Michael & Son Services Richmond

They do good work but the cost is a bit pricey.

There was no problem with the actual service provided. Technician arrived on time and was professional. The issue was the price. My wife scheduled the installation and paid the bill. When I saw the "invoice" for $2072 I immediately demanded an itemized statement of cost, labor and supplies. Now almost two weeks later, I have still not received a breakdown as requested. I have spoken with 3 different reps on the phone in addition to sending multiple emails about an itemization. All I have heard thus far from Michael & Sons is that "they don't itemized labor charges." Hmmm. Imagine that. The actual unit was likely $800 max. There was one technician and he was at our house for 2.5 hours. The water heater was installed in large garage with extremely easy access. Even though Michael & Sons refuses to provide an itemized bill, it appears based on the average cost of a 40 gallon State water heater that the labor for the installation came to $500/hour. This is beyond ridiculous. I will continue to obtain an itemized statement and will update this review once I do, although I am not holding my breath.

I have used them many times for many things.

Way overcharged. Do not disregard the bad reviews. Quality of work was OK, and they were professional, but I couldn't find ANYONE else that charged as much as they charged me for the water heater and installation. It was DOUBLE the other estimates. Do yourself a favor and DO YOUR RESEARCH.

The young man called first and arrived right on time. He was very friendly and personable. We thought the price seemed somewhat high but had the work done anyway, party because we had a val-pak coupon. It took less than a half hour to install the new lights. He did a very professional job. He then tried to sell us a maintenance agreement which we did not need because our appliances are covered by an agreement with Dominion Resources and our air conditioning will be under warranty for two more years.

I have never given a bad review on Angie's List, but this company really irritated me in regards to the services provided to my mom's HVAC system. After servicing the HVAC, a check was provided to the representative immediately after coming to our house. Then, we received a call from the company's representative claiming that we had "voided" the check. I said how could we have voided the check--you have it. I said, have you ripped it up on mistake, and the representative confessed that they had mistakenly shredded the check and that we should write a new one. She claimed that a rep would come that afternoon and pick it up. No one came, and we called the company again. To make a long story short, they finally picked up the check the next day. We warned the representative on the phone that we would put a stop payment order on the first check because this sounded suspicious to us. Stopping the check was especially irritating because we had several repair people at the house and we had to take my 93 year old mom to the bank to issue the stop payment. Then, we received a call several days later from a representative who was upset that we had put a stop payment on the first check! We received the second check marked “voided” in the mail. Now, the company is requesting a third check. We definitely went with a different company with an A rating I found on Angie's List for the new HVAC system! Too many competent companies out there to use!

Michael & Son gave me an estimate of $2,000.00. I may be a single woman but I am not an idiot and I told them that there is no way I am paying that amount of money. I had the exact same work done by Foster Electric who charged me $412.00 total and were prompt and pleasant.

They showed up, they called and did the job correctly.

I don't think that we got them from Angie's List because we had a problem when we first got acquainted with them. They were a little bit late that day, I didn't realize because my phone was down. They said that they tried to call and let me know that they would be late. I don't know what they could do to get a better grade because they were pretty good. With the phones out, I don't know if they called or didn't call but normally, they do. They left the area as clean as they found it, if not better. I have told a friend about them.

This was the WORST experience I have ever had with a contractor. Within 30 minutes of my signing a contract with them, they began reneging on every promise they made. They did not begin working on the hand digging that day, they started late the next day, they did not complete the job properly, so it failed the county inspection, causing further delays. The main worker took numerous smoke breaks and left for over 2 1/2 hours at lunchtime. Worst of all, he did not put up caution tape surrounding the holes he dug. This led to my 14 year old dog falling into the hole by the meter. He was hurt and covered with mud, and it took me a couple of hours to calm him down and clean him up. I have had several conversations with people about my experience, and virtually everyone says that Michael & Son is the most expensive plumber there is. I am not surprised. They upsold me on everything they could think of. Even the county inspector commented on the new pipe being way more than I needed. I complained to the supervisor that called me to confirm that my service was completed, telling her much of the story I have related here, and saying I wanted to talk to a manager. No one from M&S has contacted me. They never even gave me the paperwork on the job being completed or on the service contract they sold me for my heat pump (so I could get a 10% discount on the plumbing service). I certainly have no desire to have anyone from their company anywhere near my house again. If there was a way to cancel the service contract, I would, but I am afraid if I did that, they would bill me for the amount they discounted from the repair service. I cannot believe that Angie's List would recommend any company that would provide such terrible service and show such a crappy attitude when a customer complains. It appears that the only thing M&S cares about is money.

