Help Plumbing Heating Cooling and Electric

As it did prior, HELP came out and did a fantastic job. The once again went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure we were satisfied with the services. Instead of forcing us to remove a front porch, they determined we could run the sewage line out of the front corner of the home so that we could avoid hassling with removal of our porch. They were even able to work around our landscaping so that we weren't forced to replace a very expensive dogwood tree. The crew as always was nice, on time, friendly, and informative. If you need plumbing done, I can't imagine why would you would go anywhere else!

NEVER use a kitchen garbage disposal for watermelon rinds! NEVER, EVER! I did, and it caused me a world of hurt. I tried to unstop the clogged drain with 1) a plunger, 2) mild chemicals, 3) harsh chemicals, 3) an auger, 4) a new, improved auger and 5) a dismantled drain plus auger plus chemicals. Nothing worked. After a week of no kitchen drain, I finally checked Angie's List for plumbers. I found several that looked promising, but decided to use a company which had previously given me great service - HELP Plumbing Heating Cooling Electric (formerly Thompson Plumbing) at 333-4357. They are a bit pricey, but have always given me good service, plus i am a member of their monthly maintenance club so I knew I would get a bit of a discount. I called them Friday morning and got a same-day appointment! That, in itself, is great service. I already had the trap under the sink removed, so the technician was able to feed his auger straight into the wall pipe. After about 12 feet, it would go no further which was the same result I had achieved. He set an appointment for Saturday with a different tech and a bigger auger. Charlie showed up right on time but also had no success. He set an appointment for Sunday morning for a different technician with a drain video to locate and identify the problem (the video equipment is carried on only a few trucks in the company and was not available to Charlie). Again, the 3rd technician showed up right on time, but the results were inconclusive and he suggested we may need to install a new drain at perhaps $2,000. Gulp! He set an appointment for Monday and Charlie returned, again right on time. Charlie analyzed the situation and, after thorough investigation and a discussion of alternatives, indicated the work that would need to be done and quoted a price of about $1,800. I suggested I could do some preliminary work (open the necessary walls and remove a toilet and sink in the neighboring bathroom which were obstacles) to save money. He was able to lower the price to around $600. He was willing to start immediately, but we had to set the work for a later date due to my schedule. He, Charlie, arrived at the appointed time and worked in very cramped quarters for about 3 hours to do a nearly impossible job. Much of his time was spent inside - totally inside (feet and all) - an under-counter cabinet 37" long x 23" wide x 26" tall with a side access door of 14" x 23." It was a sight! He never complained or became exasperated and always displayed confidence and encouragement to me. Bottom line, I have a new drain that works! I still have some drywall work to do, but the tough work was handled well by Charlie. I highly recommend HELP Plumbing HVAC Electric (333-4357). You will receive excellent service and a complete job! Well worth the money.

We initially thought we could re-line our sewage line we've been having troubles with. HELP came out and could have easily installed the new liner without saying a word, but upon further inspection, they informed me it wouldn't prevent backages, only prevent the pipe from bursting (they discovered a bad pitch to the pipe). Not only did Dave and his crew come up with a better fix, they agreed to honor their initial price. We will now be installing new pipe around the side of the house to the street (so we don't need to remove porch). I know this is a more expensive job, and truly appreciate Dave honoring our agreement! His crew was informative, friendly, professional....just about everything you would want from 4 strangers sitting in your basement all day! They patched the concrete in the basement, and left the area of work cleaner than it was when they entered the house! They quickly rescheduled me at a time of my convenience and are sending out the same crew next week to do pipe installation! Couldn't be happier thus far with their services!

I do not understand how a quote can be provided of a possible under ground water leak with out digging dirt up to look at possible issue. Then gives two quote to repair.

They were able to respond within a few hours and came within the time promised. The problem was diagnosed quickly. The technician was knowledgeable and professional. However they do not charge on a parts and labor basis. They charge on flat rate basis according to the level of the job. I was told it was a Level 2 job and the fee was $433.00 even though the capacitor couldn't cost more than $50.00 and the replacement time is about 15 minutes. If I purchased a Club membership the cost would be reduced to $347.00, which is still quite high in my opinion.I was not able to shop around since the unit was not in my own home but that of a tenant. After a subsequent call to a service manager the the cost was reduced from Level 2 to Level 1.

