Clarke Kent Plumbing

I called Clarke Kent Plumbing at 8:30 on a Monday morning. By 9:15 Five had come, fixed my disposal, and wished me a good day. I have used this company for many years, and they are always professional and have a wonderful customer service ethic. They are consistently a pleasure to work with - and pleasure and plumbing problems usually don't go in the same sentence.

I called Clarke Kent on the afternoon of Good Friday after three other plumbers told me they couldn't get anyone out to look at our clogged kitchen sink until Monday at the earliest. They sent Casey out within an hour of my call. He was very polite and professional and went out of his way to keep our light-colored carpet clean when bringing his equipment in. He cleared the clog in the sink and took a look at our sprinkler system, which has a slow leak, and showed me how to shut it off from the water line. I was impressed with the speed, thoroughness and professionalism of the job and will certainly recommend them in the future.

They took advantage of the fact that we had this work done on our rental property. Meaning we weren't there to watch ourselves. Our tenants also did not keep us informed. This company trashed the outside of the home. They smashed flower beds, broke concrete, etc. They weren't easy to work with at all. There were many discrepencies regarding the warranties. According to the tenants, they basically send kids to do the work. Completely unprofessional.

Gave me estimate 2 weeks earlier. Showed up promptly on day of appointment. Came in very close to estimate. Had a young man name Billy who did a very professional job. Would use Billy again and Clarke Kent again!!!!

They did not try to upsell me to the latest and greatest water heater. They helped me get a quality one that would meet my needs.

Clarke Kent Plumbing is horrible. I called them to do some work. They gave me two or three different times, but they never showed up. When I finally called them to ask them not to come, they came out once. They didn’t know what they were here for. They said they’d come back but they never did.

When he arrived, he told me they would have to do a full house air check that would require a city permit and that it would cost $1500. When I told him I would need to think about it, he said I had to pay him $100 for coming out (he had only been here for 15 minutes and was trying to charge me about $50 more than I was told over the phone). I was about pay him the check when a dispatcher called and said to not pay him and that they were sending a manager out. He left, and I called the company back to tell them to not come out. After that, I called a plumber who was a friend, and he was able to fix the problem (and a little extra work, too!) for only $90.

Overall it went well. It was a smelly process and the toilet broke when we had a house full of people. But the plumber was very quiet.

They're very good. They came the same day that I called him. They checked out the problem and offered to come back the next afternoon in order to save us money. Their workers were very professional and personable. They cut no corners. They told us how we could prevent the same problem in the future. I appreciate that they tried to work with us regarding the price. Their price was competitive. They were right on.

The quote had 2 different workers at 2 different rates, one worker and one assistant. When they came out to do the job, there was only one guy that came out, so I asked them to adjust the quote because the hourly rate was not correct. They said they would go back to the office and requote me. I didn't hear from them the next day, so I kept calling them and they wouldn't return my calls. I ended up getting a quote from another plumber who did the job very well for about half the price. If I had been someone who wasn't accustomed to quotes, I would have gone ahead and let them do the job at the price they had originally quoted me when it was based on 2 people with 2 different hourly rate and only 1 showed up to do the work at a lower hourly rate.

Swimmingly. The guy showed up on time, was polite and professional and did everything we asked of him.

The customer service wasn't exceptional, but it wasn't poor. If it had been poor I wouldn't have used them. I have no complaints about them.

I called the gas company for service at my vacant house. The gas company came and flagged the house and I was told to call a plumber to have my gas lines checked. I called Clarke Kent. One day later, my call was returned, and the earliest possible service was four days later. No problem. Woody, the service person, came out and within moments of arriving called the office to report a "pulled gas meter." This was apparently the start of the problem. Doing this starts a chain of events with the city, which results in the need for a full city inspection after the work has been performed. Meanwhile, he set about testing and repairing the gas line. When he left, he scheduled the city inspection. Fast forward to when the city inspector came. He inspected all gas lines in the house & flagged several items to fix. He then informed Woody and I that for a faulty gas line, Clarke Kent should not have called in the particular inspection they called (pulled meter). This was what required him to come in the house and check every single gas-related item (including smoke detectors and the dishwasher, etc). Had they called in the correct permit (gas line - vacant house), he would have simply come to the house, checked the pressure in the gas line, and left. So -- I wasn't planning to fix these additional items at this time, but we decided to go ahead. However, I would at least have expected that the owner of Clarke Kent would credit me the cost of re-inspection ($75), or give me some other retribution for the extra trouble we experienced at their fault. Woody spoke to the owner (Gary Hacker) in my presence, but did not let me speak to him. He told me to call him at the office later, which I did. I called Clarke Kent and requested to speak to Gary on 3 separate occasions. Each time, I was told he'd already left for the day or was in a meeting, and he'd call me back. I did not receive a single phone call. Today, I called the office to schedule our final inspection. I told the receptionist that I wanted both Katherine (who schedules) and Gary to call me back, that I'd called him 3X before, etc. Katherine called me back a short while later. After scheduling the re-inspection, I asked to speak to Gary and was told he'd left the office. I explained my frustration, and she said she'd look into it and call me back. A short while later, she called and offered to mail me some documentation about permitting in Austin. How this is helpful, I have no idea. She also said she'd looked at call logs to see when I'd called, and found no record of my calls, implying that I'd lied instead of acknowledging that her office staff is incompetent. She added that there were no messages on Gary's voicemail from me either, which is interesting because the receptionist told me he didn't have voicemail. Result: it's not even the money at issue anymore; it's the very poor customer service and insulting treatment we received. I will never use this company again.

