Sparrow & Sons Plumbing

I called sparrow and son for a simple job to replace a water heater.  I verbally told them what type and I also e-mailed direction because I was out of town. They came out and spoke to my elderly parent and got her to approve a much more expensive type. A water heater is about 300 dollars and 2 hrs of labor. Should be about a 5 to 6 hundred dollar job. By the time it was all over I paid 2500.00 for a simple water heater.  They made a mess of my kitchen and created more of a problem. All the  savings I had earned from renting my space went right into this job.   I will never in life use them again.

I do not recommend this dishonest company. A technician from this company came to turn on the water pump in my crawl space on August 5, but the pump stopped working the next day, though I got billed and made prompt payment. I called the company again to report that the pump had stopped functioning, and another technician came a month later on September 4 and was in the crawl space for 30 minutes. Today, I received an invoice billing me for a two-hour labor for a 30-minute service. How unreliable can a company be? Sparrow and Sons is very desperate for money right now and will do anything to get it.

I've posted about a good but less than stellar experience with Sparrows, before, but I wanted to say that I just had a busted water heater and they were prompt, helpful, thoughtful and got the job done. They came out the same day I called and were wonderful! I will use them again!

I suddenly found myself with water seeping up out of my cherry wood floor in my kitchen.  Frantic, I called Sparrow and Sons (I'm a regular customer) for help.  This was on a Wednesday morning (admittedly before Thanksgiving) and I was told that they wouldn't be able to get to me before Monday afternoon!!!!!!  What is the good of having a plumber if they can't help you in an emergency situation?

We had a massive water heater leak.  We contacted Sparrow and Sons who responded promptly, removing and replacing the water heater quickly and efficiently.

These guys are my go - to plumbers.  I have used them for rental properties I own, at work and for my own home.  Today I called them at 3:22 for a stopped up toilet, and the technician arrived at my home at 3:48, and had fixed the problem and was on his way back at the shop at 3:59.  Service call is $125, which is reasonable in light of quick service and quick resolution.

We contacted Sparrow and Sons because the toilet in our master bathroom was not flushing properly.  They spent about 5 minutes at our house (literally).  They walked into the bathroom and then out to our septic tank.  They opened the cover to the tank, told my husband that it was full and said that there was nothing they could do for us since they don't do work on septic systems.  That was all well and good.  At least we found out what the problem was. But they charged us $225 for the visit for doing absolutely no work!!!  And they falsified the invoice claiming that they had checked our sewer line.  They had done nothing of the sort!!  This was outright highway robbery.  We did get them to drop the charge to $175.  But it was still ridiculous to charge that much to do nothing except tell us that there was nothing that they could do.  We will never use them again.

My first Yelp review ever, wish it could have been a positive one but I feel it's important to put the word out.
Since my last negative experience with Sparrow I thought after a few years this company would have its act together. A  friend recommended I try again so I did.

After over a month and a half of calling back wondering where my estimate was for a new bathroom sink and water heater I gave up on Sparrow (Seth) and their highly unprofessional lackadaisical bad service. I think the worst service company I have ever encountered beginning with the aloof unconcerned receptionist to the disorganized and now Im convinced truly in-over-their -heads service people.
In the end , better for me I have avoided disaster. BE ADVISED,
save your time and good money move on!

We had a great experience with Sparrow & Sons.

The night before Thanksgiving, our kitchen sink backed up and couldn't be cleared.  (Imagine cooking for Thanksgiving without a working sink!)

We called Sparrow & Sons, and an answering service gave us the number of an employee at home -- even though this was after 11 pm.  The employee was sleepy but courteous, and we scheduled an appointment for 8 am on Thanksgiving morning.

The plumber arrived on time, was good-natured and friendly, and fixed the problem right away.  My wife and I were so pleased with their service that I signed up for Yelp in order to give them a good review.

The customer service was very poor.

First, I called the company many times for asking the over charges.  When I made phone calls a couple of minutes later, they said they can not hear me and then cut the line off. But the thing is I could hear them clearly every time both with cell phone or home phone.  

Second, I sent an email on March 20 and followed up on April 02, 2015. No any feedback from the company. They treated the customer so bad.

I have been waiting for their response and hope they could give a reasonable explanation for the high charge (~$485) of the kitchen pipe line check and faucet replacement.

Thank you to Sean and Maria--I had a small leak in my bathtub faucet. I had a feeling my family and I could fix it ourselves, with a little guidance. Sean talked me through the process, told me where to get the part and what to get, and then returned my 2nd call to trouble shoot later that day. I was very grateful as I leaned a bit more about how to change a faucet and I saved myself money, even though they could have insisted on sending someone out. I appreciated that they looked out for me and helped me out; I would definitely use them again if I had a bigger job that I couldn't handle.

Everyone I dealt with, over the phone and the plumber in person, were all very friendly. The reason for the low rating is because they charged me $95 to come and use a shop-vac for 20 minutes to remove broken glass from my garbage disposal. When I called to ask why it was so much for a simple job they claimed that it is the minimum fee they can charge due to traveling to and from the job. I asked them if they came simply to take a look at something and do no work, would they charge the same amount, and the lady of the phone simply repeated that statement. I can not speak to their ability as plumbers since they did no real work for me. I am under the impression though that you will pay $95 at a minimum for the smallest of jobs. Next time I need a plumber I will take a chance elsewhere.

This will be short and sweet: phenomenal service and great results.  They did exactly what they said they would.  This was my second time to use them and had the same experience before; Sparrow is now my exclusive plumber.

