Benjamin Franklin Plumbing

My wife hired these people to service my elderly mother's water heater. She's 83 years old, stubborn, and ridiculously indpendent...so it was difficult enough to get her to agree to us helping out. My intention was to purchase a water heater and have someone install it. However, when it rains...it pours and I while I was handling another life complication...my wife took it upon herself to "make things easier for me" and find a reputable company to do the work. She chose Benjamin Franklin because their vans are everywhere and because "Google had great reviews." Do yourself a favor and read the negative reviews...like this one. These people sent a technician out to my mother's house that quoted my wife $468 to repair a 10 year old, 40 gallon water heater. Go look at how much a new one costs. Talking with my mom, who is fairly frugal and has been around the block a few times, she tried to intervene and advise my wife NOT to pay for this service. She was going to find a cheaper alternative. Apparently, the technician "out talked" my mother, got her to be quiet, and continued the conversation with my wife (who was on the phone, and not in person). My wife paid the money and the technician installed the part, serviced the water heater, and charged our account for the service. But wait! There's more! This "repair" failed to resolve the issue because the pilot light would not ignite on the old water heater (not the problem we reported initially BTW). The technician quoted my wife ANOTHER $800 for a part to fix this and get this...a 2 week delay on part delivery because, forget your old momma taking cold showers. She'll be aiite. WE NEED THESE PROFITS SON! BEN FRANKS NEEDS THEM BEN FRANKS! My wife was hesitant to pay because, thank God, her financial sensitivity meter eventually hit its ridiculously high tolerance, and she started asking questions about the cost. Citing city codes, and parts, and paperwork, and complications, and anything else he could pull out of his Bat-Utility Belt, the technician attempted to manipulate her with a $2500 quote JUST for installing a new water heater. Well sure...$2500 plus the cost of a new water heater vs. $800 for this part and a hassle-free installation? My wife finally decided that that mmmmmmaybe she should talk to my mother and me and figure out the best option. I advised her to send that crook on his way and we decided we'd rather get worked over by a major retailer. At least we would be able to pull out a Karen Card and possibly get some customer service. At a minimum, it's probably not ok to quote someone for a simple repair and then "discover" that they'll need to pay 3x the initial quote for an antiquated appliance that needs replacing. Moral of the story - GO AND READ THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS ON THIS COMPANY ON EVERY WEBSITE. These leeches feed on rich people with deep pockets and don't care about anyone else. Also, please talk to your significant other prior making large purchases. We have plenty of money, but I can think of a better use for freaking almost $500 than slapping a new part on a busted hunk of junk that's going to the side of the road in less than 2 weeks. ***Incoming response to this review: "We're sorry that blah blah blah...we at Benjamin Franklin...blah blah blah...our costs are due to...blah blah blah blah...it is unfortunate that...blah blah blah blah...what was actually quoted to you was...blah blah blah blah...and due to blah blah blah...it would actually cost you BLAH BLAH DANG BLAH." Sorry, but this is trash service and you know it. There are a million companies that can overcharge you and do this same work. If it's all the same, my advice is that you not roll the dice on these people and FIND ***ANY*** OTHER COMPANY.

We started using them a year and a half ago. They're A's all the way down, They're awesome. They come. They're just wonderful. They help us with issues that we may have. They're not afraid of giving us a tip, if its something they think that we can do. They're just great. I'm really, really lucky to have some good subs. Its a time consuming job because you got to get in there, some times you have to cut a wall out to get to it, you know that kind of stuff. They do a great job. They're professional, they're timely. Again, they clean up. They are fantastic and I highly recommend them.

I had a plumber in the week before that repaired some stuff but only made my problems worse. I found out that the other guy (a friend of a friend) who wasn't even legal. I wasn't there when he did the work. He didn't even drive a truck. I was quoted $1600 with Ben Franklin for all of the work to fix what the other guy did and replace my water heater. I didn't want to pay that much (since I already paid $600 to the other guy). They came out and fixed everything the other guy did plus replaced my water heater with a bigger one and only charged me $1200. Joanna from the office was nice and kept me up on everything that was being done. I'm still out the $600 from the other guy but I will use Ben Franklin again!

