Sunkel Plumbing

***Update: I finally had a chance to talk to Jason, the owner. We had a very cordial conversation about the events in the OP. He was open to feedback. He apologized for the bad experience I had with his business, and he committed to taking it as a learning opportunity. While I still cannot recommend the business, I will say that Jason seems like a decent guy that cares deeply about his hard-earned reputation. Thanks for taking the time, Jason.*** Initial Review: I had a clogged tub drain. I needed it snaked. I've used national brands/franchises in the past for such needs, but I'm trying to be more conscious about shopping locally, so I googled "plumbers" and Sunkel had the best rating, so I called them and scheduled an appointment. So far, so good. The guy shows up, is amiable enough, we make small talk while he scopes out the situation. He punches a bunch of stuff into his mobile device...and spits out a quote for $550. I told him to get out of my house. He tries to back-pedal with "well, I can call my boss and see what we can do"...to which I say absolutely not. Your first offer should be your best offer. If it's not, I immediately have a trust issue...because it's a big red flag that you're trying to take advantage of the urgency involved in the situation. Then this joker has the beach ball-sized giblets to try to shake me down for $95 for...and yes, I quote..."coming to the door". 30 minutes after kicking this guy out of my house, I look out my front window and HE'S SITTING IN MY DRIVEWAY MESSING AROUND WITH HIS PHONE! I went outside and had to bang on the side of the truck to get his attention. I screamed "get the f--- off my property!!". He gave me a weird look and left. Cherry on top -- dude missed the driveway and now I have a big tire rut in my front yard...smh... So, what do I do? I call the office and ask for the boss. Receptionist Vicky (who was super helpful when scheduling the appointment) says he's busy. I say that's fine, I'll wait on hold. I hear an annoyed sigh (I can hear her rolling her eyes through the phone). She says I can't do that, she'll take a message. I told her the above situation. she said boss will call me back ASAP. That was 5 hours ago, not surprise, no call... So yeah, Sunkel just made my list of things to do. If she thought the first call was annoying...boy howdy, y'all are in for a treat!! So, resolution to the situation came when I called around to other local plumbers. Most couldn't do it on such short notice, but I eventually was able to get an extremely competent and find a company who sent a professional technician to my door to fix the situation inside of an hour for $220. $550 indeed, Sunkel. $550 indeed.

Contacted Sunkel based on very good Angie's list ratings. The first day they were supposed to show up between 11-1. After 2:00 I wrote them off, then the plumber showed up at 3:15. No call. No explanation. He worked about 1.5 hours, charged $181, then left saying the leak was fixed. Two days later, I the leak reappeared. I called Sunkel back. They came out and said I needed a new faucet, but could not explain how the leak, which he said was fixed, reappeared. I had to go out and purchase a new faucet while he waited. They charged me an addition $200, saying that I received a "break" since he had been their twice. If he would of told me up front this was the only way to fix the leak, I would have got the faucet and avoided the extra cost and inconvenience. Needless to say, we will not use them again.

unknown

.

I have used this company a few times and each time they are very helpful, professional, and always extremely friendly. What I really like about the company is the owner is very eager to get there and get the job done but yet he's friendly and courteous. They always wear protective "booties" and make sure my carpet is covered in the special plastic. They clean up after themselves and never leave a mess when they are done. The work is done in a professional and timely manner and they are willing to work with your schedule, regardless of the day or time. I've always scheduled work way in advance (that wasn't urgent) and they KEPT the date and time in their books for over a month prior. This is great and very helpful to me and my busy schedule. Another, and final wonderful thing, is that they guarantee their work and will not charge extra to come back and take a look at something they've already worked on. Some places charge extra just for the call but this place is very considerate. They have also made house calls to check on other things and not charged. It's always good to have a smiling and friendly face do the work as well. The prices are competitive to others as well. A definite company I will continue to come back to. Jason is the owner and he is so wonderful to work with! I am always happy to see his smiling face!

