Kook & Son Inc

Extremely expensive. For routine maintenance, spent over $400 for less than 1 hour's work. You pay for travel times, as well as the time the plumber spends on the phone talking to the main office about billing. Very good service, but at easily 3 times what it's worth.

I advise against using Kook and Sons. One person they sent to my house was reasonably competent; the other was a box of rocks. The most annoying aspect of Kook and Sons is that they run a travel time scam where they attempt to charge "travel time" even for jobs done within Jersey City, where they are based. Charging for travel time makes sense if the customer is asking the contractor to travel an unusual distance to the job. But it makes no sense when the service call is local. No other local contractor I have used over the years has attempted to charge for travel time, and I have used quite a few. As you will see from another posting on Angie's List, there have been cases where their travel time charge actually exceeded their total labor charges. Kook charged me about $35 to travel the 1.2 mile distance between their headquarters and my house, and they did this after I agreed to change my appointment time so that they could serve another customer. Way to repay a favor guys...

On the second week of July and in between heat waves my AC unit in my kitchen broke, leaving me out "Cold" in the heat. I called Sears ( under service contract agreement) and to my surprise when the repairman came told me that he couls not even take a look at it because "he did not have a tall enough ladder"; the unit was installed on my wall on top of my refridgerator. I called Kood and Son located in Jersey City, the rest is history. I got a new unit and it two days it was installed, the service was courtious, they service men came on time and it less that two hours the installation was completed.Not only it was done right but they also discarded the old unit. I will make sure that my neighbors know about this company in our own backyard.(Jersey City)

My AC was not working when I got home from work on Friday and called some services on Saturday. Kook was the one to call me back and could have some one there first thing Monday morning. They were there on time, tech was very nice and professional. Turned out to be an easy fix and he also gave my system a full look over to make sure everything was in good shape. I also decided to switch thermostats and he helped me set it up and showed me how it worked. Overall i was very pleased and thankful to have my AC working again in time for the hottest day of the year!

Very good service and came when they said they would! Very professional and courteous!

On June 13th, my ac went down. Contacted PSEand G who came on June 15th and check it out. I was not impressed by their service call and the fact that a heat wave was on it's way I decided to contact Kook and Son's. I contacted them on the June 19th. They sent someone over. He found the compressor, a fuse, and several other things were shot. I decided to go with their recommendation that both ac/furnace needed to be replaced. They gave me a quote which was much less than I thought it would be. Which was about $6400. On June 20th they arrived at around 8:30 am. They removed the old system. The new equipment came around lunchtime. They finished most of it. They came back the following day to finish up transitional duct work and thermostat. The final price was a little higher due to the need for a condensation pump to deal with excess condensation. The original system drainage valve was higher than on the new one so they had to run some pvc pipe and a condensation pump (I checked with some of my neighbors who had changed their systems and mine was slightly less expensive). They also redid the copper piping. Shortly after it was done I got a follow up call from Howard. I was very impressed by their quick response and professionalism. I especially want to thank Pierre, Manny, and Yomar who went above and beyond what I expected. They were professional, friendly, and knew their stuff. I would highly recommend them and will be using them again when it is furnace time.

Howard came by the same day I called to look at what needed to be done and gave us an estimate for the work. It was a little on the high end, but I've used Kook and Sons in the past at different houses and I knew that their work was high-quality. His crew arrived on time the day the work was scheduled and worked quickly, taking the time to teach my husband some basic plumbing along the way.

Kook and Son were great about scheduling an appointment around the times we were home. They showed up on time and their prices were comparable to others that I checked with. They did the best job that they could for me. I had a problem about a month after the work and they came right on out and fixed it without charging me at all, and I liked that about them. They seem to be very responsible and care about the reputation of their company.

I called them and tried to schedule an appointment for a free estimate per their advertisement. I explained what the problem was to the receptionist and was placed on hold for a couple of moments, she came back and said that she spoke to the technician and he knew what the problem was based on my description. She said it'll be $135 p/hr for the labor to fix it, I then asked how many hours it'll be and she said she didn't know-but she knew enough to not need to diagnose it? I called my husband and passed along the explanation and he asked I find out specifically what they suspect the problem to be. When I called back and the same receptionist picked up, I introduced myself again and asked for the details of the diagnoses. I was put on hold.and the receptionist came back and kept trying to book the appointment to have the issue fixed. She repeatedly attempted to secure an appointment to have the job done without providing the answer to the question-what's their diagnoses? Her answer then became "it sounds like it's something we've done many times before". I politely pushed back to get the specific answer to my question...not having one, she finally said "I don't know what else to tell you." What she should have said-1 of 2 acceptable answers: A) Let's come out and do the estimateB) We think the problem is .....

Since it started getting cold, we needed someone immediately and they were able to come next day. Overall experience was good but pricey. I didn't have time to get another thermostat but he sold it to us for twice the price it is available elsewhere.

They showed up when they said they would. The technician was very professional and friendly. He gave my system a thorough check up and only had to add to coolant. Was probably more than others would have charged, but they fixed it on the first visit and it has worked fine since.

They charged me $300 for a part that costs $60 online and initially sent one person to do the job and when the person came to fix the HVAC he said he can't do it alone and so he called a second person. Mind you they charge $135/hr per person! In total it cost me triple what other people charge. The only positive thing is they came on short notice and finished the job in one day.