I felt the price was too high. He did what he was supposed to do, but it was an awful lot of money. He did a good job.

I was happy to get them there quickly! The service man was great. Did not waste time and cleaned up after himself.

They did come and do the work and they arrived on time. They did do a pretty good job. We had the city of Austin inspector come in and check the work and there were a few problems that he felt the water lines should be more secure to the wall, secondly the water supply lines appeared to be cramped and lastly the electric water heater needs to be at least 93% minimum or more efficient. I have called and left messages, but still have not gotten a hold of them.

After an initial scheduling mix-up (an appointment scheduled by telephone 2 days in advance was inadvertently dropped from the books), a supervisor showed up within 30 minutes to complete the evaluation and repair. He was thorough, and very generous about educating me in the use and care of the pump, and about how to manage future repairs in a practical and cost-effective manner.

On Thursday afternoon a man came and gave me a bid. I talked him into $200.00 less. The next morning the work was done. The trench was left open for the city to come and inspect the work. The city inspectors were slow to get here, because a lot of them were helping with Hurricane Ike. As soon as it was inspected, it was closed and all was well done.

This turned out to be an extensive job. A walk-through exists between house and garage so pipes had to be run across this open area and insulated and hidden, then around two walls in garage to location where washer and dryer would be placed. Gas line too had to be run from house through the open area walk-through (hidden again) and then across two walls. Pipes outside had meet a certain code because sunlight hit them. This job took many more days than estimated and we were not charged one extra penny. Many trips had to be made to bring this/that/the other that turned out to be necessary and which couldn't be known ahead of time. Inspection passed all city codes. Excellent job! Excellent responsiveness.

I called Clarke Kent Plumbing and asked if they would be able to complete the job we wanted done. I was assured they could not only do the work, but were interested in the job. We set-up an appointment for a free estimate between 8am and 5pm. I waited at the house all day, and of course they came right at 5pm. The company sent two guys, who were nice enough, but didn't seem that interested in the job (but they didn't say that). They spent an entire 5 minutes looking at the job and told me they would email the estimate to me. They never sent the email, nor did they ever call. I don't think I would be that upset if they would have just said, "we are not interested". Instead I waited all day for them to come and didn't even receive the estimate. I guess that is why they are called Clarke Kent Plumbing, instead of Superman Plumbing.

After canceling plumbing appt., rec'd call requesting to send a technician over to get paid for gas inspection. They were able to make it to pick up a payment, but not able to make it to the scheduled service call.

Bids were received from several contractors. Clarke Kent was the low bid and were available to start work on the project right away (which is good because the lines were backing up in our house!). All work was performed on time, on budget, and in a very professional manner. Since having the work completed, we had one problem where the line coming out of our house needed repaired (this was not part of the original scope). Clarke Kent came out immediately and repaired the problem at no charge. We have been very pleased with their service and have also used them to purchase and install a tankless hot water system in our rear apartment. We highly recommend their services.

My experience with this company was great! They showed up on time and went directly to work. They installed two new toilets and plumbing for four new sinks. They were very neat and professional and completed the work in a timely manner. However, after the job was completed we had some leaking from one of the new toilets installed which caused damage to the downstairs ceiling. They came right out, corrected the problem and painted the ceiling for us. We were very satisfied and impressed that they stood strongly behind their work. I would recommend then anytime.

This was the first time I have used their services. They showed up on time, were professional, explained what the problem was, got the job done and cleaned up afterwards.

The service man was supposed to call between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm on 6/12. He called at 8:30 am. So I had to return to the house before I had planned to at 9:00 am. When he got here, he did his very best to talk me out of pulling the bowl. He said he was concerned about causing damage to the counter top. That caused my wife and I some concern, and I had to make up my mind to commit to replacing the counter top if necessary. It turned out that he had never pulled a Kohler drop in bowl. The bowl easily came out with no damage to the counter top. The only thing holding it down was the weight of the bowl and caulking. I got the replacement bowl and Clarke Kent was supposed to call me between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm on the next day. I called them at 2:00 pm and they said a service man would be at the house by 2:30 pm. I got to the house at 2:15 pm and the service man arrived at 3:15 pm. Their office is just 9.5 miles from my home. When he left, he left the empty bowl box in our driveway. I can only conclude that this man knew very little about the work that he was supposed to do and tried his best to avoid starting the job and then completing it. They have a rating sheet that I filled out on their first call. I gave them high marks when the bowl came out without damage to the counter top. I refused to fill one out the second time.