Zepp Plumbing & Heating

During the recent cold snap my kid took a hot shower so long that I felt sure he had washed at least partly down the drain.  So when I took my shower later I was dismayed but unsurprised that there was no hot water for me.  However, the next morning, there was still no hot water.  And, more dismay for me:  the heating in my condo didn't work.  With 12 degree temperatures outside, and 55 and sinking inside, I called Zepp.

The friendly dispatcher (Mia?) said she could have a technician to me in 2 hours.  Within 30 minutes she called back and said they were 5 minutes away.  Two technicians came, and within 5 minutes, they had checked the gas lines and restarted the pilot light on my hot water heater.  Of course I had tried to do this myself, but had not held down primer button long enough after hitting the igniter.  Or something like that, or possibly way stupider.  Anyway, they kinda saved my life, and therefore were free to charge a lot.

But they did not charge a lot.  In fact, they did not charge at all.  I insisted they charge.  The insisted they not charge.  We got into a bit of a tussle, but between the two of them they wrestled my credit card back into my hand and made a break for the door and whatever water heaters and lives that needed saving next.

I'm not going to name the technicians so they don't get in trouble for not charging me, but I am grateful to both them and to Zepp for making my condo habitable again during this frigid stretch (because, yeah, the heater runs off the hot water somehow).

Zepp demands 5 star reviews, even when they fail to preform, as a condition of doing the work.  After 3 failed appointments, and three wasted days off work, I left a negative review for Zepp Plumbing on Google.  When I received a call from the owner, I asked him to help make sure that the work gets done.  He refused to do so, stating that he does not work for anyone who gives him negative feedback, even in cases where that feedback is earned.  He did not dispute that the negative review was well-earned.  He blamed his staff.

I can't recommend them.
We had work done in our previous home with the master bath toilet. I was away and my husband was home and didn't check on them. The tech was to replace the wax seal on the toilet. I got home 2 weeks later to see a weird color in the flooring next to the toilet. I pushed on it and it was squishy. I called a plumber the neighbor recommended and he pulled the toilet off IN FRONT OF ME to find 2 wax seals.
Zepp didn't remove the old wax seal they just put the new one on top of the old one which caused the actual drain hole to close up and it was leaking under my flooring. Mike fixed the issue and became my plumber for over 18yrs. It was a sad day in my house when he retired.

The guy was friendly enough and seemed to fix the problem. My diverter for my tub needed to be replaced. He did the work but I thought it was a bit expensive. Over the holidays water from my tub leaked into my kitchen below. Why?  The diverter wasn't installed well. It needed more of a seal.  This time I called a different plumber. Won't be using zepp again.

We had an emergency plumbing issue that happened to be a breaker/power issue but didn't know that when we called.  Zero came out within 15 minutes and figured it out immediately and even showed me what needed to be corrected with the power supply.  Reasonable charges as well.  Will call them first next time we need a plumber!

Good work but super expensive

Both Andrew and Sean have done work at my house for various problems.  Both are very knowledgeable, helpful, and do a great job.

I find Zepp's prices outrageous, however.  For example, they have a standard charge of $750 to replace an instant hot faucet with a cheaply made-in-China faucet, no matter how long the plumber takes to replace it.  

I deducted a star for the outrageous prices, but their plumbers are excellent.

Edit:  After the sticker shock of paying $700 for the instant hot (our plumber bumped it down by $50), my husband and I contacted the owner, Eddy Zepp about his pricing, as we felt really ripped off.  Had we been quoted that price up front, we wouldn't have approved the job.

To his credit, Mr. Zepp called us back and explained his pricing:  As of January 1, 2016, Zepp charges $250 an hour, up from $200 an hour last year, and replacing an instant hot is considered to be a 2 hour job, no matter how long it takes.  The faucet that I had priced online at $200 max, according to Zepp, cost him $250 at a plumbing supply house, and he sold it to me at his cost with no mark up.  He apologized that his plumber forgot to give us a quote up front, and for that, is sending us a $50 credit on a future job.