I noticed the wooden floorboards buckling near the closet that holds our water heater, air conditioning and heating units. My husband noticed standing water in the tray underneath our air conditioner. Assuming that our air conditioner needed repair, I contacted 3 top-rated HVAC vendors on Angie's List. One informed me that they only worked on heating and plumbing and the other wasn't available to come by for another three weeks. When I contacted Kook, an office person immediately answered my phone call. She was able to have someone come by within a few days and able to have that person come before 11:00 a.m. per my request. The man who arrived to do the work was polite, professional and knowledgeable. After a quick inspection, he told us that our problem was not the air conditioning unit, but the drain. There was only one drain for the tray underneath the unit and it was clogged. At some point the tray must have overflowed and caused the nearby floorboards to buckle. He explained that there isn't supposed to be standing water in the tray. He vacuumed the water out of the tray and unclogged the drain. Then he asked if we wanted him to create a second drainage point to avoid the problem in the future. He also mentioned that our air conditioning filter was dirty (we hadn't changed it in years) and offered to change that for us too. He went to a nearby big box hardware store for supplies and came back to create the extra drain and change the filter. Overall, it took about 2 hours. While the bill seemed a little high, we were pleased to get someone in quickly who was polite, knowledgeable and helpful. Therefore, we were happy to pay it. Also, we would rather pay a fair price for the right fix than the alternative.

I have had Kook do a lot of work over the years. The boiler project went very well. The reason I love them is because I had a flood problem in my house with water backing up from the sewer system. They were the only plumber out of all the plumbers I have worked with that diagnosed the problem correctly and fixed it. In my book, they are the best. I have used them ever since, for 8 years now. They are not the cheapest by far but they know what they are doing. If I were to look at price only I would not use them. But they are the best at what they do.

My first message on Thursday at 10am went unanswered but my second call was picked up and I eventually spoke to Howard Kook - the owner. We discussed the trouble and he dispatched Tony and a helper. Tony called me and said he would arrive at 2pm. He was about 10 minutes late but that is no problem. Tony resolved the problem with parts from the truck in about 30 minutes. At no charge, he also corrected the exhaust from my water boiler which was improperly installed. He was friendly and the price was good for a plumbers visit. I paid with a credit card which he cleared through the office instead of writing down all the info on a receipt that could be misused. Over all, I was happy for same day service with parts at a good price.

They were very nice and easy to deal with on the phone. They were very professional and timely. Their prices were a little high but they were reliable and would probably be worth it for big jobs. I think it was fair. I would recommend them.

I purchased a house that had been winterized. I called Kook and son and they sent Akash the next day. He arrived right on time. Was polite, and took care of de-winterizing the furnace and getting it going. I was charged a very fair price, and will use them again in the future.

I am very happy with the work done. The plumber arrived within the specified time and I was called prior to him coming to let me know. I contacted the provider originally on a Friday and they were able to send someone out the next Monday, when I had taken off from work already. I had contacted two prior plumbers and both said the entire flushing mechanism needed to be replaced. One was a complete idiot -- he never followed up with me because, according to him, "the supply company never returned his phone call." (Hello...McFly) The other one never came by, asked me to send him the parts numbers on the toilet, which I did, and quoted me a price of $388. I told him to come in and do the repair but whenever I tried to contact him he was too busy and instead of just telling me he was too busy he would give me some type of runaround. So when Kook (don't be fooled by the name) came by and told me it was just a worn out cap that needed to be replaced for $176, I was thrilled. The labor and parts cost breakout was easy to understand. The whole service call took less than an hour, even with the plumber having to go out and pick up the cap part at the supply store. Great job, if home repair was this easy all the time there would be no need for Angie's list!

The Kook plumber was professional and easy to deal with. Both jobs were fairly simple but took more time than expected because some parts were difficult to find and required a trip to the plumbing supply store. He charged me for 2 1/2 hours of labor. After coming back from the store, he told me that he had found the right handle for the Kohler toilet but also picked up a cheaper American Standard handle that he thought might work--and it did. He said that saved $60. I was also pleased with Kook's responsiveness. I had spent several weeks trying to get another plumber--highly recommended by a neighbor, but from a smaller outfit--to come to the house, without success. Kook sent someone the day after I called.

A technician came the previous day of the service to take a look at the work and give us an estimate (but an estimate was never provided). Another technician came the next day to perform the work. Everything was completed correctly except for the reversal of the hot and cold faucet knob markers in the Master Bath. The technician made a mistake in identifying the cold and hot feeder pipes and spent almost an hour and a half trying to fix something that was not broken, but forgot to reverse the faucet knobs. This extra time was included in the bill, along with the time of the technician who had come for the estimate, travel time for the technician and time taken for technician to go buy parts. This was a total of 3 hours added to the bill @ $135/hr, which we disagreed with as we were not informed of this before the work started. After a few phone calls with Howard he agreed to take this time off the bill and a technician came in to reverse the faucet knobs. At this point, all the work that we wanted is complete and we are satisfied with the resolution of the billing issue.

We have a relationship with them at this stage. I think they are a bit pricey but we have always been able to get good service from them. The people who come to do the work are really nice and they always come when they say that they are going to come. There was one episode when something was not installed correctly and they kept coming back until they got it fixed.

It went well. Overall, they were fantastic.

Called company at 5 a.m. on Monday. Got a call back in 20 mins. They hadn't opened yet, needed to put me into the schedule. Plumber arrived at 9 a.m. Work was done in less than an hour, including a trip he had to make to get a replacement valve. Service was professional, neatly done and the plumber was pleasant and helpful with suggestions about any future problems. Would definitely recommend.

They were good. They came out quickly and did the job in a timely fashion.

It went quickly, but the guy let too much air into my system, so the pipes were knocking very badly. They DID come back and fix the problem with no additional charge, but I do think the price was a bit much considering the price for the pipe was about $50.