Replaced our toilets, faucet and some other small things. Did it for a reasonable price and they were there when they said they would be.

We've been using Sparrow & Sons as our go to plumber for over 20 years. They installed 3 new Toto toilets after we discovered in our first few weeks in the house that the old toilets were prone to (daily) overflows. Our next large problem was the entry of sand into the faucets throughout the house, likely due to a water pipe breach from a nearby construction project. Imagine me seeing Michael Sparrow in my(new!) master shower fully clothed trying to flush the sand from our shower & bath systems. And they've come for the little things too - water leaks, flapper replacements. Many thanks to Sparrow & Sons for keeping our house in good working plumbing shape!

One of their trucks almost hit me while speeding past as I was biking along the side of the road today. I can't believe they let someone like that drive their trucks!

We were having a problem with our hot water heater that ultimately turned out to be caused by an old pressure reducing valve on the water intake from the main. Sparrow was prompt and when we had an issue shortly after they left, they diverted the plumber back to our home and dealt with it without charging overtime.

It was easy to schedule them to come back to replace the failing valve and add a new expansion tank to the hot water heater. Would recommend.

I called Sparrow for a leak in my washer hose connection.They came,cut a hole in the wall charged me $100 and never returned.I waited and called for 9 days .I can assure THEY WILL NEVER RETURN A PHONE CALL.My other workers were waiting for this to get done.so I drove to their office and spoke with  the owner who after a few minutes found my papers in a closed file????He assured me they will be there so I waited the 3 hrs the told me and thn got the call...The receptionist told me they were too busy and that was my day with 3 hrs off work.Eventually they arrive in a few days. NEVER AGAIN I dont have to pay these prices to be treated so poorly.To their credit one of the owners called and apologized and took $ off my bill.Their office and customer service is hurting their business They need act.

I own several rental properties in Chapel Hill and finding a good plumber has been excruciating.  I don't want to even begin to get into all of the problems I have had with various plumbers doing sub par work and charging excessively for it.  Sparrow is the best around, hands down.  They are not cheap, but neither is anyone else.  Depending on who they send you get from good to excellent.  They aren't perfect but they do stand behind there work, and they answer the phone when you call.

We had Sparrow come out to fix a clogged sink drain and flush out a tankless water heater. Our bill was $445 A month later the kitchen sink has backed up already, I called to ask about this, spoke to the receptionist on a Thursday, she finally returned my call the next Tuesday with an estimate to replace my pipes!!!! What? I realize I live in a old house but ??? I explained that I contacted our old plumber(no longer services) and he asked if the guy cleaned out the clean out...when asking the receptionist this she said that wouldn't make a difference! NEVER EVER will I use or recommend them!

So, we recently had my dad take out our old toilet and install a new one.  It turned out to be sort of a pain, but he did it, nonetheless.  Problems arose, though; a leak, condensation and a constant hissing sound--yeargh.  We procrastinated on calling a professional and then we had a baby!  Upon arriving home with our newborn, the toilet decided to just up and quit.  It didn't want to flush anymore!  This was not an option for a mom in recovery.  I was all like, I do not care how much it costs, we have to call somebody today!  My husband looked on Yelp and found good reviews for Sparrow and Sons.  They sent someone out within a couple of hours of us calling.  The man worked on it for a while.  There were a lot of grunts and heavy sighs coming from the bathroom and he wound up having to chisel away at the tile in order to properly reinstall the toilet.  In the end he said that it was probably one of the most difficult issues he has had to work on, due to the pipes and the tiles and whatnot.  He was very friendly, though, and fixed the darn thing, so we were very happy.  We were preparing ourselves for a hefty bill, when a couple of days later we received a really nice surprise in the mail...a bill for only $150.  That seemed really fair to us.  I highly recommend Sparrow and Sons for any plumbing dilemma that you or your dad mess up worse and/or can't fix  yourselves.

Just so obviously bad, and they didn't care. They were plumbing subs hired by contractor Frank Cole Building. Installation of bathroom fixtures done improperly. (See photo at Frank Cole Bldg Co. Yelp review.) Same with work done on shower, tub and downstairs bathroom. Couldn't get them back to fix their costly mistakes. In fact, think they broke one of the tub fixtures. Will have to hire someone else to fix their costly mistakes.

Sparrow and Sons is a good plumber at least for fast and quick jobs.  We had a leaking shower nozzle that needed replacing.  It took ~35 minutes from when they pulled into my driveway to be replaced.  As the plumber was leaving, I asked if he could fix my kitchen faucet because it would spray water from the base sometimes when turned on.  He said no problem and replaced it in 15 minutes, making sure he didn't go over an hour for both jobs.

It has been almost four months and both faucets are still doing well.  I highly recommend Sparrow and Sons!

Update:  Bev at Sparrow contacted me via email after reading my review here.  She apologized profusely, and attached a greatly reduced invoice for 1 hour of labor and $40 in parts.  Totally realistic, this time.  I had already paid the previous invoice, so they mailed that check back to me.   Kudos to them for ultimately doing the right thing.

I made a call to Sparrow to line up a time for someone to come and clean out my lines to make sure there was no clog.  I called several times in fact and spoke to the receptionist who told me she would get back to me after she lined up a crew.  They never called me back.   Poor customer service.  Called Carrboro Plumbing and they immediately lined things up.  Sparrow either does not need my business or just doesn't care.