Greenwall Plumbing

GET OTHER BIDS BEFORE hiring Greenwall Plumbing!!!! Greenwall Plumbing started back in the 1950's in San Clemente when the town was almost a village. The founder and the company had a wonderful reputation for years and it was automatic to call them when you needed plumbing help. Presently, the company is operated by the 2nd generation, Sara Chavez is the listed owner and her husband, Tom Chavez is the CEO/President. We made a mistake this past week, but simply calling them and scheduling a new hot water tank to be installed in Capo Beach without getting other bids. That was our mistake and we must live by that mistake. But for those who reach this review, please go on Yelp and select the highest rated 3-5 plumbing companies (many are well established plumbing contractors with years of experience and have earned very high ratings on Yelp. The installation was installed by workman "Zach" and he is a nice guy, but he did not strap the tank as required by law and people on site have made claims he did not do other "normal" procedures. Outside of the straps we are not sure if the other observations from the people onsite is accurate, but we do plan to have another plumber come out and check the work in the coming weeks (We paid the invoice in full, but there is a 60-day warranty). After Zach left the property the company started asking for payment. Then my wife called and spoke to company owner, Sara and asked her if "Straps were required on hot water tanks to make them earthquake safe." The owner (Sara) responded, she did not know if this was a requirement. It seemed very strange that the business owner of a plumbing company would not know if hot water tanks required to be strapped. She had Zach call my wife back and he said he knew the tank needed straps, but he did not have the correct materials when he first came out. Zach completely contradicted what the business owner told my wife (she did not know if straps were needed). Keep in mind, that Zach did the work in less than two hours on the first visit and it was his mistake he could not strap the tank at the scheduled appointment. Someone questioned my wife about paying $2,150 for installing a 40gal tank. As a result, I went on yelp and selected the five highest rated plumbing companies on Yelp and gave them the exact specs for this install. I have them the model #, size and everything else. Within eight hours we had five bids with the highest being $1299.00. Initially when the tank was not strapped and my wife called Sara and Zach she told them her brother who lived at the site was disabled and on a fixed income. As a result, they dropped the price by $100 to $2050. After receiving the five bids (all from highly rated firms) my wife sent an email to the owner, Sara Chavez and asked her to contact her. Instead of the owner calling back, she had workman Zach call. This is a very bad business practice. It makes you conclude that Greenwall is too big in their minds to call and talk to an upset customer. My wife told Zach that the tank he installed is offered on sale for $500-700 and the rest is labor. She told him that the other quality contractors would have charged $1050 to $1299. Zach said the job was complex, but remember he was only at the property for two hours. The difference of $750 ($1299 vs. $2050) could not be attributed to labor as he was only there for two hours. He said their truck has costs and while we see other contractors charging a truck fee of $85, even if you throw that in we over paid by at least $700. As a result, my wife decided to offer to Greenwall to split the difference of the $750 and asked for a $375 discount. She also asked to speak to the owner, but again the owner (Sara Chavez) refused to talk with her and through Zach decided to decline the offer. My wife paid the invoice in full. Our conclusion is that anyone who thinks this is the same company that existed for decades has got to understand it is not. The issues will quality mistakes were not acceptable (and honestly, the people on site still think there are other issues that were not done properly, but we have no way to verify this until we get another plumber out there to inspect). The biggest issue is that Greenwall charged an extra $700+ for labor on a two-hour job as compared to what the top-rated plumbers on yelp charge. We strongly suggest that everyone thinking of hiring Greenwall should GET OTHER BIDS BEFORE HIRING GREENWALL. That was a costly mistake we made. We simply knew the company for decades and trusted them that their pricing was competitive and we were very wrong with that assessment.