Classic Plumbing

Do not hire Classic Plumbing under any circumstances.  They are incompetent and unscrupulous.  

In early January 2018 we noticed a gas smell in our powder room.  As our contractor was at the house he cut the wall opened and determined that the gas smell was coming from a gas pipe running down through the foundation about 18 inches.  We called SW Gas who came to the house and confirmed that this information was correct.  We then had Classic Plumbing come out to repair the gas leak.   At the completion of the job they handed us an invoice for an unbelievable $6,050.06.  In looking at the invoice this is what I found:

To determine that that the leak was in the powder room as the contractor and SW Gas had already confirmed they billed us 12 hours for $1,072.50???

As the foundation needed to be jack hammered and dug up to fix the pipe I had my contractor do this work as well as refill the dirt and pour new concrete after the pipe was fixed.  Then Classic Plumbing fixed the pipe at a cost of $4,110.06???

After the pipe was fixed Bobbie Shenk, the owner of Classic Plumbing, said we still had a small leak somewhere else in the system.  After almost a full day of looking for this other small leak he said he could not find it and as he thought it was probably under ground outside he recommended we run a new gas line around the house to replace the existing one.  I told him I wasn't going to do that and to leave.   I then had SW Gas come out to turn the gas on the next day.  When the person from SW Gas got here he also said there was a small leak in the system and he was going to look for it. SW Gas found it within 10 minutes and had it fixed in another 10 minutes.   Bobbie Shenk charged me $867.50 to look for this leak, said he could not find it and then wanted to run a new pipe???  

In my opinion, Bobbie Shenk ripped me off.  I told him the cost was ridiculous and he said well that is just what it took and was unwilling to reduce the cost.  The next day when I called again he said he would reduce the bill $150 but no more.  

Either Bobbie Shenk is incompetent or he is unscrupulous and ripped me off.  I think he is both.  An honorable person would have understood that charging over $1,000 to confirm the location of an obvious leak was not reasonable, charging over $4,000 to fix a pipe is not reasonable and charging almost a $1,000 to find a small leak that SW Gas found in 10 minutes is not reasonable.  A person who sticks to their guns and charges the customer these wacky amounts in light of the above information is not honorable, they are unscrupulous out to make as much money no matter what.

I needed a new gas line installed at my house (gas meter was being relocated due to a leak and I wanted a new line between the meter and the furnace since the location of the leak was unclear). Called around and several places were too busy (end of Jan -- I needed heat ASAP, so I couldn't wait a couple weeks for the work to get done), some places didn't want to deal with the hassle of doing a permit with the city and a couple places said they'd come out, check out the amount of work and then give me an estimate. You can see my other reviews for the 2 who promised to come out with an estimate and then didn't show.

I spoke with Bobbie Shenk around 9:30 am on a Friday. He went out to our house and called me with an estimate by 1 pm. I agreed to have him do the work late that afternoon (just before 5 pm) and he worked on the permit over the weekend and had the permit taken care of with the city by 10 am on Monday. His guys were at the house starting the work around 10:30 am. They finished before 2 pm. Bobbie had already set up the city inspection (to sign off on the permitted work) for the next morning (set that appointment up when he went in for the permit -- knowing it would be ready to inspect the following day). And, not surprisingly, the inspection went fine.

I can't say anything about the cost (high, low, average) -- because I couldn't get anyone else to show up to give me an estimate and I needed to get the work done. But, Bobbie was true to his word in every aspect. From doing the estimate, to having the final bill match the estimated cost, and doing the permitting and dealing with the city. It was the smoothest part of the whole meter relocation fun we did. And, of course, the work got done correctly. There was one little hiccup/misunderstanding but we took care of it -- but Bobbie had also offered to fix it (old pipe wasn't removed and we just capped it off instead of having him come back to deal with it).

Overall, happy with the work and, most of all, happy to find a plumber in Tucson able to do the work and follow-up on what they said they'd do.

As a note, we've never had plumbing work done. We only knew about Classic Plumbing from a business card that had been stuck to our fridge for the last decade. We think he might have done the pre-purchase home inspection when we bought the house -- but we're not sure!

Classic plumbing has always been honest and fair.  They have done Servelatwürste jobs economically and with our interest in mind.

We have Classic Plumbing do lots of work for us. They are always on time and do excellent work. We just had our  whole house replumbed(gas and water from METER to house). They did everything like they said they would. Very happy and definitely recommend  them.