Central Plumbing Heating & Air Conditioning

Office was very friendly and professional on the phone; set up an appointment for the estimate very quickly. Mike came out and reviewed the project with me and promised an estimate in writing. Had to call the company a couple of weeks later to get it and was told they were waiting for materials cost to come in to complete the estimate and that they would have that the following Monday. Monday came and went without communication from them. I called again and left a message to please send the estimate. I never heard back from them. My time and efforts were wasted; it would have been much more professional of them to just tell me that they did not wish to do the project. Very disappointed in them.

1. We purchased a $99 coupon for 3 hours of plumbing from Central Plumbing, an "A-rated" company. 2. Rita in the office left a voice message two days later, because she saw that we had bought the coupon. 3. I spoke with Rita a few days later. She said that Mike, the owner, could answer my specific questions. She would have him call me back. 4. Later that day, Mike called. He spent a good deal of time on the phone with me, answering questions about several projects. I knew that we wanted them to fix the dripping pipe in the basement, but I was not sure if we could/would do other projects, involving 2 sinks, a toilet and a shower, because money is tight. Mike was fantastic. He listened carefully to all of the project details, didn't rush me and even took a look at photos I e-mailed to him, so that he could give me as accurate an assessment as possible. There was one thing he needed to look into, so he told me he'd find out and let me know the following day. Most of the bigger projects (toilet, sinks) would be charged per project, not per hour (i.e., not useful for the coupon). The dripping pipe would easily be taken care of by the 2 hour coupon. He thought that the pipe section from A to B would have to be replaced and said it would cost $90-120 for parts. I thought that was high but understood that there would be a decent amount of pipe replaced and was grateful to at least have a deal on the labor. He indicated that they more than likely could fix the shower drip during those two hours. That would involve replacing the cartridge which I'd have to pay extra for. 5. The next day, Rita left a message, providing Mike's answer to my question and asking me to call back to schedule the 2 hour visit. 6. Due to a family emergency, I didn't get back to Rita for 2 weeks. When I did, I apologized for the dealy, and we scheduled an appointment for about a month hence. I didn't want a morning visit, so I selected the arrival time of 12-2pm. I let her know that we would just have the pipe and the shower taken care of with the coupon at this time. Rita asked if I wanted a reminder call the day before or if the plumber should call when he was on his way. I asked for both. No problem, she said. 7. The day before the job was to be performed, Rita left a voice message reminder at home. 8. On the day of the job, I expected a call from the plumber to let me know when he would arrive between 12 and 2 pm. The doorbell rang at 10:15am. When I didn't come to the door right away, the phone rang. It was Mark, the master plumber. I was not happy. Not only did he not call me to let me know his expected arrival time, he was almost 2 hours earlier than the agreed-upon time. When I came to the door and let him in, he apologized for the inconvenience and then blamed the scheduling problem on the office staff who should have known that his prior appointment would be quick. Although I was unhappy, I decided to let it all go without ado. First, I took him upstairs. While there, I explained that I also had thought of dealing with the leaky sink handles and the toilet that doesn't flush properly. He explained what would be involved in fixing the sink. Too involved, I decided. He then spent a couple of minutes, trying to fix the toilet flushing mechanism by adjusting the flapper. I was happy that he was trying to do so, but he was unable to do it, because it would need a new part... which is next to impossible to find. Oh well. Turning to the day's project, the shower, he explained that he would need to order a part (cartridge), because he didn't have it in his truck. Apparently, it's not the most common Moen handle. (At this, I was upset, because Mike had seen a close-up photo of the shower handle and had made it sound like it would be an easy