Poole's Plumbing

Ben and Earl came out and were helpful, informative, friendly and professional.  I never write reviews (had to sign up for this account) but would recommend them to anyone, the management staff was also considerate and professional in dealing with some bumps in the repair process this is the fourth time we have called Pooles in 2 years and will continue to do so (just hoping we don't have to!)

Contacted Poole's Plumbing to remove a leaking hot water tank and replace it with a Rinnai continuous hot water system.  The estimate was clear and reasonable for the new system and all work connected with the conversion.  Prior to the scheduled day for the work, a detailed email message came explaining the process, including the city inspection process on the day following installation.  The technicians, Henry and Joshua, arrived promptly at 8:00 a.m. and worked diligently until 5:30 p.m.  At all times, they were helpful, explained what they were doing, and were neat and clean when working in our home.  Their work was meticulous, including their concern for our safety once the new unit was operating.  At the end of their work, Henry carefully described the unit, explained the process of city inspection, discussed care and maintenance of the unit, and answered our questions.  A five-star rating is well deserved.

Beware of faulty work and poor customer service!!Poole's plumbing replaced the cut off valves to all of the toilets in my mother's home in May.  The technician did not tighten the fittings properly on one of the toilets, and within days the leaking water damaged her hardwood floors.  Upon his return, the technician and supervisor acknowledged fault and told her not to worry about the damages... Poole's would pay.  It is now months later, and Poole's has done nothing but give my 82 year old mother the run-around.  I would advise you to steer clear of this business, whose motto, ironically, is plumbing done right the first time. SMH.

We used Poole's services twice and had a really good experience both times.

They were prompt to reply to phone calls, gave us appointments (once within 24 hours when it was an emergency) and honored those, and came right on time. They were very professional, quick and easy to work with. Highly recommended and will use them in the future every time.

We just had Bill out to fix a plumbing issue in our house. Very prompt scheduling. Called before showing up to ensure we were home and available. Bill and helper had masks, gloves and shoe covers. Were very polite And did a great job.

The short story:  
Beware of fixed-fee prices = way too high.  Changed billing structure on me without telling me and it ended up costing 2-3 times more than I expected.  I logged a complaint and it was not handled well at all.  It was a very small job, the work was good and the service reps were very nice, but I will strongly urge you to consider a different plumber.  

The long story:
When I originally called schedule the install of a garbage disposal I was told that it's a simple hourly rate of $110.  I also asked about replacing a kitchen faucet while they were there and it was estimated that they could definitely do both in less than two hours and maybe they could do both in one hour.  I scheduled the appointment with the understanding it would cost probably $220 but maybe $110 if I was lucky.  

The day of service, they arrived ~2 hours past the 8am-12pm window set, but apparently where was some emergency so I don't have any qualm with that.  Right away, the guy mentioned that they were now doing flat rates for the two installs, which was different from what was arranged.  Stupid me didn't ask what the rates were, I just commented that it was quoted at hourly and I assumed it'd be pretty similar in cost and maybe even work out in my favor.  But again, I didn't specifically ask because I didn't think the difference would be significant.  Besides, I couldn't just send them home since I coordinated their work with an electrician and all the work had to be done at the same time.  

When the work was done (it only took one hour, by the way, maybe 1 hour and 30 min with cleanup to be on the safe side), I learned the fixed rates were $165 for disposal and $170 for faucet install.  Had I known these rates, I probably would have opted out of the faucet install since I'd installed that exact same faucet at another house myself and, for the money, would be willing to try it again.

So, my original impression of the job costing $220 (but I could cross my fingers for $110) turned into an unforeseen $340. I did not bring this up at all towards the end of the appointment and I hadn't planned on it, but the complaint has since grown on me the more I thought about it.

I feel that original payment terms should not be overridden by a change of company policy falling between the scheduling call and the appointment itself.  If they decide to change how they bill for services, that's fine, but I should have had a chance to consider the new terms before committing to the work.  A little extra salt in the wound is knowing that the fixed rate fees are equivalent to ~3x the hourly fees for the same job, ouch.

I emailed Poole's this exact same message and after about 6 days and two follow up emails, I did get a response.  In short, they responded that I was wrong (or lying) and that they did inform me of the new pricing structure and I accepted the job anyways.  We got into a he-said-she-said battle and I am now writing this review so others can benefit from my experience.

