Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of Indianapolis

Glad the rep from BFP was able to come out same day. Very disappointed they don't give estimates and disappointed that the bill was almost $400 for repairing a PVC that had broken in two separate pieces.  I understand there was around two feet of plywood cutting to reach the other end of the PVC but I'm still floored at the basic price. I was not there at the time, but when I talked to the technician on the phone to go over the bill he asked for my credit card. I told him I was next in line for a purchase and could I call him back. His response was if you don't call back in 10 minutes I'm adding another $89 to your bill. Time is money but that was unnecessary. I also did not like the fact that there was no breakdown of what I spent as far as parts and labor. The rep said there was a two year warranty, but that should be up to the customer especially if it dictates a price increase. So in a nutshell the price and customer service definitely could have been better. Recommend shopping around and getting a quote.

I received fantastic service this morning! After the landscaper turning on the outdoor spigot the water would not shut off. The yard was a muddy mess after running for two day unnoticed by me Brian from Benjamin Franklin Plumbing fixed this and a pesky running toilet. He was very neat, wore booties, quick, professional and knowledgeable. He had to cut a hole
In my closet to get the the necessary area and as you can see here did a fabulous job!

I used a coupon $89  from value pack also opted for a toilet repair to save a additional $30 for two items. The final cost was reasonable.

Ok they didn't show up early but everything else went to plan! We even added a few extras and it was taken care of. Professional, great cleanup, timely! Since we purchased the Maintenance Agreement we get a small percentage off future jobs for a year so we'll be calling them back without hesitation! Already making my list....

Great team! The receptionists were very informative about pricing and quick to get me scheduled. Mike O. my plumber was communicative, friendly and efficient! He made it to my home within 3 hours of making the call (no time estimate available) and spent only about 45min on site to clear my main line. The pricing was competitive too. I will call again in the future if needed!

If I had a choice for no stars, that is what I would choose.  

In 2006 I asked them to install two new freeze/resistant spigots on the outside of my house (off of the room that's on a crawl space).  The first visit, they didn't act like they knew what they were doing and when finished, one spigot was sticking out of the outside wall by 3 inches.  I had them back and all they did was add caulk (the spigot still stuck out of the wall 3 inches).  Had them back again at which time they went back into my crawl space and voila, the spigot was installed flush with the house.  

Then I just found out in October of this year that the spigot had been leaking for who knows how long because it had frozen and cracked, leaking water all over my crawl space, in the HVAC ducts, etc.  I don't make it a point to crawl under my house and had no idea that the spigot had broken where the water pipe screws into the spigot. My hardwood floor above the leak started to buckle so I had another plumber (Grey's is awesome) attack the issue.  He found out that both spigots had been installed wrong ... instead of the pipes aiming down for draining, they were installed aiming up and thus stagnant water in the pipe froze and broke.  So an $8,000 repair job later ... floor in the 1000 square foot room had to be taken up, new joists (water rot) replaced, new subfloor and hardwoods put in.

These are three months of my life I will never get back (furniture from the demo room all over the house, contractors coming and going, huge dumpster in my driveway, complete mess during the holidays).  My insurance company is attempting to subrogate for the expense.

Bottom line ... Benjamin Franklin Plumbing is a franchise.  It appears their employees don't have a vested interest in the business (as a small business plumber does) - you can tell by their lack of knowledge and customer service.  Stay away and use a smaller locally owned plumbing company that's hungry and values quality workmanship at a reasonable cost.

Donny from Benjamin Franklin plumping came out for a routine maintenance call. He checked out the water heater and even consulted on an issue I was having the the kitchen sink.

No pressure to do more work outside what he was there for however he did ask if I needed him to look at anything else.

Professional and on time as scheduled. Donny was great!

My mother has always used Benjamin Franklin Plumbing for all of her major plumbing needs. (Sewer line breaks from tree roots, replacing galvanized plumbing with all PVC.. new hot water heaters.. new sump pump batteries.. you name it.) It is always something more that we needed to do to the tune  of thousands and thousands of dollars.

