King & Sons Plumbing

I purchased a water heater from Lowe's, King and Sons is one of their subcontractors.  Plumbers arrived mid afternoon.  I got home from work and found that they could not do the job, unless I paid them an additional fee for removing the water softner.  I need the water heater replaced, however this didn't make me happy.  I said yes, oh, but it can't be done that day, the next day then.  Next day arrives, my wife calls to tell me they did not clean up the mess from the old water heater.  They did not have drop cloth or plastic to move the old water heater out of the basement, we had to provide our own floor protection, otherwise more mess to clean.  In summary, after paying Lowe's over $950 and King & Sons $160, we had no hot water to wash the towels we used for floor protection.  

This really angered me, so I contacted Lowe's to remedy the problem.  Wife calls to tell me to provide constructive criticism and the problem is now fixed.

Here it is.

1.  Improve your quality initiatives.  Have your employees test the equipment before they leave, to ensure proper operation.

2.  Improve communication - what to expect.  I expected you to accomplish the job without anything from me.  If you don't have proper protective equipment, say so.  Had we known the day before you arrived, we were responsible for clean up and protection of carpet, it would have been easier to accept.  Expectations are important to me.  Please don't tell me I am getting five star service, show me.  Be careful what you place on the side of your van, if it says I am treated like royalty, then you set the bar high, be prepared for fallout if you don't meet this expectation.

Thanks Mr. King for coming to my house, and making it right!

Had them out multiple times to fix our plugged drain and they were not able to find the issue.   Then they became very rude and unresponsive when we asked them to come back and help fix the issue.   We wasted time and money by using them.

If you need a plumber look elsewhere.  

We had a problem with our water heater on a Friday - I called King & Sons and had prompt service.  However the $80 I was told it would cost for the visit turned in to $132 to clean the ignition assembly.  To his credit the pilot was on when he left, after spending 10 minutes at our house.  However, later in the day we noticed it had gone out again, and eventually determined that it would light, but after the burner would go off the pilot would go out as well.  We called King & Sons back Saturday morning and we were told they would need to replace the burner assembly.  

I told the K&S plumber we would be calling Sears as we found that the heater was still covered under a parts warranty.  Sears was able come out Monday afternoon and their repairman said right away the ignition assembly would need replaced.  After spending 40 minutes replacing it and talking with me about the other plumber he suggested calling K&S, as he wasn't sure what exactly their plumber had done to my water heater, he could find nothing that would have been cleaned.

I attempted calling Monday prior to 5 (their close time) and got their after hours message.  When I called Tuesday morning I asked to speak to someone regarding a complaint over the service we received the lady took my information and said she would have the owner call me.  Thirty hours later (Wed afternoon) I had not heard anything so I called back.  The same lady answered and I was told she would make sure he called me right back.  My phone rang and it was the plumber who had been at our house on Friday.  He tried to tell me that when he talked to me Saturday I told him everything was working - why would I call you if it was working?  

He continued to try and cover for what I call their lack of professionalism and customer service and then said well I'll tell the owner what we talked about and have him call you.  I finally got a call from the business owner, he told me that it's standard practice for any plumber in Lincoln you would call to clean the ignition assembly and that's just the way it is.  I did not expect to get all of my $132 back, but I was hoping they would take care of this unsatisfied customer and give me some of it.  Sorry, no - not at King & Sons.  

So, there you have it, my rip-off experience with a plumber I will never use nor recommend to anyone again.

Was going to buy a water heater at Home Depot, who uses this place. Come over and say they can't install since the piping was to short for a small water heater, or too long for a tall. Charged 90 bucks. To kick it off, when they send the bill it had a due date of 3 months in the past. How is one to pay a bill 3 months ago when you send it today? Look elsewhere peeps.

Edit: So since they decide they can set due dates in the past, they can send to collections and add fees. What a joke.

