Ray The Plumber

I called for an estimate because my toilet bowl was kind of bubbling when I flushing it in my downstairs toilet. I thought I needed a new ejector pump, which is a $750 job! I called a few plumbers for estimates and they all seem to charge a fee to diagnose the problem. No big deal. The service tech came exactly when the girl on the phone said he would - in fact, they called me about 20 minutes before he got there to tell me he's on his way - nice! The service tech was quiet, but polite and I told him what I thought the problem was. He then checked the bowl and after say 10 minutes gave me three options - none were to replace the ejector pump. One of the suggestions was to replace the toilet bowl, which was only $299. I felt like I was saving $450 for the ejector pump. He wrote up an estimate, and he actually included the service fee in the $299......nice - I was saving another $40 bux! I figured he'd give me some cheap Home Depot toilet like I have upstairs......WRONG! To my pleasant surprise, he came in with this nice Kohler bowl, replaced the old one, put it out on the street for the garbage, sealed it, flushed it and gave me a brand new toilet seat too - another savings! It works like a charm. My new problem is that the toilet downstairs in the basement is nicer than the one upstairs! I can't wait for than one to go so I can call Ray the Plumber back. I had a very nice experience. Even got a few laughs with the tech. His name I think was Keith. He was a big guy. Oh that's another thing. This tech was professionally dressed. The last plumber I had a few years ago smelled like a toilet and his buttcrack was hanging out. Much different this time. I will use Ray the Plumber again and I will recommend him - in fact, I did yesterday to my neighbor who had a stoppage. Very professional and fairly priced.

I had installed a new one handle bathroom faucet and new trap beneath bathroom sink myself. I noticed a leak in one shutoff valve and decided to replace them myself.Perhaps I used the wrong tools; two large pliers, but I could not loosen the fittings. I am over 75 and figured I was spending too much time on this and with no success. Since a friend had used Ray the Plumber,I called them. The girls explained that the call itself would be 59.95. I tried to get a simple estimate and was unsuccessful. I agreed to the price for the visit and a man showed up in about 2-3 hours. He looked at the job and said it would take 10 min to 1 hour at the most and would cost 300-400 dollars. The written estimate was about $300 with $20 off for a senior like me. I told him the price was rediculous and asked him the price for replacing the faucet which i did in 20 min to a half hour. He quoted me a price of over $400 after checking the book. I was charged $69.95 plus tax or $70.00. I plan to call about the extra $10.00. I told him to leave after paying $70.00. Since the price he quoted was from a book,the girls in the office could have referred to it and given me a flexible estimate for the labor rate or a higher rate like changing the entire faucet. With such high quotes, I would have avoided the trip charge entirely.

I called Ray's Plumbing and they sent someone. Pipe was repaired - I thought the cost was a little much, but really had no idea of the going rate. They did a good job, but left my stove moved out from the wall. I called back the next day and told the office and they had to send someone back to move stove back into it's proper place.

The were good but I thought they were expensive. They did a lot of work for but I felt the prices were a little high. Everything was good and I like the overall work they provided. I would use them again if I needed to.

Was not the happy experience I had hoped for. Worker was competent but not thorough and complete. Seems he was only interested in doing half a job. When he was given check for his services he told me that I would need his phone number soon. I realized that the new repairs were now connected to an obvious old pipe whose days are numbered. Is that any was to treat a disabled widow! Would have been much kinder to tell me of potential future problems and be proactive in solving them before the flood! I guess he was more interested in charging me another fee for a service call, instead of being a better role model and more competent representative of his business.

Very good job but expensive

They were here on time, they took care of the problem, and I really appreciated the service.

Just after the hurricane I found a minor leak. Ray the Plumber Inc were exceptional. They came when nobody else would come. Everybody else was busy taking care of Sandy victims. They were wonderful. They told me what needed to be done. Their response was awesome. However, they were expensive, so I ended up not using them this time. Only in an absolute emergency would I use them.