I just wanted to let everyone know how impressed I am with all of the Michael and Son technicians with whom I have had the pleasure of working for the last couple of months while we have been making improvements to our newly purchased home in Fishersville, Virginia. Kevin and Nate (from Richmond)--the technicians who performed the encapsulation of the crawlspace. What awesome attitudes! Such a pleasure to meet professional, intelligent young men who take their job seriously and wish for the customer's 100% satisfaction. Robert Rhoades--Replaced well pump and tank. Excellent, knowledgeable, and kind. Ricky Keyton--Assessed the plumbing needs of the house and barn and replaced whole house filter. Super nice, knowledgeable and helpful. Joey and Derek--Electricians who replaced fire/CO2 alarms. Super nice, knowledgeable, sweet! Brian--the HVAC guy. Very knowledgeable, helpful! Allen--the HVAC cleaner from Harrisonburg. Super guy. Hard worker! If one is going to spend the kind of money we did (+ or - $12K), it certainly helps to have the technicians be so friendly and willing to serve the customer's needs. It takes an informed employer to find workers like Nate, Kevin, Robert, Ricky, Joey, Derek, Brian, and Allen. Congratulations! Michael and Son has exceeded my expectations--again! You have a customer for life!

I purchased a brand new hot water heater from Home Depot on a Saturday at 1000 in the morning. When you purchase before noon, same day install is provided by Michael & Sons. When the tech from Home Depot called to schedule it, he was told by the Michael & Sons service representative that she only had one tech for the day and he was booked; they would not be able to install until Monday and the quote was over $500 for the install at a minimum! The Home Depot guy explained that they are contracted for same day install if purchased before noon, but she was unable to help. I went home and started my own search for a plumber. I found a great family owned business, who's owner was prior military. He came out immediately, quickly installed it, and even fixed another issue that my deployed spouse wanted corrected for $325! When you walk into your garage to find water running out onto the floor, it's an emergency that needs immediate attention and you just want someone to provide good customer service to resolve it, especially when they are contracted to do so. Michael & Sons basis their reputation on name recognition by spending lots of money on advertising, but definitely NOT on doing the job they are contracted to do. I have a bathroom remodel coming up, and of course I will NOT be hiring Michael & Sons to do the job!.

When I called the company, every customer service rep I spoke to was professional and courteous. The technician himself was professional enough and ran through the full estimate. I definitely felt like I was being upsold on things, but I was very concerned about having water leaking through the ceiling so I authorized the work. I declined the "luxury" toilet he kept trying to sell and went with a mid grade. Low and behold though, his manager "approved" installing the luxury toilet for the mid grade price. Seemed sketchy to me, but I had already signed and authorized the work. The technician completed the work and I have not had any further issues with leaks, however the toilet is already loose and wobbly less than 3 weeks later! This is my first home, so I have never purchased a toilet before and didn't do due diligence research on how much new ones would cost. When I found out I had been charged $818 for a "mid-grade" toilet, and quoted $945 for a "deluxe" toilet, when the Kohler cimarron standard height 2 piece toilet they installed retails for at most $406 directly from Kohler and as low as $200 from Lowe's, I was absolutely livid. This company will 100% upsell and rob you blind if you hire them. I recently had a plumber from a different company out for a free estimate on another project. He informed me that many companies, including Michael and Son, pay their employees on commission so you're going to experience up-charging and up-selling. There were no labor costs on my invoice so I believe he is correct. I will not be hiring this company again, everyone has to make money but this is absurd.

Repairman was professional and punctual. That wasn't the issue. The issue is that they quoted me over $300 to reseal a simple American Standard toilet. Kelleher is a local plumber who quoted us $100 over the phone for the same work. So, why does M&S think they can charge me over 300% more than their competitors for what we found to be a $20, 15-minute DIY job???? WOW. At first, we thought they were accidentally giving us commercial quotes, not residential, but that was not the case. Additionally, they wanted $256 to swap out an old bathroom faucet for the same model. Is there a such thing as "plumbing price gouging?" If there is than our experience may meet that criteria. They also required a $29 fee just to visit, and we could not ask them to invoice us. We had to pay it right there with credit, check or cash. Investigate DIY or go with another company that gives free estimates. I'm looking at the estimate from M&S right now having a laugh.

