Just before Thanksgiving, our toilet was backed up, followed by our bathtub. I called around, including Wizard Plumbing, who said they could send someone out that evening as an emergency call for $375. When I called Bell Plumbing, they said they could get someone out for a free estimate between 4 and 6pm. At about 7:10pm, Mike from Sewer Rat showed up with a truly surly attitude. He told us it'd be $485 to even begin diagnosing what the problem was. So, HE was late, but was going to charge US an emergency rate without saying so much. However, at that point, being so late in the evening on Thanksgiving eve, we felt stuck, so regrettably had to tell him to go ahead. He wouldn't answer our questions, so I was going to call back Bell Plumbing during business hours to settle this unfortunate experience later. First priority was to fix the problem. More than one hour and $485 later, he said our sewer line was broke, problem unresolved.
How did this experience turn into 5 stars (rounding up from 4.5), when it should have been a negative rating, if yelp had one? Andrew Clark. He explained our options on the phone--at this point close to 9pm--and said he'd come do a diagnosis on Friday morning after Thanksgiving at no charge to us. It turned out there were roots in our sewer pipe (which is apparently common in these parts), and the repairs included not only replacing part of the pipe but the lateral connection to the City main (which required an emergency encroachment permit). Because of Thanksgiving, there were delays in finishing up the work, but the Bell Plumbing team first made sure our sewer line was cleared. Andrew himself came to our house 3 times to clear the clog in my bathtub. Beyond getting our problem resolved, like other reviews said, he's a very good communicator and the consummate professional.
I'm quite sure Bell Plumbing was not the cheapest option, and I'd have liked the hole in our backyard to have been filled more quickly than a week. However, all in all, the team, led by Andrew, got the urgent part of the problem resolved on a timely basis, despite how it started with Mike from Sewer Rat. So, I feel good about recommending Bell Plumbing, and will probably use them again, should the need arise.