fix. I thought for sure the plumber would arrive with the correct part.) Mark said he'd call the plumbing supply company to see if they have it. I decided to be optimistic that everything would get taken care of, since the supply place is very nearby. At that point, I took Mark to the basement to work on the leaking pipe. He agreed that he would have to replace the two valves which Mike had seen in the photo. I left him to do his work. On several occasions, he expressed annoyance as he went up the stairs and outside to his truck, because other guys had been using his truck and parts were not available as they should have been. At one point, he mentioned that he was using a less-than-ideal part, because the better one was not in his truck. Again, I decided to not say anything, because he said it was just as good a part; it would just involve more work for him to install. When he finished the pipe, he invited me to take a look: he had replaced two valves and two very small sections of pipe. He had decided that the larger length of pipe that Mike thought would need to be replaced was fine. I then was told I would have to pay $120 for the parts. When I expressed shock, Mark told me that it was within the range of Mike's estimate ($90-120). Again, I kept my cool, since we still had to deal with the shower. When I asked Mark about it, he said that he would not be fixing it. The part was not available, because it's not the norm. I expressed disappointment at this, since Mike had seen the part in the photo and made it sound like it would not be difficult to take care of. Mark responded by telling me that he already had given me a break, by staying a lot longer than the 2 hour coupon. When I questioned "a lot longer," we did the math and determined that it was exactly 2 hours 15 min. after he had arrived. Here are two thoughts about the time which I did not say aloud: a. Mark clearly thought his time was far more valuable than mine, since staying 15 minutes longer was very generous of him, but arriving 1 hour 45 minutes earlier than agreed upon was not a big problem. b. It didn't seem to matter to Mark that he spent a good deal of time walking out to his truck, because he did not have the correct parts. Apparently, his (company's ) mistake was to be at my expense. What I did say was that much of the time at the beginning of his visit involved him looking at projects which might be future jobs. To that he said that it would not have cost me anything for that had he come out for an estimate; but, because he had come for a coupon, the clock started ticking the moment he walked in the door. (As you can imagine, he did not mention this while we were standing around talking.) His superior attitude at various times during the visit was unpleasant; this last exchange was too much. I politely paid for the parts (valves and piping) and said goodbye. After my initial annoyance subsided, I realized that Mark had charged me the top of Mike's estimate for parts but had installed less pipe than Mike had estimated (based on the photo). Earlier, when I mentioned that Mike had said that the whole section of pipe would have to be replaced, Mark said that he could see it better in person (which makes sense) and thinks that some of the pipe is fine. In that case, shouldn't the price for parts have been less than Mike had estimated, not the very top of Mike's range? When providing me with an estimate for the toilet and sinks, Mike had suggested that I buy the parts myself so that I only have to pay him/them for labor. If I am not told to buy the parts for piping in advance of a plumber's visit, I don't expect an ~300% mark-up on parts. (Home Depot would charge not more than $40 for those parts.) BOTTOM-LINE: 1. Rita in the office was professional and courteous. 2. Mike, the owner, was generous with his time and fair in his sales approach. 3. Mark is a "master plumber" who is far from a master at customer service. 4. Based on my initial experiences with Rita and Mike, I was confident that Central Plumbing would be fair and do a good job. After my experience with Mark, I feel taken advantage of. 5. I have started to think that Angie's List coupons are shams to offer cheap labor... and then mark up the cost for parts, etc.. 6. If I use any company/vendor in the future (with or without a coupon), I always will have them come out to the house before the job, so that the estimate is (1) accurate, (2) clear, and (3) doesn't "waste" the coupon time. I suggest you do the same.