You should shop around because, if nothing else, they charge hundreds of dollars for about an hours worth of work (in my experience at least).

beware of their fixed prices and bad work. I had them come to unclog a main line from the house to the street and was quoted a price to water jet and then run the camera in the pipe to see if there were problems. They charged me for a 2 hours of water jetting which only took 15 minutes. So there was it was instead of 300 for 2 hours 600 per hour. When they broke out the camera it was old and the screen was blurry and no one could make out or see anything on it, The plumber running it told me the new one we have is much much better but it broke and i in the shop. I could see little on this camera and they left with all well. So I was out 550 dollars and 10 days later the pipe stopped up again. I had to pay another company to come and do the same thing Pooles was paid to do but they had a decent camera and found a huge root blocking the pipe about 3 feet in street. So after paying again for what should have been done the first time I had the city fix the problem. Also Poole's gave me an estimate for 3000 to dig up and replace the sewer pipe to the street. And told me it could run as much as 4000. I am glad I did not agree since the problem was in the street anyway.
So again beware of this company, trust worthy, professional NO

According to their website Poole's Plumbing advertises...The Most Trusted Name In Raleigh, ugh!  After getting a blanket verbal quote on the phone with a Customer Service Rep, I made an appointment to replace a broken seal on a first floor toilet, as it was leaking into our crawlspace.  The Service rep showed up and I showed him the problem with a quick look see and he gave me a choice of either paying for an exorbitant service call, or pay almost $600.00 for a service and repair.  I knew I was getting ripped off either way, but I paid him for the service and repair.  I should have filed and brought this company to a small claims court!  This job was a less than a two hundred dollar job from what my new fair and reliable plumber tells me.  So, don't be duped by using this unprofessional rip off excuse of a Trusted company.

I talked to Mr. Poole. He truly tried to help me and we ended up having a good conversation. After some misunderstanding was cleared up, I feel like he was sincere in his efforts and gave me some advice on possible solutions or at least causes for my issue. This ended up being a better customer experience.

Whew, this is ridiculous...

Poole's Plumbing versus a local (and quite talented) handyman proved to be beyond my expectations.  Poole's sardonic, rude and nasty scheduler quoted me $1,600 to install a garbage disposal (into a brand new construction).  I balked at such a ridiculous price and hung up!!!!  I hope I just caught her on a bad day because I can't imagine living her life.

I hired a local handyman and paid $850 and ALSO got five faucets reinstalled, an exterior camera seamlessly  installed 12 feet up as well as three speciality mirrors from Canada wired in and hung.

Hire a local, independent handyman and you'll be in such better shape.

I can only imagine that Poole's would have charged $4,000 for the garbage disposal and five faucets.  So, absolutely do not hire Poole's because they're charging outrageous prices for average services.  Think of unscrupulous businesses that appear on undercover investigations for ripping people off.

Oh, and if you're going to rip off customers, hire a pleasant telephone person... You'll be able to scam more victims, Poole's Plumbing.

Bleh.

WOW - They would not stand behind their 1 year Warranty- Bob Poole called me and was extremely rude- He would not stand behind his warranty and made up excuses everytime I brought up the signed contract I had. The workman, who was very nice, agreed I should not have to pay twice to fix the same problem. BEWARE!!

I will not use Poole's again.  Just last week we had Poole's plumbing come into our home to diagnose a problem with my waterless heater. The guy took smoke break after smoke break! They charged an outrageous hourly rate and they seemed to purposely drag the time on. Two days later and almost $800 dollars we finally had hot water!
We waited to write a review to see if the management/owner would consider our situation. We were very disappointed when we finally spoke to the owner as he had already made his decision on the matter based solely on what his employees reported.  He did not inquire from us, the customer, what our side of the story was.  There are better options out there for sure!

They are pretty rude and mostly incompetent. They are not willing to spend time to correctly diagnose a problem. Will never use them again. Good luck to you if you decide to use them.

I called and spoke with the scheduler to have a quote / estimate to have my two water heaters replaced with a tankless water heating system. I scheduled my appointment time over a week in advance. We agreed to Noon on a Friday. While I understand that issues come up, what I fail to understand is why they would wait till 30 minutes before the appointment to call and tell you Its looking like our Noon appointment won't happen until at least 12:30. . . I mentioned that I would need to leave at 12:30 having arranged my schedule to meet at noon. . . the person's response was Call and reschedule . . I will not be calling to reschedule. When you are considering spending several thousand dollars with a company this is most definitely not the response I wish to get. I scheduled my time around this appointment only to be treated as though my time is valueless. I will find a company who values my time as much as I value theres.

Perhaps I should have read through the yelp reviews, it seems this is fairly typical for this business.

I had a bathroom water leak late Friday afternoon and it was very difficult to get anyone who seemed competent to come out and diagnose.

It is strange out there right now calling a plumber for an emergency.... nobody answers the phone, website disconnected, 24/7 emergency plumber tells you nobody is available (would you like to schedule your emergency in six days?), or (incompetent) only schedule a new toilet install, etc.  

The customer intake here was good- from the initial call to the office, to the plumber, Earl, who though busy working a call in the field, called me and was out in two hours to accommodate the emergency I was experiencing.