3 yrs ago Help, then Thompson, sold me an air conditioner. Sadly it never worked to keep the whole house cool. They would come out each summer to try and fix the dampers and it never could keep the house an even temperature. This year they came out and stated that the technicians who installed it had wired things incorrectly. They stayed and stated they rewired everything. We'll the top floor was 86 and the thermostat was set at 70. Needless to say I was not happy. "Help" called me and stated I needed a new board to control my zone thermostat. I told them that the board would have been fine had they note 'rewired' things. So 3yrs and $11,000 later my home is not cool and now I am suppose to fork over more money. It did not sound right to me. I called another HVAC company, Rechtin Heating &air, Thank God I did. Rechtin is an authorized Bryant HVAC tech vendor and stayed 5 hours to correct the mess that "Help" had made of things. "Help", not sure why they call themselves that, they had wired 2 floors backwards and left the wires that controlled one damper just hanging connected to nothing. Now I have a home that is cool and comfortable on all 3 floors, it's marvelous! I further researched 'help' and found that they have a F rating with the better business bureau. Let me state that again, It's an F!!! Rechtin has an A rating, so needless to say what my HVAC choice will be going forward, RECHTIN! Never use 'HELP' for any service!!

The inspection service is $20 a month. We paid $99 for the pipe and $30 for the novelty inspection. So in total no more than $200. It's one company so they can keep track of everything. They do an annual inspection on the H-VAC, plumbing and electrical so when they come out they inspect everything to make sure everything is running properly.

The Technician was very courteous, explained the service and options to pay and offered other services. left detail explanations of preventative maintenance.

Quality of work was good, but they tried to sell me $8000 worth of trench less sewer replacement and another $3000 of unnecessary changes to the plumbing in my home. They also had me sign a work order, but did not give me a copy of what I signed and said I would get a copy when the extra work was done. So I cancelled the job, but not be fore they dropped the price back to $8000 . Additionally the 2 service people tried to scare me into buying and financing all of this work by saying my sewer could collapse at any time and would cost thousands of dollars more. My sewer has been fine for a whole year. The problem is that this company's employees are more focused on sales than service. The actual work they did perform was satisfactory, but I would not use them again.

Came out and determined that the condenser fan on my air conditioner was seized. This is a $145 part, and the capacitor would have been another $35. The technician tried to charge $650 with a $20 a month service contract on all plumbing, heating, and cooling, or he would charge me even more without the contract. What a ripoff. We told him to forget it, but had to pay $69.00

. Help has been anything but helpful and resistant to give a written quote. I was shown an iPad with number and a laminated sheet with no numbers and was never told the brand name of the unit they would install. I was disappointed from start to finish.

I am not saying anything bad about the quality of work that HELP Plumbing, Heating, Cooling and Electric provides but they will try to rip you off with their " here is what we found wrong story", This is my experience with HELP Plumbing, Heating, Cooling and Electric formally Thompson Heating and Cooling: During my last scheduled service on 3/22/2014, I was told by the technician that I needed the following items: 1. a blower motor and capacitor - $518 2. dyne injection to detect a leak in the system - $99 3. April Air Filter $63 Total $680 I have suspected for about a year or so that the pricing was a bit high and I was being told that I needed items that I really did not need. I called another company for a second opinion on the findings about my system all that was needed, the low side valve core needed to be tightened to stop the leak and a little refrigerant added to get the system back to cooling properly. Our air conditioning is now cooling better than it has in a long time. To further confirm my suspicions of being ripped off I checked on the price for the $63 filter, I can buy 2 of the same filters for the cost of this filter. Furthermore, I have went back over my invoices for the past two years and there always a big ticket item upsell on the work order explaining "here is what we found wrong", if I would have taken word of the technician on these occasions it could have cost me thousands of dollars. HELP Plumbing, Heating, Cooling and Electric have more proven to me through their actions they are not ethical or honest with their customers. I have since cancelled my "club membership" with HELP Plumbing, Heating, Cooling and Electric and will never use or suggest them to anyone.

Terrible. Tried to upsell additoinal work. I was not home and my wife had to handle. Bottom line, we paid about $500 to add 2lb of Freon. When I got home and heard details from my wife I called them to question. Couldn't get past whoever answered the phone. "That's what it cost. Claim they told my wife up front it was going to be that much". No they did not tell her it was going to be $500 to add 2# of freon. Unbelievable. Would never call them again no matter how desparate.

I was in a mess of flood water from my 25 year old water heater and needed HELP fast. I phoned and got a nice person on the phone who filled me in on how I could get someone out to my house and it was after 6pm. Andy the tech showed up in less that 2 hours and immediately knew this was going to be a full new install and now a fix it job. He gave me all the details and options. I made my choices and he went and got the water heater and parts and went to work. It was just before Midnight when the job was done. Andy cleaned up and gave me the paperwork. Excellent work and the county inspector passed with no problem. Highly recommend HELP.