I am so aggravated and frustrated to learn they have been overcharging her this whole time and when we needed something as simple as a grey water pump replaced for our washing machine they were unable to fit that in.

They sent three technicians to our home who were here to do only a fall maintenance.. would have kept on repeating that water heater flush into my open sump pit again and again. I got the same run around each time!
We don't have that in our request order, we don't have the parts on our  truck, we couldn't possibly install that today, we have a closed parts department after 4 pm.
It's 2 pm? How do you explain this?
Plumbers have shown up here and not wanted to work.

If you make an appointment you get a four hour window.. if it isn't the 4 hours you chose, well- oh well.. they'll get someone to you when they want to.
If you make an appointment for afternoon or evening they will call you in the morning to confirm. If you are not answering at 7-8 am for your 5 pm appointment  (cause maybe you went to work?) They won't come to your 5 pm appointment.

Today marks the third time a gentleman showed up at my home without the  pump to replace the grey water pump. He looked at me like I was an imbecile. We don't have these parts on our trucks, I am only here to do the Fall maintenance on the Hot water heater.  I will speak to my manager. I'm just a tech and not qualified to replace such an item.

Same old song and dance and by this time I have had two other quotes for the pump.. Benjamin Franklin was going to charge me more than twice what it costs anywhere else, Even after my poor mother has paid for all of this repeat business for 14 years. They were talking about perhaps giving her a 10% discount on the overcharged pump! Coming the next morning!

Do NOT give your money to these crooks who give 0 concern to you or your repeat business.. or your little old Momma  for that matter. It makes me wonder how many of those things she's been having replaced (besides obvious sewer lines) really needed replacing?
I hate that this company has become what it has become.

The whole time I'm trying to complain I am talking to some woman ( at great length; over an hour and a half)  who is trying to micro-manage me and tell me how of course I'm right, she's a new manager who will make sure my issues and situation are addressed by management and taken care of in a timely manner. I will have to deal with some other irate plumbing manager in the morning first thing.. I said no thank you.

The majority of the men who have come here from Benjamin Franklin are totally disrespectful to women. They talk down to you and they think you're stupid. Wasn't going to get another thousand dollars out of us!

We have had a thoroughly unpleasant experience with this company, which we had used previously.

Our 16-year old toilet needed a new flush valve. My husband called the company and made an appointment with the young woman who answered the phone. She gave him a 4 hour window for the following day; the plumber never showed. When he called back, it appeared that she had been so focused on trying to sell him a yearly contract during what he described as a lengthy conversation that she'd neglected to schedule the plumber.

So--new conversation with new phone person, also lengthy, during which my husband gave her the make of the toilet (Kohler--a pretty standard brand) and the part number of the flush valve we needed. (She had clearly never heard of Kohler--asked what that was and could we spell it, which was disconcerting.)This time, the plumber did show up (the following day), but without the part. Evidently, she hadn't passed on the information. He said we really should buy a new toilet. We declined.

This was a Friday; the plumber left saying he would secure the proper part and be back Monday. Monday he came with the wrong part.

Our daughter suggested calling Hope Plumbing. They had a plumber at my home within an hour of my call who installed the new flush valve. Toilet now works fine--we didn't need a new one, and the plumber from Hope didn't say we did.

Needless to say, we will NOT be using Ben Franklin Plumbing again.

What a con game ! Very poor response !! Very high prices.  As bad as hope plumbing. Requesting a camera to look in the drain. Sent someone without a camera charged for that   Someone was to come in the afternoon but never showed up

My shower wouldn't turn all the way off, and Ben Franklin plumbing came to repair it. They charged a fortune and left a mess. After they completed the work, my washer now backs up into the bathtub. The scheduler tried to charge me again to have someone come out, but I spoke to a supervisor who agreed to send someone. The replacement guy said that if he pulled up anything from the drain other than plaster, I'd be charged for the cleanout, and that it was $250.
    If you want high prices and bad service, call these guys!