I called for an appointment and described what I needed to have done. He advised that my project wasn’t covered under the coupon and that I would owe him $178.00. I asked him if he could include the coupon price and he said he wouldn’t be able to do that. I went with another company.

Mark Sobon, Project Manager, is being investigated for the theft of my jewelry(est value $3,000.00). The facts are: Prior to start of my project, I emptied out my bedroom and valuables. The evening of June 22, we put everything back in the bedroom. There were only two contractors in the bedroom and bath after that. Crystal View, end of June, two workmen were left for approx 1 - 2 minutes unsupervised while I walked my dogs to the laundry room. After placing the dogs on the first floor laundry room, I sat on my bed and watched the workers unpack and install the shower enclosure. Whereas, Mark Sobon was left in the room unsupervised most of the time. he had been working on my home for months and I was complacent with his coming and going. The project was completed in late July. On 09/07/12, I went to retrieve my jewelry. The jewelry was suppose to be a wedding gift to my daughter on her wedding day. Both the sterling silver necklace with 7 large smoky topaz, and sterling silver over-sized cuff with milky pink rose quartz (total carat weight of both were over 100 carats in semi-precious stones) was gone. I texted Mark Sobon: At 10:06 AM on 09/07- "missing jewelry from pillowcase". 09/08 @ 6:31 AM - "investigation starts end week. i have faith u will do right. if not, hope u didn't leave fingerprints on bag." 09/08 @ 6:37 AM - "contact me". I didn't receive any response from Sobon I used the same cell number I had always used to contact Sobon. On Monday, 09/10/12 at 8:22 AM, I sent Mike Gable text: "the following 3 txt was sent to Sobon on Friday afternoon & Sat morning. No reply." Before I could send thelast text, owner Gable called me. He asked for an explanation. I told him about the missing jewelry. He was insistent that Mark Sobon could NOT have stolen the jewelry. I asked if Sobon would clear himself through polygraph test. Gable said, that would not be no problem. I'm confident he's innocent and would be happy to take polygraph test. The only thing I ask is that you give me a couple of days notice, so I can arrange the work schedule. It has been OVER six months, Sobon has NOT cleared himself, as promised. Unlike the LIBELOUS claims Gable has made, I have saved emails and phone records from all parties. In Jan. 2013, Det. Peter Stark wrote that: Under advisement of the company's lawyer, Sobon will not take the polygragh. The case remains open, but inactive. In April of 2013, Lt. Clark stated that Det. Stark claims that he did not speak to anyone with regards to the theft of my jewelry. No statements were made about my character. The case is still open. CMC has defamed my character without naming who they spoke to in the police department. Not only can I provide names of whom I have spoken to, I have documented everything. As for all the other claims Gable has made, I can prove they are false through saved phone records, visual inspections and saved emails. I'll see you in court!

I got a deal from Angie’s List for two hours of plumbing work. The experience was good and they were on time. They were friendly and very professional. They did a good job. I was appreciative of that deal and liked it that as well.

The guy was super nice and professional. He noted the hot-water valve was not open all the way. So he opened it up for us (and I appreciated he didn't make me feel like an idiot for not having figured that out by myself). However, a day and a half later, we realized it was leaking. Really badly. Leaked three floors all the way down to our basement. I don't believe he caused the leak, but he definitely should have checked it after opening it up full blast to make sure it wasn't leaking. We need to re-paint parts of our kitchen. He fixed the toilet by making some adjustments, but about 2 weeks later one of the parts broke so it makes a loud noise when it flushes, and again, is not flushing completely. He should have assessed it better and replaced the entire mechanism, instead of just adjusting it. I didn't bother calling them back because although we only used 15 minutes of the 2 hours we paid for, he had explained that if he would need to come back for anything, it would not be covered as part of the deal. So we need to call another plumber to fix the toilet. And paint the kitchen.

I had a leaky tub/shower in my new house that was causing water damage in the first floor ceiling. Central Plumbing responded to my email quickly and had someone there the next day. A leak from the tub was identified, fixed and tested. I asked whether the shower had been tested and was told it had. A few hours after the plumber left, I attempted to run the shower and discovered it was still leaking profusely- now through an open space in my ceiling which had to be removed to access the plumbing. I called the emergency line and received a prompt response. The plumber apologized for not thoroughly checking and was able to get me an appointment for first thing the next morning. The next day, a different plumber and his apprentice arrived. He was really great. He explained everything to me thoroughly, immediately identified, fixed and quadruple-checked the leak, and again apologized for his coworker having missed that particular leak. The regular trip charge was waived and I was just charged for labor. He also pointed out a few other things that I should look out for due to the way our builder designed the shower set up, and made some suggestions for installing access panels for future plumbing work. Despite the miss on the initial visit, the overall experience was really great, and I highly recommend using them. Having not used a plumber before, I feel like I could have been more vocal about double-checking the problem on the initial visit. I am not thrilled about having to pay twice when the second fix took well less than an hour, but I didn't try to negotiate and I feel like they may have been receptive to it if I had. I am also not familiar with other plumbers' pricing so I don't have anything to compare. They were extremely professional and kind and I would recommend them again.

These guys were very punctual, professional, and thorough. Not to mention friendly. Highly recommended.

He said I didn't need to replace it. He just tightened it and told me that I could get a refund for the deal. He was very professional and I appreciate that he didn't try to charge me for something that I didn't need.

overall the job was performed well

Excellent!i could not have asked for more Professional or friendly service.

Central Plumbing and Heating provided A1 service. I would consider them for future needs and recommend them highly.

