These folks are the ones my landlady chose, years ago, clearly by just opening the phone book and picking the first plumbers listed alphabetically. They are difficult to get ahold of and display zero interest in calling back.
Sometimes, when I call, I get someone. Sometimes I get a message asking me to wait while they locate the Nextel customer I am calling. Sometimes they can't hear me. Sometimes it rings and rings, and I leave a message, and NEVER get a call back. Sometimes I get a busy signal - what did I do? Call the PAST? Sometimes it rings twice and then the line goes dead. And, my favorite: sometimes someone picks up, makes meaningless noises (as if a three year old accidentally picked up the phone, which for all I know is exactly what is happening) and hangs up again.
Last year they did some work without clearing it with the landlady first, and she refused to pay for it and (she's a real keeper herself) told them to just come back and tear it out. We're still battling over who is going to pay it. What pisses me off is that when I argued that it was not a cosmetic repair but an actual needed repair, and that the landlords should pay it, the guy who runs the company, Fred - who made the call to go ahead with the work without permission in the first place - wouldn't back me up at all and implied to them that it wasn't necessary and that he would be happy to have me pay him instead. And threatened never to come do repairs here again if I didn't.
They may be better-behaved to homeowners. Their reaction anytime I make an appointment (at the request of the landlords) is to call the landlords' handyman and do whatever HE says without communicating with me at all. For example, the other week he asked me to make an appointment with them; I did; and then according to them, they called him to find out if he would be there to let them in (why did they think that I called if not to make sure I or another tenant would be there to let them in?) and - supposedly - he said something about how the problem was with the washing machine instead of the sink, and they decided not to come. And *didn't tell me they weren't coming.*
And my girlfriend took several hours off work, took the bus home, and waited around for hours without getting a call from them. And left them messages. And got no reply. And I called repeatedly on Saturday, left messages, and never got a reply. I didn't find out what happened until I finally reached them myself on Tuesday - and their reason for not coming sounds like insane bullcrap, frankly.
The actual plumbers who work for them do an okay job, but who can ever get one?
Hilariously, they have a website that says - in huge red italics - At Abante Plumbing, Inc. our goal is to be the leading plumbing company throughout the Bay Area region by delivering the highest value and performance - through superior representation, quality, technology, service and support, customization, and financial stability - enabling us to provide YOU with the highest level of satisfaction. I don't know who wrote that, but goddamn is it crazy. Apparently it's not whoever wrote, lower on the page, Over 90% of our business are from fully satisfied repeated customers.