Sewer back up. Nick was the service tech. Thorough job unclogging the line. Service is a little pricey but he took his time and fixed the problem.

I couldn't be happier with their help. Response was fantastic and the information I received unbeatable.  James, a very good representative of your company.

Beware of false coupon prices and services they claim to perform.  Tech claimed to have inserted a cable in the clean out, said cable got stuck in clean out pipe after 2 feet and was unable to unclog drain.   Problem is,  3 other companies verified there's no clean out pipe for him to have inserted a cable to attempt to unclog the drain.  Also, they have coupons that advertise $90 Drain Cleaning Special with free camera inspection, but will charge an additional $49.00 for diagnostic even though it doesn't list the charge on the coupon.

No!!,Don't use this company!! I had one of their service techs quote me $1800 on a $800 job. Yes, I'm a middle aged woman w a 3 legged dog. Guses he thought I was crazy....lol.....

**WARNING**DO NOT USE** This is the absolute worst company I have have ever dealt with. Doesn't even seem to be a legitimate company. Called at 8:30 PM last night for a pipe leaking in the house, and as of 8:30 AM no one has shown (supposed to be 24 hour service). When you call customer service they give you scripted answer that the technician has been notified and should be there as soon as possible.

We were charged twice for the initial service charge because the guy taking the info didn't believe it took the first time. It's just as impossible to try and cancel anything with them when you ask. They just keep giving us the run around with everything and nothing from the service actually happening to be able to cancel the service in general is getting done. Now they are claiming someone will be here between 10-2 today. Seems to me no one was ever working in the first place last night, and if this was a remotely decent company someone would have been sent right away to resolve this horrible service and not 14-18 hours later.

I had a good experience with BF Plumbing. Our problem required multiple visits because the issue was more involved than we knew.  Plus, they discovered that the water pressure coming into our home was too high, which can cause various issues including water heater problems.  They took their time to make sure their fixes solved our problems.

They are a bit pricey but there are coupons available to help offset costs.  Plus we received preferred pricing as a long time customer.  I'm not a big price shopper so I don't really know how they compare to other plumbers.  I am mostly concerned with timeliness, quality of work, and professionalism, and they always meet my expectations in those areas.

I paid $150 for absolutely nothing. They blamed issue on the septic and it was not a septic issue. They then reported me to health department for not being in code and made false statements about renovations that were made. I then worked with another company to right their wrongs with the health department. I was able to get the issue resolved in two days with this other company. I am mind-blown about what I had to go through because of this company and how the situation was passed over.

Just had these guys out this morning to fix a leaky shower. While the service tech was looking at the shower, I asked how much the repair would cost. His response was to replace the cartridge, $327.00. That's mostly labor. So I felt inclined to ask how long it would take since that sounded like a lot of labor. His response, about 30 minutes. Then a moment later he said or it could take a couple hours and it requires a special tool to remove the cartridge. At this point I thanked him for his time and asked if he could just give me an estimate.

For perspective, a new cartridge cost me $18.98 at Lowes (it came with the less than special tool) and, after watching a 15 minute youtube video on replacing the cartridge for my specific shower, I did the job myself in under 30 minutes.

I would not even recommend them to someone I despise.

We live in Bloomington (about an hour away from their home office), and after having called several plumbers in our immediate area (none of whom showed up within 5 hours), we called Benjamin Franklin Plumbing. They sent a courteous, professional plumber named Donny out within about an hour. And when he left, the price was about half of what our local Bloomington plumbers told us they would have charged (if they'd actually showed up).

We are very impressed with their prompt service to a place two counties away and with their reasonable prices and friendly and professional employee. We will definitely call them first if we find ourselves in an emergency plumbing situation again.

scam alert!!!!! this company is trash! avoid this company!!! two days in a row these scam artists failed to correctly put my appointment in the system. jason and stephanie at the northside location took no responsibility for their sloppy work, or for the useless schedulers that don't know how to do their job, or for my wasted time after calling off work 2 days based on the time frame given for an appointment. any claims they make on their website about being on time are an absolute lie!!!  they took no responsibility for not showing up during the given time frame!!!  their claim about a code of ethics is an absolute lie!!! this company and their employees have no ethics!!!! deserve 0 stars!!

