 8 hours without any water is difficult. We agreed to have him fix it. He began work and then disappeared for a little more than 2 hours. Then showed back up again and finally completed the work. The work was good I just would never hire them again for the deception on the price and for not promptly completing the work.

Please note that the office I dealt with is in Stockton ,CA.The people at the office were very professional and polite. The plumber they sent out was the opposite. I told him where I heard the sound of rushing water. I told him when we first started filling paper work out that I was not the owner of the house. He left muddy boot marks all throughout my house. He told me not to worry about it he would clean it all up.He repeatedly would walk me outside to show me what the problem was(hot water running) walking out to the water meter to show me how the arrow was going around.I already knew this. The next time he told me to come outside because he AGAIN wanted to show me the water meter. Well his compressor went on and then I heard water. Well he had left the faucet for my washer connection on and soaked the laundry room. He never found the leak. He then proceeded to lie to the owner of the house when she contacted him and said I never advised him that I wasn't the owner of the house. My mom came during the time he was there and he proceeded to tell her what the problem was and came in my livingroom to chat about his family problems with her. He finally decided to close the call since he couldn't find the leak and charged me $400 for leak detection service. He also had unhooked my washer(front loader) and when he went to rehook it up he proceeded to tell me that the washer had been hooked up wrong. That the hot water always goes on the left and the cold always goes on the right and that my washer had been hooked up wrong. I pulled it out when he left and looked at the stickers on the back of the washer and HE was the one who hooked it up wrong because on my washer his rule doesn't apply. So I had to unhook the washer and hook it up correctly. I also am planning on shampooing all of my carpet because he left my son to clean up his shoe prints and they didn't come up. He spent so much time telling us his story of colon cancer and surgeries and his daughter, his cell phone. Meanwhile I am paying by the hour. So to sum up this "plumbers" visit, I payed $400 for him to dirty my carpets, tell me his life story, soak my laundry room and NEVER find the leak which is what he was being paid to do.

Both toilets in my house were backed last night - I had hoped that everything would "loosen up" overnight. Things were just as bad in the morning. I called 1st Choice at 7:11AM, and the phone was answered on the second ring. After calling around, the service manage told me he would have a plumber here by 8:10AM. His man arrived about 8:00AM, explained the pricing structure, explained the probable cause of the problem, gave me an estimate, and went to work once I signed off on the estimate. He augured out the main drain. We tested the toilets, noticed that they were still draining slowly. He then augured out the toilets. This helped some, but did not seem to totally solve the problem. The service man then augured out the main drain line again, then ran water down it to make certain the line was clear. The toilets still flush a little slowly. The service man recommended that at this point either he could pull the toilets and auger those lines, or that if I had the time I could do it myself. He gave recommendations on materials I would need to do the job myself, including cautions to make certain that all the parts were in the kits he recommended (I've seen people take nuts and bolts out of the packaging at hardware stores, so I know you have to check to make sure). He also advised that if the line clogs again within a few months that the grade on the main line may have disappeared due to soil settlement, which would require first a camera to be inserted to inspect the line (he gave me an estimate, though I chose at this time not to have it done) and then depending on conditions it could require digging up the sewer connection and reworking the pipes. The plumber/service man was pretty knowledgeable, and kept me informed of what he was doing/suspecting the entire time. If I require further work to be done, I would be happy to have this company perform it. It may depend on whether my house insurance will need to get involved, as the problem seems to center around some piping that my insurance had replaced 8-10 years ago.

1st Choice was the only local plumbers I could get to come out the same day I called (Saturday). They responded within 50 minutes, quickly diagnosed and fixed the problem. They didn't charge me an arm & leg. Patrick was the guy that did the work. He was very professional and thorough. Great job!

Work was started the next day and completed the following day. We waited another day for the county inspectors to review the work. The workers were easy to communicate with. I trusted that they were knowledgeable, skilled, and experienced. Their diagnosis fit what I could see. And our toilets flow nicely now. They did good work.