The $200 emergency after hours fee is in line with the local market, but it still stings for a 3:15pm call Friday afternoon. Not quite price gouging but I paid $568 for $100 worth of heavily marked-up parts and one hour of total labor (plus, in this case, the plumber had to drive 25 miles to my location).

Earl is obviously a skilled plumber who uses quality parts; he works hard and has a good manner with customers.

Taking into consideration the price sting and accommodation for the emergency, four stars.

Maybe a policy of crediting 1/2 of the emergency fee toward same-day service would improve the price satisfaction....

In an emergency, this was good; otherwise, I would price/value shop.

My water heater went out on a Sunday so I went to both of the big box stores looking for help. HD has a nice sign that says call by noon and get installed same day.  Tried that on Monday...they couldn't come out for a couple days. Hmm, so much for that advertising. Tried the other big box and paid $35 upfront for their progressive contractor to come out.  When I finally got to talk to them, they couldn't come out for two more days.  This is when I started call plumbers directly. I called several and all wanted to charge $35 to come out and give an estimate.  I finally got one to come out and give an estimate (for free after I complained about paying for an estimate).  Looking at the estimate, I broke a couple teeth but was able to pick my jaw back up off the ground. Pooles was the only company that listened, took notes, and gave me a rough quote over the phone - without a $35 fee.  Then, they asked me to send some pictures of the bad unit and the surroundings so they could provide a firmer estimate.  Did that and they sent an estimate that was so much below what other plumbing companies quoted I won't give the actual difference.  So I said let's do it.  Then, since my water heater was dead, they moved some stuff around on their schedule so they could come out the next day. They came out and installed the unit while my wife was home and she said the service tech was nice, polite, and professional.  Looking at the install when I got home, the tech installed it EXACTLY like would have asked, if I had been home!  Absolutely perfect. Compared to other plumbing outfits, my experience is that Poole's does what they say at a reasonable fee.  Will be calling again.  A hot shower never felt so good.

First of all, this is not a review regarding services of poole's plumbing, (hence the 1 star), but rather in regard of a certain employee who has decided to attack and harass one of my closest friends. You're probably thinking, wow what does this have to do with anything? Well my fellow yelpers, I personally will not stand for such behavior nor a company that chooses to hire such negligent employees. Poole's, I hope you take the correct action and change my and other people's opinions, as of right now you have a choice to make. Peace and love to all!

Poole's replaced my exterior water line for half of what other plumbers quoted, and they did it quickly & correctly. The office staff was extremely responsive as well. Highly recommend.

As someone in the home service business (flooring) I rarely write reviews for other home service businesses unless I have an exceptional good or bad experience. Unfortunately this company's conduct was unprofessional and borderline inappropriate. I was in a meeting when they arrived because they only provided a 20 minute notice even though I always ask for 1 hour so I can rearrange my meetings to accommodate them. They had to wait for 30 minutes until I was out of my meeting and said they had to charge me for those 30 minutes, the rate was $375 / hour. I said no because they only gave a 20 minute notice (they called at 12:55 pm and 12:57 pm and showed up at 1:15 pm, I met with them at 1:45 pm. The technicians were professional about it and called the office but the office told them to leave. So I called the office and ask why they are leaving over 30 minute difference and the woman was shockingly rude and upset. If anyone should be upset it should be myself for having to pay $187... there is no reason why they can't provide a 1 hour notice and there is certainly no reason why they couldn't try to work out the difference instead of leaving and being rude and expressing anger by raising your voice is inappropriate in almost any situation and certainly this situation. This experience speaks to the mentality of the company so don't be surprised if you have any issues and they aren't willing to make it right or work with you. I've coach other home service owners from this 'It's all about the money' mentality to a 'customer service' mentality so I recognize it when I see it. If you use them be very clear about your expectation up front and don't expect a favorable resolution if something goes wrong. Best of luck.

LET THIS BE YOUR WARNING - HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE Heard this great ad on radio and thought I would give them a call on a plumbing issue at a home. So I spoke to them and supposedly ordered the job and would give me a call at the property. Call back the next Monday to confirm job because I hadn't received a call back. Indicated they didn't receive a credit check back that they had emailed. Who knew they were going to email anything because they didn't mention it not to mention no follow up when they supposedly sent it. Then after confronting the office manager about it (caught in 2 lies) he said, in his words, it is best we don't do business with you and hung up.