I called them to replace a bathroom sink faucet. I purchased the faucet and supply lines - I just needed their skill. They gave me a time frame of 2 to 4 pm. They arrived before noon while I was running some errands but my husband was home. No complaints here, better early than late! The tech looked over the job and gave me a cost estimate. I signed the work order and gave him the okay to start. After about an hour, he told me that because of the small size of the work area he would have to get another plumber in to finish the work that afternoon. Later in the day (approx. 3:30pm) we got a call from the office that the other plumber would not be able to make it and that we would have to wait until tomorrow afternoon after 3pm. The office staff was very apologetic. Tom arrived at about 3:30 the following day and proceeded to install and test the faucet. Everything was done in about an hour. He was courteous, professional and knowledgeable – and he was able to maneuver into the tight space (although he looked like a pretzel). The only negative thing about this company is that their prices are high. Another well-known company estimated the cost at $200. The charge quoted by Ray the Plumber was $269 with a $10 senior discount plus tax. The $10 senior discount was not even 5%. I chose Ray the Plumber because my neighbor used him for a major project and was pleased with his work.

or was less than satisfied.

The gave good service, but I thought it was very expensive.

They were late coming out to my house which did not set a good tone for the entire visit. I had discovered exactly where the leak was coming from and showed the plumber when he arrived. My house house still has the original pipes from the 1960s. The plumber had assured me that partially fixing the pipe would solve the problem. I told him that I was uncomfortable with not replacing and fixing the whole pipe. He continued to tell me that fixing the small area of the pipe would fix the problem and that he did not have time to replace the entire pipe. He fixed the pipe and left after the job was complete. Approximately 25 hours later I had a leak in the same pipe just further down the line which is why I had originally asked him to replace the whole pipe. I called Monday morning to advise them of the new leak and the receptionist got very defensive very quickly with me. A customer who just had service with them should not have been treated this way.

He didn't charge me for his service over the phone. He called me right back just before the holiday. He gave me information that was very useful and solved my problem. He was very helpful. He was very professional.

We used Ray’s Plumbing to solve an emergency leak coming from our refrigerator water line that was pouring into the basement below. The plumber came at night within a very short time as promised and fixed it. We left the next day for vacation and when we got back noticed there was a hammering in the pipes whenever we flushed two of our four toilets, which we tried to resolve ourselves by running the water from all faucets and flushing the toilets (we read how to do this on the internet). No luck, so we called Ray’s back, thinking that the first job had somehow introduced air into the system. The original man came back and strapped the pipe to the wall, thinking that would be a fix. It did not fix the problem so we again called and a different technician came, who told us that we needed to replace the mechanisms in our toilets because they were not working properly. This made us very unhappy, because we still believed that somehow the problem resulted from the original repair because we had no issues for 17 years before that with the toilets. So we called back and asked to speak to Ray himself, who then called back and promised to come over and take care of it. He did. He and the original plumber who works for him ended up replacing the mechanisms in the two toilets. Ray explained that during the original repair, when the water was tuned back on, the initial flush might have driven sediment into the 17-year-old toilet mechanisms, causing them to malfunction. But Ray did not charge us for this repair or for the three visits it took to resolve the problem. So, we would definitely use them again – the owner DOES stand behind his work and tries very hard to keep his customers happy. Basically they were right, we were mistaken, and they took care of us anyway.

Very good service and excellent response time.

Very quick response and reliable service - The technician (wish I could remember his name) was great - he took the time to explain the problem and show me the equipment needed and why. Additionally, he gave me some tips on keeping the area better maintained. Great job!

Tom arrived, assessed needs and gave recommendation and estimate. Completed work. Very professional, clean and conscientious. Wish price was lower, but very happy with results. Would definitely refer people and use service again.

They were extremely professional and clean. They put things on the floor before they walked in. They recommended a cesspool, so I saw another guy in charge of that, and he wouldn't do anything before I added the vents and pipe with elbow. I used him too, after the piping was done first. They handled everything properly. They get high ratings and I would use them again in the future.

I thought they were very pricey, and two or three days later, water was leaking from our bathroom sink into our basement. They are the main reason why I joined Angie's List to find good companies.