The electric in our living room / dining area and garage suddenly went out during a rain storm. After checking we determined that the circuit breaker 'popped'. Rather than attempting anything that might cause considerable damage we decided to call an electrician. We had heard good recommendations about Michael & Son so we gave them a call early the next morning. They set up an appointment for that afternoon [noon to 4 pm] and arrived shortly after 3 pm. The electrician, Michael Whitlock Sr inspected the circuit box and he then explained to us the cost for troubleshooting. We agreed to move forward with the cost and he proceeded to diagnose our problem. After a step-by-step inspection of our homes' wiring system he determined that a buried power cable that was used for a yard light prior to our purchasing the home was causing the problem. We had been told that at one time there had been a pole out front but we did not know that the wiring had not been removed and was still 'live'. He asked if we planned to put up a light in the yard and we indicated that we had never considered it and we had no desire to install one. At that time he disconnected the wiring. The problem was definitely resolved to our satisfaction. We feel that the electrician was extremely knowledgeable and answered all our numerous questions including explaining what he was doing as he proceeded.

The technician, Steven, was very nice. He explained how water heaters and things worked in effort to figure out what might be causing the problem. I felt that he was patient and honest.

Ric was on time and very professional. He explained the repair and let me know upfront what the costs would be. Line was replaced from old copper to steel braided line. Service was done in timely manner and was neat and clean.

We had an electrical issue in the attic. It blew out the hot water heater. He was able to patch the cable. Everything went well. He was on time and only charged us the service fee. The repair was quick and efficient.

They were horrible. I fired them and I know a bunch of other people that fired them. This past winter we had really low temperatures and all over the city pipes were bursting. They just wanted business so bad that they just really did not do a good job at all. I fired them. The job still isn't done. I need to hire somebody else to get it finished. But, I know I was not alone. I know a lot of people. They were running all these advertisements and they just couldn't keep up with the business. They wouldn't show up on time. My bathroom ceiling and my closet ceiling still are unpainted. That was before I fired them. The guy just never came back. They just really did a horrible job. The whole thing was supposed to cost $2400. They ended up getting $1800. The worst part was, people not showing up either one time or at all because they were at other jobs that were taking them longer than they were supposed to. everybody was understanding because we were all on the same boat. In my particular case, I had use vacation time from work. So, for me to take two to three hours of vacation time and then sit at home and have nobody show up or nobody even call so I could have gone back to work, that just to me is bad business. That was probably my biggest gripe - the lack of communication. Actually across the board it was lack of communication because I would call and inquire about staff and they said they would have somebody call me right back and then I'd never hear from anybody. The guy that did the electrical work was Johnny-on-the-spot. He was very courteous and a hard worker. He alone kind of made up for some of the bad stuff. The very very very first guy that came out when I first called, when I was freaking out and there was water everywhere was good. They have three divisions and the problem is that they would not talk to each other. They have an electrical division. They have a plumbing division and then they have a division that does water smoke damage. The guys that were here for those three days were good. But then after that, it just all went downhill in a hurry. There were three particular ones that did do what they were supposed to and did a good job.

I had an appointment for the 10am-2pm time range. At noon, Michael and Sons called me to tell me the technician was still on a call but would make the time frame, which was by 2:00pm. I proceeded to take leave from work to wait for the technician to arrive. The technician did not arrive until 3:35pm. I took valuable leave time for "nothing." After the technician left, I called to ask why on one was able to call me to tell me about a late arrival, explaining that I had just wasted valuable leave time from work. They seemed genuinely disinterested and could not give me an answer. I asked to speak to upper management. She told they were in northern virginia and she would request that they call me. I requested they transfer me there, and she said she could not do that, she would request they call me. They have not called me. I will not be using Michael and Sons again.

The tech was very courteous and knowledgable. It took him about 45 minutes to snake the drain and another 15 minutes to perform the estimate. Unfortunately when I presented a $100 off coupon he refused it and instead said the best he could do was apply a %10 off. 3 weeks later and a negative Google review later management calls me to trade my negative Google review for the difference in coupons. I did not appreciate the tech spending 10 minutes trying to up sell me on a laundry list of unnecessary & unrelated services. I called them into my home to fix a specific problem not to solicit me for more money. I also called their manager after the tech left with a question about the coupon and a question about the gas line installation and never got a call back! Prompt and high quality work but goodness is it expensive and apparently the only way to get management to call you is to leave a bad review. I'd rather take my money elsewhere.

The guy was nice. He did what he was supposed to do and was informative.

Employees were very businesslike and did a great job. Explained all the details to us

The provider came to my house, charged me the $29 fee ,which I was aware and was not a problem since this was communicated to me at the time of scheduling the estimate. HOWEVER, it is 5 days later and I still do not have an estimate. In the meantime, I have had several other plumbers come to my residence for a quote (AT NO COST) and received a written estimate within 24 hours. I called to get my money back and hopefully I will see this reflected on my bill soon. Unacceptable delay in getting the estimate to me. Pay less attention to being a big company and more attention to customer service especially since you have the customer pay for the estimate.

There prices are outrageous and they tried to talk to you about everything from A-Z. They wanted to sell me the smallest generator for they had and charged my double.