They had a deal where you can be a member for $20 a month. Then you get a check on the air conditioner, on your heating system, electricity and a check on your plumbing for a year with no charge for the inspection and if there is something wrong you will just be charged for that. They also give you a price reduction if you buy a large appliance from them like the air conditioner or my blower motor for the furnace. What I like about them is that they come as promised. They come with their book with the prices in it so you know what they are charging everybody and they will explain it to you. I had a water softener put in and it was it not working right since the water that was coming out of the kitchen faucet was foamy. The plumber came back 7 times and he even brought in the representative for the water softener company who was out of Chicago. They found out that it was the faucet. The rep whom they brought in had heard of this before and that was what the problem. They proceeded to contact the faucet manufacturer, got a free replacement faucet, and installed it - all at no cost to me. You do not have to "become a member," but it has it's benefits. Their prices might be a little higher than some firms, but the fact that they stand behind their work is well worth the price.

I used Thompson for a few service calls before signing up for their premium membership. For $30 per month, I get front-of-the-line pass, discount prices on parts and services, and free Comfort System Check-Ups. I kept this membership on my house when I moved out and renters moved in. The first time I needed to utilize the service was for a drain cleaning. I was looking forward to using the front-of-the-line pass and the discounted service. However, upon trying to schedule an appointment, I made a request to please make sure that they waited until I got there and not to bother the renters. I had made this request on a previous service call and the request was ignored. The serviceman was in the house when I got there. So I was more careful with this request. However, at the mention of a renter, I was told that Thompson doesn't do Drain Cleaning on rental properties. No matter how much I insisted that I was the owner and I would be there, they said they didn't do it and it wasn't covered by my service plan. It doesn't say that anywhere on the web site as far as I can tell. Maybe it is in the small print of the contract that I signed and filed away. I think that contract also says, and I paraphrase, that if we benefit from discounts and then try to cancel the membership, we owe them the difference. So it's not technically a discount. Rather, it's a payment plan. You can pay more in for the intangibles like front of the line and free check-ups (which in my experience are clearly aimed at finding something wrong so that they can bill you for service) but you can't come out on top because they'll collect the difference at the other end. By the way, I also hired them to fix a leak from my shower that was damaging the floor and they couldn't find the leak. They found some service to do and to charge me for it but the leak didn't go away. Even after a second visit, they couldn't figure out what the problem was. Later, when doing my own work under the sink, I discovered the source of the problem myself. So I learned to replace copper and just completed the work myself. Worthless. [April 2014] After another frustrating experience, I have cancelled my "membership". I tried to use the "front-of-the-line pass" again when my tenants heat went out. With temperatures going down to 20*F that night, I was told there was only one emergency technician working and he had no availability that evening. As mentioned above, I had to pay a fee to cancel my membership but even at $100 it was worth it to sever the relationship with this devious and incompetent company. In the last 2.5 years... Total cost of membership: $938.35 (28 payments of $29.95 plus $99.75 at termination) Total cost of work: $1644.05 (bathroom faucet repair $301.91, garbage disposal replacement $591.19, air conditioner repair $750.95) Total benefits: discounts and 2 or 3 "free inspections" Net: HEADACHES

such as cutting the pipe, etc. We feel they misrepresented the cost. As for the quality we are very disappointed with a plastic insert strapped on a existing copper pipe. Our future plans are to have it redone with quality craftsmanship by an quality plumber which HELP did not provide.

They seem to be knowledgeable and dependable. I have had no issues with them.

I didn't have the work done because I thought the estimate was too high, I had no idea it was $3100.00 too high.

We have used them for several projects. They have a "Club" that you can join which gives you major discounts. They guy that recently came to do the service checks, called the plumbing guy and he was at my house within a half hour.

Very nice, right on time, loved my dogs Kitchen drain which I had used everything on - could not get it opened. A plant fell over and the wood chips went right down the pipe. Service Tech had to go down into the basement and open one of the cast iron pipes down there to get to the blockage.. Did not take that long and I was free to start washing my dishes again.... Hooray !

The woman who answered the phone was very professional and helpful with what to expect. I chose the next available tech and within 15 mins of talking to her I recieved a call saying a tech would be there within 30 mins. 20 mins later the tech showed up and we walked through the repair. I work in sales and they know what they are doing. They upsold me into a club membership by showing me the benefits with cost and maint. And im also getting a free electrical and plumbing inspection. The tech was very professional and helpful. Will be using them again.

We pay monthly, and they have 24 hour availability. That is the main thing.

They put covers over their shoes when they come in. They are very clean, professional and knowledgable.

Everything went great. They came out to look at the old hot water heater and saw that it was not salvageable and they were able to get a new one installed on the same day. That meant that we only were without hot water for one day. They were prompt and helpful and we would definately use them again.