Hurricane Irene was over, my husband was just out of the hospital convalescing. Called several plumbers, all couldn't come until the following morning. It was necessary for me to have the use of my sink. They came within an hour of my call. The water from my faucet was leaking under the sink even with the water valve closed. They had an almost identical faucet with them in their truck. They removed the old faucet, installed the new faucet and upon my request removed the water filter. All this took place in less than an hour. They had advised me what the cost would be and I felt I had no choice. However, I felt they took advantage of the situation and charged an enormous fee for their service. In all fairness I do not know what the cost of this faucet would be as I have been unable to get to a store for comparison, but I believe if it were solid gold it might be worth the charge. The faucet is a Delta 470 DTS. This was not an emergency call except only to me. It was a Tuesday well before the close of most businesses. They certainly took advantage of the situation and I would not advise anyone to use this company.

Called Ray the Plumber to assess and repair a leak from my stall shower. Luke did not find any pipe to be leaking and recommended Panzner Construction to come over to take a look at the shower tiled floor. While Luke was there I asked if he could replace the main water valve in the basement since that was old and not shutting off properly. He agreed to take care of it immediately and applied the $49.99 fee to the job. Knowledgeable, pleasant and would call this company again if needed.

I had them do work for me on two different occasions. I wanted to ask the plumber a few questions and she was not able to get me a plumber whom I could talk to her over the phone. She was willing to get me a plumber who would come to my house and charge me a service charge to answer my questions. They didn't accommodate me at all. They told me they couldn't get a hold of anybody and you would have to set up a service call. I had a question about a gas line. They said they would have to come and check it but there was nothing that needed to be checked here. All I wanted from them was to answer my question. I was very disappointed with them. I will not pay for a service call to answer my question. I have had them earlier to put a four season and some other work and I told her about that. It was all a money making thing. They just wanted to squeeze money. It was not that I have not had work with them and they just couldn't accommodate me. I think they were not at all professional.

To tell the truth, I hesitated to use "Ray the Plumber" a second time after I used them and was satisfied with the work they did a bit more than a year earlier. The reason is that I had heard some bad things said about them (especially here) since my first experience. I feared that the many earlier GOOD reports might have meant that they were getting too big and were not keeping up the standards that made them popular originally. This has been known to happen. However, we had no kitchen sink to use and no dishwasher and I also wanted some badly designed plumbing under the sink completely replaced as there is an "economy of scale" in finding additional work for home repair to do as long as they are coming anyway. These considerations plus "using the devil you know" pushed me to give Ray another shot. Ray's man came and quoted a price that was (IMO) on the high end but was also just about what I expected the high end would be (that is a "fair" rather than a "highway robbery" high end) so I had him go forward. The work turned out to be more difficult than either he or I anticipated but the price held. As I say, "Ray" is not cheap, but both the work and the manner of the worker were professional. I wasn't there at the completion of the work and looked at it afterward. It was well done; the undersink piping was neat and adequately sized for the job, and he made improvements that will make this easier to maintain in the future. FWIW, the "dispatch fee" (i.e., estimate fee if you DON'T use the plumber) was $40, same as last time, not the $70 others complained about. Maybe the $70 fee is if you have them come off-hours as an emergency or something. To me, the difference between $40 and $70 is a big one in feeling pressued to have someone continue a job.

I was told that no matter what, I would have to pay the $70 service call. The technician who showed up, although very polite himself, quoted me $184 for the job. I was very unhappy with the price and told him that. No wanting to lose $70, I allowed him to complete the job. I did call Ray The Plumber back because I felt I had to complain about the price. It was 5 minutes of work, approximately $25 in parts. Ray himself got on the phone, and what started as a firm, but polite, complaint, turned into a yelling match. He wanted to send the technician back to remove the hardware and refund my money, but I was concerned that accidentally (sarcasm intended) something would get broken. I refused his offer, but repeated I was very unhappy about the price and felt that I was although I could have refused the work, I didn't want to be out $70. Ray's counter offer was to take $20 off the price. The technician was very nice, Ray was rude. My advice to all, learn from my mistake and don't use Ray The Plumber.

I requested an estimate to run a gas line outside to a natural gas barbeque (a total distance of about 35 feet). While the representative was very professional and friendly, the price he quoted ($1,450) was outrageous. I ended up doing the job myself for about $150 in parts and 2.5 hours of my time (I don't recommend doing something like this yourself unless you have experience working with natural gas, which I do). I guess this is how they try to pay for all the flashy trucks and TV commercials...