The guy from Central Plumbing Heating & Air Conditioning was honest, fair pricing and he gave timely service.

Two men from Central Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning arrived exactly at the appointed time. They inspected our 21 year old working unit checking for the correct size and volume. They had to leave the premises going to a local plumbing supply to purchase the unit and install materials. In minutes they returned to remove the old gas water heater and had the replacement up and running much faster than I expected. I highly recommend this company. The only reason I entered a "B" for price is we found two local plumbing companies advertising lower prices. The other companies may have had unadvertised prices for replacing old fittings or some add on that would make their price higher than we paid. For peasc of mind I would use Central Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning again.

The plumber arrived promptly and quickly addressed a few issues we had around the house, including a leaky sink and improperly working toilet. In addition to fast, quality work, he also made recommendations and observations to help us in future plumbing decisions. I'll most likely be reaching out to them again to do some additional work replacing some fixtures this year.

I bought an Angie's list deal for this company ($99 for two hours of plumbing services). The deal was good, however, the catch is the materials pricing; $125 for materials for a small job was a high price in my opinion. I understand how business works and the issue's were resolved in a timely and professional manner so it is what it is. I already have a go to plumbing company who I have used for a while now and never had any issue's but I would use this company again if necessary.

The draincleaner/plumber arrived at time promised and cleaned my 2 interior drains and also cleaned the drain outside, only took about 40 mins. Great job.

Central Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning contacted me promptly to schedule the service. Service was scheduled and I took time off from work but the technician did not show up (no phone call or prior notice). Rescheduled. Took time off from work again. Technician arrived, looked at the sink and then left for about 45 minutes to an hour to pick-up 'parts'. The technician fixed the faucet handle and installed the flush valve (which I provided) and let me know that my two (2) hours was over. We did a load of wash that night and woke up to a flooded room. When 'fixing' the faucet handle the technician moved the stationary tub and cracked the drain pipe. Additionally, the flush value in the toilet was running non-stop. Called Central Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning and they can out the next day. They proceeded to tell me that the reason for the flood was a crack in the drain pipe. They confirmed that the technician did move the tub but the reason for the flood was that my pipes were old and worn out. The crack in the drain pipe was fixed with the caveat that Central Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning 'wasn't sure how long the repair would last', could not guarantee the repair and that they would send me an estimate to fix the problem 'correctly'. Now instead of a bothersome leaky faucet handle, I have the potential for another flood and, according to Central's written estimate, a $400 - $600 repair. Before Central Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning left I asked them to check the toilet. I was told that the flush value I proved was defective and that was why it was running continuously. Never did they offer to install a new flush valve or offer options, they just left. After they left I took a look at the toliet, the Central Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning technician had installed the safety chain incorrectly. I placed the chain in the postion indicated in the instructions and the problem was fixed. I'm still having trouble understanding why experienced plumbers could not install a flush valve correctly. Based on my experience with Central Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning I will not be engaging them on any future projects.

The plummer did the job quickly and thoroughly,checked for leaks and was done in about an hour.

They did a wonderful job. It was an individual. Everything went well and they even sent me a thank you card.

This was an Angie special. All work was done courteously, timely and professionally from scheduling of the appointment to completion of the job. Workers were careful not to spill water from the old heater in my finished basement. They cleaned up the work area and explained how to determine the unit was functioning properly. I was very satisfied.

They made a mistake, but they did come back and fix it.

All jobs performed as expected, no issues. Would recommend and use this company again.

On the day selected to install the new back-up pump, they didn't arrive at the specified time. An hour later, I called their office and left a message. They returned my call just as the plumbers (2) were pulling into the driveway. They set to work immediately within a very tight space in the laundry room where the sump pump is located. Since there's no outside entrance to the basement, they had to enter and exit through doors on the first floor. They laid materials on the floor so that there would be no soiling of the flooring. They worked about 5 hours on that day and were then called away on an emergency. They returned the following morning and worked several hours to finish up. They answered all of my questions clearly and explained the process by which the back-up would work. The office staff, as well, was very helpful and accommodating. I had previously received and estimate for the same work from another company which was much more that that from Central. Nice people, work well done, fair pricing.....I would certainly employ them again if the need arises.

Had 2 water heaters replaced