They came the same day I called, and the work was done to my satisfaction. The representative put the drawers back in the cabinet, knowing that my back was hurting. I was very appreciative of this as well because he didn't have to do that.

The first time I used them, I had them replace all the outdated plumbing in a rental home. They did an ok job, however they were not friendly, did not explain what they were doing, and did not appreciate when I asked questions. They came and did the job and left. Since I was paying for work, and not friendliness.... I did not worry much about their UNfriendly attitude. The second time I used them....was in our own home, when our sump pump died. Called Sunkel to come out and replace it. They did. No problems, if you don't mind gruff, bordering on rude service. They did the work and left. However price was pretty high, now that I know that sump pumps cost around $150, and I was charged $400. But chocked it up to a life lesson. The rudeness is what I struggle with. The problem came when less than a year later , our new sump pump died, and basement quickly took water. Getting them out there was difficult. I had to really almost beg. Then, the guy was rude and nasty when he did finally get out there. Even before he knew what was wrong, he was just rude and not professional at all! Then to aggravate him even more, the problem turned out to be-- the pump got clogged and could not drain. Not really the pumps fault, but not my fault either. I did not know that! I have never had a repairman be so rude and unprofessional.. As he left he told us to "call someone else if it broke again!!" What? So....bottom line is: they do ok work; if you don't mind a really, REALLY bad attitude, and horrible support after the sale.

Great service , Offered multiple options for the repair so I could decide how much to spend.

He ran into some problems but was able to overcome them.

I had my hot water heater go out on me and we needed a replacement as soon as possible. I used Angies List to find a reliable plumber and chose Sunkel Plumbing. They were able to come out the next day and did an excellent job. I thought their estimate was high but I did not really have the time to get competitive bids (and be without a hot water heater). Their representative was well mannered and polite and did a great job both with his work and by respecting our home. When the work was completed we reviewed the work and all was excellent and done well. I asked if I could have an itemized bill and was told that they cannot do that because they price their work "out of a book". To me, that is a red flag. If you cannot break down how the charges for your work are allocated then there is something fishy with the charges. I have since found out the price of the water heater installed and found that the supplies/labor part of the bill was almost $1,000. That, in my opinion, is too much for a hot water heater installation.

We have a downstairs shower that was leaking from the drain area. The tech informed me that it would be 150 dollars to fix. I needed it done, so gave the go ahead. It took him less than one minute to fix by tightening a seal.I checked today and it's leaking again. I tightened it myself this time. I thought the price for a service call was way out of bounds....I should have told him no.

I picked Sunkel due to their Angie's List ratings and their Angie's List coupon. I called for an appointment at 8:25 am. I was told someone would be out between 8:30 am and 10:30 am. Jeremy from Sunkel showed up fast. From start to finish Jeremy was polite, courteous, and professional. He answered all my questions confidently and knowledgeably. He quickly and accurately diagnosed both the drain and garbage disposal problems and he had everything running perfectly very fast. He even confirmed my suspicion that the kitchen sink plumbing was probably a DIY project of a previous owner of the house. He replaced a PVC section and a missing rubber seal from the DIY project that could cause problems in the future. When he was checking out the pipes downstairs he noticed some things that could use a closer look, and before he left he suggested the Sunkel Plumbing Family Club Membership to me so that I could get the preventative inspection that comes with the membership. I signed up. Jeremy did a great job and he left the work area cleaner than he found it. I hope his boss reads this because Jeremy deserves a raise immediately.

Overall, the service was really good. The guy who came to our house was very nice. I would highly recommend them to others.

unknown

The work was performed in a very timely and professional manner.

Arrived later than scheduled, considered it to be expensive.

They were timely, on time, very helpful and he gave me a lot of confidence that he knew what he was doing. They were relatively inexpensive. They gave me options. They were neat and clean.