Appointment was scheduled between 8:00 and 10:00. Plumber showed up at 11:02. I am not really sure what he did. I watched him and it seemed like he just played around with things. I did not see a complete water heater flush. He did examine all my water sources and wanted to see me $199 water lines for my washing machine. I am assuming that this $39 water heater flush and tune up (not sure really what that entailed with this guy) was just to get a Benjamin Franklin plumber in the house to sell other products. I feel as if this service was a waste of my money. I really thought the water heater flushing was something more. Not something I could do in two minutes.

Very expensive. They replaced the flush valve seal on one our toilets. It took the plumber less than 15 minutes to fix it. My husband asked him how much the part would cost if we bought it on our own at Lowe's or someplace like that. The plumber said about $5. He charged us $160.00 total for parts and labor.  Live and learn...

Always have been satisfied with Ben Franklin. They have done a good job!

I made an appointment online through email and did not have to call anyone. I needed a water pipe replaced behind the water heater. Travis showed up and was straight forward with the very high price. I paid it because I had previously dealt with wildcatters who were not licensed and I wanted a professional who would stand behind their work. I had a $50 off coupon which he gladly honored. They are careful not to quote a price until they show up.  Travis was highly skilled and completed the pipe replacement in under 10 minutes with no fuss. It was $262.00 for installing a new 1/2 inch ball valve behind the water heater on the cold intake pipe. I paid way too much. There is expensive and then there is HOLY COW EXPENSIVE!  I would give them a higher rating but their prices are very steep. He was on time and professional but this company just charges way too much.
As Bill Murray said...No Job is too big! No fee is too big!
If you want top quality work and you can afford the high prices, then give them a call by all means. They stand behind their work but have your checkbook ready!

REVISED:
Busted water pipe.  Told operator at BF we would pay for xpress service.  Showed up 1/2 late.  Called BF and asked where my plumber was.  Operator said that they would not honor $5/min or the guaranteed xpress service due to weather.  I was NOT told this when I called BF.  Asked to speak to a supervisor the operator did not oblige.  Some excuse I basically hung up because my plumber was now calling in on same telephone line to tell me he was on his way.  

When he got here it was a much bigger issue (as always) than we had expected.  He plugged the line, didn't charge us anything for the visit, and gave us an estimate for the bigger job.

Not sure who we will go with for the big job, but BF gets 5 stars for holding up their end of the bargain and not charging us.

Do not use this company.  When the service call was made, and I asked for a snaking of my house main drain, that was in the basement, the scheduler was unwilling to give me any sort of quote, or even a ballpark figure.  She said she was not authorized, like it was some government agency that was holding her back from giving out the information.
When the service technician arrived, he went down into the basement, and after hearing my explanation and looked at the floor drain cleanout.  He started to write the work quote, and at one point made a show of walking back over to the stairs, and looking at them, like he just noticed they were there, even though he had just walked down them 5 minutes before.  So, with that vital information, he proceeded to show on his quote an additional $163 Access Fee, as though a basement was an unusual place to find the main house drain.
I told him to leave and got another company to do the work at half the price.  Nuff said!

On time Plumber  ??  Not in my experience!  I called on Friday to request and schedule service on Monday.  I was given a time frame of between 4:00 -6:00 pm. At 4:30 someone from their office called me and said it would be closer to 7:00 before they could get there. That's not what I agreed to, but ok.  At 7:10 I had not heard from ANYONE from Benjamin Franklin Plumbing.  When I called to find out when the plumber would be there, I was told that they were wrapping up with the previous customer, but they couldn't give me a time or even the location of the plumber.  It could be anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours!  Are you kidding me? At 7:30 after no-show/no-call from anyone, I called back and cancelled the entire thing.  What a TOTAL WASTE of my time and my tenants time.  I'm taking my business elsewhere!