Millennium Plumbing & Drain Cleaning

Millennium Plumbing installed a shoddy leaking water pump and refused to come out to fix it.  I had to hire another plumber to fix their work.  They also charged me $950 for the pump, which is more than double what another plumber quoted me ($450).  I was skeptical at the time of the price, but it was a Sunday and I needed the work done, so I accepted it.  What a huge mistake!

In addition, they just closed their office in Federal Hill, and I think they don't even have an office at all now (maybe they are operating out of somebody's house?).  Likely they are experiencing financial difficulties, which might explain why they charged me more than double for my laundry pump.

Also, they are not MHIC licensed, which means that you can't make a claim against the MHIC insurance fund for shoddy work or fraud, but instead have to sue them directly.  I wish I had thought to check this prior to hiring them.

As is fall of this wasn't bad enough, their leaking water pump caused a mold issue with some drywall in my house, which cost $500 to fix.  So in the end I paid $1,450 and should have paid $450.  This does not count the untold hours of aggravation dealing with these clowns.

If you are reading this review prior to hiring them, I strongly suggest you instead hire an MHIC licensed plumber (go the the MHIC website to check) who has an actual physical office and stands behind their work.

I called them to install a new toilet that I provided for $259.21.  Shawn (the owner and technician who comes to your home and does the pricing), said that because my house is old, the work was more difficult.  My toilet was the original toile; however, it was not difficult to replace it.  Then, Shawn suggested a vanity to replace my pedestal sink.  He said he would have to put a hole in the wall to update the pipes (for the toilet and sink).  I provided the vanity and faucet. He charged $537.21 to install vanity and faucet, even though I removed the pedestal sink.  All he did was add new shut off valves and install it.  He also suggested that I have the drain to my tub cleaned or replaced.  Cleaning was $226 and replacing it (because I had old plaster walls that needed to be cut to get to it) would be $904.  I chose to replace it because it was always getting clogged, even though I suspected the price was too high.  He said the original trap and drain would be difficult to get out.  Then, he told me he could not complete all of the work on Saturday and that he would return on Monday with an assistant.  He said it was a lot of work; so I took Monday off, rather than have him wait to begin in the evening when I returned from work.  He said that he would arrive at 10:30 am.  He did not get to my house until 1pm.  None of the work was as difficult as he claimed and large holes were left in my dining room, family room, and shower. He also said that the water pressure coming into my home was to high and needed to be balanced out.  He added some black knob that s supposed to balance the water pressure, to my main line for about $340.  He charged $187.11 to replace my main water line valve.  And, he charged me for something else.  He gets an attitude when his prices are questioned and he lies about being the owner, claiming he is not.  He surveys your home to see if your gullible enough to pay for his suggestions.  His assistant, Ron, scratched the neck of my shower head.   He charged me $520.48 to install new shower fixtures which I provided.  The diverter for the shower sticks out well past the tile.  When I told Shawn that I realized that I was overcharged and I wanted him to repair the things they had not installed properly, he was very curt.  I cheated myself by not getting 3 estimates for every job. I thought getting multiple things done with one company would be cheaper.  And, Shawn actually claims that these prices were discounted.  He only agreed to knock $109 off which left me paying $2,900.  I paid double what this job cost and Ron did all the work, and was done by 7pm (and they took a 30 minute break to eat the lunch I provided).

Here's what happened, I'll let you decide if these guys are all right or not.

I had an issue with my kitchen sink draining. I would run the disposal (the motor was working), water would go down the drain, when I'd turn it off, most of the water would shoot back up. Now, I'm not a plumber, so I tried a plunger, didn't work, did some looking online, and decided to call these guys. They get good reviews on Google.

After some wrangling with the dispatcher, I managed to get him to send someone that day. That's pretty good, that's part of why they get 2 stars. There is a $45 call charge that will get waived if you have them do some work. They told me that up front. It's pretty standard practice, like it or not.

The plumber came, looked at it, went to his truck, and came back with two options: $187 to remove and clean the trap, $315 to snake the line. These prices seemed high to me, but as all plumbers do, they've got you $45 in and you need the sink. So I said ok. Literally 5 minutes later, the trap is off and was not the problem.

So, out come the snakes and the snake machine. He runs it, draws it back out, re-connects everything. Runs the water. Not fixed. Same exact symptoms. So, the snake goes back in, and this time -- here comes the MAIN REASON they get TWO STARS -- he decides to run water directly into the line to save himself the trouble of connecting everything back up. It's clear. Connects the trap back to the disposal. NOT CLEAR. Same symptoms.

IF HE HAD DONE THIS 5 MINUTE DIAGNOSTIC AFTER REMOVING THE TRAP AND BEFORE RUNNING THE SNAKE, HE WOULD NOT HAVE HAD TO BOTHER WITH THE SNAKE AND SAVED ME SOME MONEY AND BOTH OF US AN HOUR OR SO.

He tells me that the disposal needs to be replaced, comes back with $450 to install the same type of disposal or nearly $700 to install a better one. No option to FIX THIS ONE. The motor is still working. I didn't even bother to ask. In the time it took for him to write the quote, I had done enough research to decide to buy a very nice disposal for $175 and take an hour to do it myself. Lesson learned. $315 poorer and the drain still not clear.

That night I twiddled the jam buster and pulsed the disposal a few times, same the following day after ordering a new disposal from Amazon. By midday  everything was draining fine. THE OLD DISPOSAL IS STILL IN THERE AND WORKING, thank you very much.

I realize that some people will think/say maybe there was a restriction in the line that he fixed and for some weird reason the disposal was also clogged but that got better as a result of him snaking the line. I'd say there is some miniscule chance that is true. It is true, I'm not a plumber, but after observing, it seems pretty obvious that if your goal was fixing problems efficiently, (1) you would try to rule out a jam in the disposal by testing the line for drainage AFTER CHECKING THE TRAP and (2) you would see if you could remove a jam/clog from the disposal BEFORE RECOMMENDING REPLACEMENT.

I give them 2 stars because the fit me in late in the day on a Friday and because the plumber was nice enough while he was there.