I have nothing against Mr. Zepp and his plumbing business.  It's been a locally-owned business in this community/his family for generations.  In fact, I hope he does well.

But I'm not going to pay $250 an hour for plumbing, even good plumbing, if I can avoid it.  He's priced himself out of the market, at least for this customer.

When our 2003 era water heater stopped working on a Sunday I looked around and found a water heater at Home Depot and asked them to have their contacts put one in for us. They promised response within 24 hours.  I noticed their installer does not get really good reviews, so I asked my handyman for a recommendation. He said Zepp Plumbing is not the least expensive, but they give good service and people have been happy with them. So I called Sunday and asked for a return call when they opened. Monday they called me promptly at 7:30. Their guy was here by 9:30 and was able to relight my pilot. It cost me all of $88. I am a happy camper. Meanwhile, Home Depot's installer never has called me.

Eddie and Ben were excellent.  Very polite, knowledgeable and able to execute our bathroom renovation.  Would highly recommend to anyone looking for a reliable and reasonably price professional.

A couple of months ago my son took a bath, and when he tried to turn off the water, it wouldn't turn off! My husband and I found the water shut-off to the upstairs which slowed the water to a trickle (naturally, it was the hot water that kept trickling) and I called Zepp. I had used Zepp before for a laundry list of things: hard-to-turn sink faucet, running toilets, new shower head, etc. and knew they were knowledgeable and friendly. The nice dispatcher said they could come first thing the next morning. At 7:30 am, Eddie came. He quickly found a way to turn off just that faucet so that we could have water in the rest of the house. The problem turned out to be a valve inside of the Kohler faucet (pretty faucets but somehow they all seem to get a problem of one sort or another, and plumbers usually don't like them because they often don't have standard replacement parts). So, now we knew the problem but the valve would not slide out like it was supposed to.  I was envisioning a nightmare scenario of having to cut the entire faucet out of the TILE wall, etc. But, Eddie asked if I had a couple of pieces of wood around, like a 2 X 4 or something, so we rummaged my garage and found a thick dowel and something else. I couldn't imagine what Eddie was going to do, but with me holding one piece of wood, he leverage that valve out of the faucet.  I was so afraid the force we were using would pull the pipe apart but Eddie knew what he was doing and all went well.  Then, since this was a Kohler part, he didn't have it on his truck so drove to Laurel to a shop, purchased the correct part, returned, and put it in! Voila! A perfectly working faucet again!  Then he gave me good advice about the shut-off's for our water sources. Apparently, those round handles are not as good as the single handle levers that turn 90 degrees. The round handles can work loose and eventually stop holding the water.  Anyway, Eddie wrote up the bill, which was reasonable, especially since another plumber probably would not have kept trying to get that valve out and would have turned it into a big faucet replacement job.  I'm glad that Eddie had the experience and practical sense to know that he could leverage that valve out. I don't think many plumbers would have done that.   It is great to have a local company that can fix any plumbing issue.  Next on my list:  get those round handles replaced with the straight shut-offs!

Thank you all for making my ability to shut off water to my washer & tub basin. Andrew was a true professional ! And I have always learned new plumbing tips from the employees, who are attentive, efficient, & do a very good job of cleaning up after the job is complete. Also, thanks for the thank you card. In this day & age it is nice to get a snail mail because it shows more kind consideration. I would tell anyone I know to use Zepp for your plumbing & heating needs.

Eddie and Sean were great! Our old hot water tank was leaking and ended up flooding our basement guest room. When we used another plumbing company to get a quote, they were outrageous and tried to tell us we needed to fix a code issue when in reality we didn't. Eddie spoke to my husband several times on the phone to give us some advice and Sean came to the house to replace the tank and upgrade a few things. Their price was very fair and they were super friendly and explained everything to us in great detail. We were very impressed and will continue to use them in the future!