I called Sunkel because of the good reports from Angie's list. The secretary was very friendly and courteous on the phone and set up at date for the following week. She called me back two days later and asked if they could come three days earlier. SURE, I said! Especially since I had been without a kitchen sink for a week. The day of the appointment I called to make sure I had the time correct and she asked if the plumber could come a couple hours earlier! Wow, even better. The young man that worked on my sink was very friendly, told me everything he was was doing and why. He felt bad that he couldn't repair my sink because of the type of wand I had. (Delta with the combo faucet wand system. The hose had cracked and the coupling wasn't standard, probably a Delta thing.) He told me that I could contact Delta because the style of faucet I had was warrantied for life. But, frankly, the pull out wand is a great idea but, in my opinion, isn't very practical because it constantly gets tangled up in the hardware under the sink. I was sick and tired of freeing the stupid hose (especially in the middle of washing a Chihuahua). So he showed me what he had on the truck and I told him to go ahead and replace the entire sink ensemble. The over the stove pot filler needed new rubber gaskets. This is only a temporary fix, I am afraid I will have to eventually purchase a new one. So all in all the experience was fantastic. I would highly recommend this company to anyone in need of a professional, honest, friendly and helpful company.

I had to call them to come back because they initially did a sloppy job, but when they came back they fixed the problem and provided a more adequate service.

We couldn't be happier. We live in a rural area and have well water; we built this house ten years ago and were using a rental system from Culligan. The rental system was okay, but required monthly service from them(at a price), untold number of filters (not cheap) that always seemed to need changing, and we still had to use reverse osmosis filters to get drinking water we were happy with. In short, lots of hassle. Sunkel did research to recommend a system that would do a better job that required less work from us, no monthly service, and better quality water. They have been very helpful and responsive and honest about what is feasible and what is not.

It took approximately 6 weeks from the time Sunkel Plumbing started the job to the time they completed the project. Based upon previously remodeling a kitchen, we had anticipated it would take 5 to 6 weeks so they were on time. We are extremely pleased with the quality of the workmanship and the end product. Based upon our experience, we would recommend Sunkel Plumbing for consideration of a kitchen remodeling project.

I scheduled the appointment about three weeks ago. The plumber was supposed to arrive between 8 and 10am. I called at 9:30am because I hadn't heard anything yet and needed to be at work at 11am. The guy showed up at 9:57am. He took a look at the garbage disposal and got it running. He said that it was a quick fix but the odds of it continuing to work were slim to none and it should be replaced. We discussed options on having it replaced. He'd said if I replaced it today, I could avoid having to pay the fee to have him come out and tell me what was wrong. I opted to save some money and had him replace it then. He showed me a list of various models and while he sang the praises of the top model, he kept telling me that no one ever really buys it. We settled on a model that wouldn't rust and cause the problem my old one had. I had to leave for work but thankfully someone else came home to sign the paperwork and hand him the check I wrote. He left a receipt with a very detailed note and the place was probably cleaner than when he got there. He was in and out in under an hour once I told him to go ahead with the replacement. Even though they showed up at the last possible minute, they were worth the wait.

Very well. Because the water heater company wouldn't deliver to a residential address, they let us ship to their address and then brought it to our home. Overall above and beyond what you might expect. Very easy to work with. Only reason grade is not straight A's would be that based on the good experience we had we asked for bids on some other work and didn't hear back.

It was a terrible experience. They consistently assured me they would find the crack in the sump pump line outside my home and dug up a considerable amount of dirt in my yard to locate it, while at the same time doubling my original estimate. After they had left my home (and cashed my check) they informed me that they were not able to locate he crack. The dirt was not replaced properly to the holes they dug and I am now forced to hire a landscaper to repair the damage in my yard.

They did a great job and were very easy to work with. We purchased a commercial grade water heater from a cooperative utility company; the manufacturer would not deliver to our home. Sunkels agreed to let the firm ship the water heater to their address and delivered it to our home and installed it with no problems. Excellent customer service.