I do not recommend this business to potential customers. I called Poole's b/c my 6 month old water heater stopped working. The appointment setter told me there would be a $125 diagnostic fee which is higher than most, but since they could schedule me sooner, I accepted that. The setter also told me that since my unit was so new, any parts, if needed, would most likely be covered under warranty. Sounded reasonable. When the technicians came, their sole diagnostic test was a voltage meter, which apparently wasn't working correctly. The technician then told me they would replace the upper and lower thermostats for $400 because that is their company policy. Wait, I said - how do we know the problem is the thermostat? We don't, he told me, but that's what we do and if it works, then we know that was your problem. Well, will we be getting the thermostats from Whirlpool under their warranty? No ma'am, we don't do that but maybe you can ask Whirlpool for reimbursement or something.  Now if I were a 20-something and this was my first water heater service call, maybe I would have fallen for this bunk. But I have had some rockstar customer service from plumbers over the years, so I recognize total indifference to customer satisfaction when I see it. I stopped the call, paid my diagnostic fee which should be called a Trip Fee, and sent them on their way. At that point the technician told me that his meter had been acting funny and he could now determine I had no electricity to the unit, so I actually needed an electrician, not a plumber. Whatever.

This is a very unprofessional plumbing company. They don't stand behind their quotes. You will end up paying more at the job site .  I would recommend that you stay away from them.

Ok, I'll admit that my experience with Poole's Plumbing got off to a rocky start.  They had some personnel issues with an employee (who is now a former employee) that caused them to be seriously late for two appointments.   We managed to work through that issue and they performed extremely well thereafter.

They removed my old water heater from my attic (thanks to my builder for that brilliant design) and installed a Rinnai tank less water heater in my crawl space.  

The price was very competitive and the installation went of without a hitch.  The service technicians were polite, clean, and efficient.  They answered all my questions and made sure I was satisfied before they left.

Hot showers and no leaks...life is good!

Please look elsewhere, I DO NOT recommend.

Just bought a home in Garner, NC and we needed a plumber to look at a leak in the crawl space. First of all, I was told they would arrive at 8am but they did not show up until 8:30am (small inconvenience). The power was disconnected during the appointment due to the account change between the previous owner and myself (was not expecting this to happen during the appointment). I was told I would have to pay $125 for them to show up and then $125 when they came back with the power on. I was not expecting to pay $250 for just a diagnostic... So I called their office and was directed to Bob Poole (the owner). I was hoping he would work with me as I was planning to give him all of my business. Had I had a good experience, this review would have been the complete opposite. But Bob told me he could reduce that visit to $80 and we could call them back for the diagnostic which would still be $125 (thanks Bob...). I literally paid $80 + tax for the guys to come by the house for 10 minutes and you want me to call them back out... I cannot comment on the quality of their work because they didn't do anything. And if you have to speak with the owner, be prepared to be extremely disappointed in the customer service.

Great people, awesome job, they will do the job RIGHT THE FIRST TIME.  This was my first encounter with pooled plumbing, the Owner actually took his time to explain things..  I will be a Costumer for life!!

NO Star's for this company.   This company is the definition of price gauging. First they quoted me an insane $350 to come on a Saturday during a hurricane (it was raining) then they were 4 hours late.  When they arrived the technician spent 25 minutes tinkering around in the attic trying to get the hot water working again on a tankless water heater.  He spent most of that time on the phone troubleshooting the problem with a Rinnai service rep.  Once he got the hot water running he promptly charged me for the Saturday service call and an additional $125 for his 'service'.  Guess what, I only had hot water for an hour!!!  I sent the Poole's technician a text message immediately and he returned my call 8 am Sunday morning where he explained he could come back out on Monday and that would cost another $125/hr.  His excuse was that the unit was not installed by their company therefore they were not responsible.  Well then who is; you were the last guy to work on the unit and only got it to work for 1 hr.

Never again will I use this company or recommend them to anyone.  Apparently, they are only out to make their next buck and have no commitment to customer service nor do they have any intension of building new customers or trust.  I'd rather be without hot water then ever recommend or use Poole's again.

Scheduling secretary was extremely rude on the phone. I called at 7am and was told I would be able to be scheduled the same day and that once the price for my unit was resolved I would be called back. I called back 4 hours later after not hearing a response then was told i had to pay an Extra $400 because there was no room on the schedule. If I hadn't called back I don't know when I would have heard back from them. Then to top it off when I informed them that they said it would be today I was called a liar and accused of being unreasonable. I wish I had checked their other terrible reviews before using them. I used them last summer and had no issue however they must have changed staff or maybe they are just having an off day (or months).

There is absolutely no way I would ever use there guys again- run and run FAST! After cutting four holes into my wall, they blame a simple leak on the builder (shower pan) and charge me $252. After three months of contractors coming in and out to fix a false issue, it turns out the diagnosis was a simple slow leak out of the crimp... the owner refuses to reimburse me the misdiagnosis which has now racked up a bill over $800!

Use anyone but Poole's... between this and forgetting to connect neighbors homes to the sewer pipe lines during construction, they have been blacklisted in our neighborhood.