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I contacted them about a leaky toilet drain in my rental. They called my son (tenant), promising a morning visit. He waited all day, and the tech never called, and never showed. I called them, and was promised a call back from the tech. The call never came, and the tech never visited. Their phone number is a central call center, not a local office. For a company that mainly advertises punctuality, this is outrageous. I will never call them again.

Let me begin by saying that the staff was very punctual and very nice! However, the estimate to install a water heater was WAAAAAAAAAAAY to high! We will not call on them again. When we offered to purchase the water heater from Lowe's ourselves and have them install it, the cost of the installation went up 50% which was high to begin with. When we checked on line, the cost of the water heater they were selling ($1100 for a 50 gallon tank) was 2 times as much as the high quality one we bought tht had a 12 year warranty ($550). We could understand a 10% markup, but not a 100% markup and we couldn't understand the reasoning behind the differential in the cost of installation of buying the water heater from them versus our buying the water heater on our own.

unknown

I could not believe the price, there wasn't anything major that they had to do at all. I felt like I was paying Benjamin Franklin and whoever they contracted out, it was very high. They did mess something up, so I had to have them back.

Everything went perfectly fine. It was all done very quickly. They also inspected my plumbing and water pressure to make sure we didn't have the same issue again.

I am not sure if I would use them again because I would like to start using local people. I only picked them because I knew they were familiar with the house. I liked the plumber. He was very friendly. I did not really like the prices or anything.

The property had been abandoned for roughly 2 years leading to degradation of the plumbing. When called the plumber arrived with 5 minutes of the time they said they would be there. Inspected house and gave three estimates. I chose to purchase my own toilets and vanity and have them install with one year warranty on the labor. On the next day, they arrived within 5 minutes of the agreed start time. Upon completion water was turned on and the old hot water heater starting leaking. Plumber cleaned it up and offered 3 estimates on a new hot water heater. I went with a 50 gal 6 yr model. On the next day, a Saturday no less, they arrived early to remove the old water heater and install the new one. After installation was completed, plumber checked all faucets and connections in the house. He cleaned up any and all messes. He was very polite, punctual, and worked with my schedule without question. I will gladly use this company again for all my plumbing needs.

Benjamin Franklin Plumbing advertises on television and I had gotten with them. I had a busted water pipe and they came out and did the work, but then I had an incident where my commode was stopped up. They had been out here one time before and I think it was pertaining to my sink. I had a leak up under the sink or something, but this time my commode was stopped up and so I called to make the appointment and I told them what it was. The guy came and like he was doing things and I'm thinking he was going to take care of the problem or whatever and he told me that he couldn't fix the commode but he wanted to charge me a hundred and something dollars. I said, "Wait a minute, what do you mean a hundred and something dollars? You didn't unstop the commode." I had some friends who did plumbing on the side and I told them about it and they told me exactly what he needed to do to unplug it, but in the meantime he's telling me he can't unstop my commode but he was going to try to sale me a commode and wanted to make an appointment to come out and put a new commode in. I called the company and I told them that I'm a consumer just like you and I could see if there was a service charge, but they were trying to charge me a hundred and something dollars for something they didn't do. They didn't do anything, so I kind of like fell out behind this. All the guy needed to do was something simple, just unscrew those two screws on the bottom of the commode, take the water out of the tank, take the water out of the commode and turn it on its side. They have some type of tool you could stick up underneath the commode and pull whatever it is that was under there out. When I found out exactly what could have been done I felt like he was trying to get over on me, so I won't be calling them any more. I went ahead and paid him but I knew I was going to be calling the company. It was only after I talked to some coworkers that I found out what it was that he had to do and what he should have done, but he was going to charge me and he didn't do the job. I guess maybe he thought I wasn't too smart or something. If he had done the job I would have had no problem with the price, but how are you going to charge me the full price when you didn't unstop the commode and then he tried to sale me a commode and make an appointment to have it installed. I just thought maybe he was probably lazy to be honest. They came right out but they didn't do the job and in this incident they weren't too professional.