Home Depot recommended King & Sons when I bought a water heater, so I gave them a shot. Everything went fine: the plumber was on time, picked up the water heater from home depot, installed it without trouble, removed the old one and left the house clean. The inspector has been by and gave it the green light, and I've had the water heater for a few weeks now without incident. And the bill matched the estimate I got upfront.

We called on a Sunday afternoon. Our sump had failed and water was rising in our basement. Our regular local plumber was out of town, so we scrambled for the first company that could help us. King and Sons were able to help us quickly. The technician was friendly and fast. He had new pump installed in 30 minutes. Then he gave us the bill.  $550. We were stunned.  Since there was not an itemized bill, I googled local places for sump pumps. Most stores had them for $100 -$150.  That means they charged us at least $400  for service call and labor for 30 minutes. That is $800 an hour. Maybe look to another company for reasonable prices.  There moto is we treat you like royalty, but they Also charge like royalty!

I would give them zero stars if I knew how! Where to start? he DID respond quickly to my emergency call that my water heater was leaking (this was on a Sunday afternoon), the young man was prompt, and kept in phone touch as to status of how long it would take him to pick up parts and get to the house. However, once there he made a horrible mess in the furnace room, while draining the water heater he flooded the furnace room, which shorted out the circuit board in the furnace that turns the fan on when the air conditioner is running. It was one of the hottest days of the year and I now had a flooded furnace room, a non-working water heater AND no air conditioning . The floor drain was stopped up, and apparently it didn t occur to him to stop draining the water heater and address that issue. He even had to ask me for a plunger (what kind of plumber doesn t carry one?). THEN he tracked water and dirt all over the carpeting going back out to his truck.

Bringing the new water heater in, the door didn t open wide enough and rather than let me open the other door (french doors) he tried to force he hand truck through, nearly breaking my door. I had to yell to get him to stop trying to force the door wider and let me try to get it open for him.

Finally he did get the water heater installed, and it was installed well. Apparently, knowing that the drain in the floor wasn't working it didn't occur to him to either let us know or to fix it properly. I awoke at 3:30 in the morning when the security alarm went off because there is a water sensor in the furnace room - the room was flooded AGAIN. While the water was not coming from the water heater he installed (it was coming from the water softener which drains water into the floor drain during it's cycle, it did force me to call him a second time to fix the floor drain problem. In all fairness, he did come out at 2:30 am to fix the drain.

The second flooding was even worse - broke the air conditioning AGAIN and I spent the rest of the morning cleaning up the second flooding problem that NEVER would have happened if he had just done the job right the first time. I will NEVER call this plumber again, the cost in clean up of the flooding and him tracking water all over the carpets and the cost of the repairs needed to the furnace far exceeded the promptness and good job he did installing the water heater.

UPDATE 8/25 Several weeks later I realized he used my shop vac to try and suction up some of the water. He didn't tell me, & didn't dump the water.  I went into the furnace room due to a foul odor & realized that the shop vac was full of nasty smelling water.  I tried cleaning up the vac, but it was damaged from all of the water sitting in it.  So in addition to the water damage he caused, I also had to replace my shop vac.

I bought a dish washer from Home Depot. They  use these guys as their installers for appliances, so that is why I used them. The guy showed up (who was the owner's son) and talked through the whole job. While I don't care if someone makes small talk, it slowed him down considerably. The job ended up taking about twice as long. He was also talking about how he got fired from his last job, which was very unprofessional. After he left, the dish washer was not attached to the counter, so it would swing back and forth from the top. I called King and Sons to come out and fix it, which they did at no extra charge. The next guy came out and did what I thought was a good job, but I guess it was still poor. My dishwasher is still not attached to the counter and now slides out, which the dishes flying everywhere in the machine. I had to call someone else and pay them to fix the problem. Don't use them.

Outstanding plumber; best of four I have used in Lincoln. Very knowledgeable, skilled, efficient, professional, and honest! If you're searching for the best of the best, this is the place. Highly recommended!