Best Hot Water Recirculation Pump Repair in Bakersfield CA

I am writing this review about the honesty in billing of Carroll Plumbing & Maintenance, Inc.

I have used Carroll Plumbing & Maintenance, Inc. for the last six or seven years with good results.  I have referred them to numerous other people.  I have been really happy with their work, until now.

For the last few years, I have had a maintenance agreement with Carroll Plumbing & Maintenance, Inc.  Once a year, in late November, they would come out to my house and perform a sewer maintenance on the sewer line from my home to the sewer lines in the street.  

This year I scheduled the maintenance on December 1st, between the hours of 10am to 12pm.  Their plumber (Joel, per Carroll Plumbing & Maintenance, Inc.'s bill) arrived at approximately 9:30am.  The plumber walked around the house and my wife noticed him, so she went outside. He said he couldn't find the line and that the office must have given him incorrect information because they said it was by the kitchen.  My wife directed him to the correct spot on the opposite side of the house.

The plumber used a machine to root out the line.  When the plumber was finished, including putting his machine away (approximately 15 minutes after he arrived), he sat in his truck (in front of our house for approximately 20 minutes).  

On December 21, 2015, I received a bill from Carroll Plumbing & Maintenance, Inc.  The bill came to a total of $193.54.  I have no problem paying their hourly rate of $89.00, or the use of their  E100 machine ($15.00).  What I have is a problem with, is Carroll Plumbing & Maintenance, Inc. over charging me for two hours labor at $89.00 an hour.  I called Carroll Plumbing & Maintenance, Inc. on December 21, 2015, to talk about the bill.  I spoke to a woman in their office; she said someone would call me back the following day..  

On December 23, 2015, Tony called and said he spoke to the plumber.  The plumber reported he was out here for two hours from 9am to 11am.  I told Tony, he arrived around 9:30am and was only here for 15 minutes.  I also told Tony, the plumber sat in his truck for at least 20 minutes. He sat there so long, in fact, that my wife thought something was wrong and he was waiting for additional help/equipment; when all along, he was already done with the job.

Tony said the two hours is a fair time charge and that it includes travel time.  Google maps shows the travel distance and time from Carroll Plumbing & Maintenance, Inc.'s office to my house as 2.2 miles and ten minutes.

Tony would not adjust the time charged.  I informed him that he has lost me as a regular customer and I would no longer refer Carroll Plumbing & Maintenance, Inc to anyone in the future.

They came to my house twice to fix the same issue and it still wasn't fixed. The first plumber that arrived was entirely unprofessional & frankly didn't want to work. I informed him I had already replaced the flapper, he informed me they have protocols to follow, so that's all he could do during this visit.... how convenient. When I called after the first plumber didn't do the job, the woman on the phone was completely rude. The second man that showed up was very nice, he at least replaced the entire pump but my toilet started leaking afterwards because of the washers he used; at least he tried. There was was no way I was calling Honest again so I called Thomas Plumbing and they were GREAT; problem solved.

I called Roto-Rooter for a molding issue that I THOUGHT I had, which wasn't the case.  Richard came by on time and at my earliest convenience and was very helpful and informative about my situation.  I would recommend this company for any plumbing needs.

Unorganized, unprofessional. Make sure to check your invoices before you pay as they will try to overcharge you. They'll call late hours, 3/4x till you answer. If not they'll call you from a different number to collect payment in which I authorized them to charge.

After the $400 rooter doesn't do the job they sell you the $1,600 Hydro jet with a 3-year warranty. What you don't find out until later is that a 3-year warranty means they will come out one more time in the next 3 years. After that, it's another $1,600. How about an estimate to do the major, multi-thousand dollar repair job? No problem, as long as we don't have to put the price in writing, because you might want to compare that price with someone else.

Really?

On the plus side, Arron arrived ASAP when I phoned him. He fixed the leaky valve. On the minus side, he charged $525 for 4 hours of work, replacing the main water shut off valve. I don't know the cost of the valve, because his invoice wasn't itemized for parts and labor.

Run away from On time AC.   We are new to the Bakersfield area and were having issues with our AC.  We called them out to fix the issue.  Well needless to say they were out 5 times in four weeks and could not get the unit running for more than a few days.  Every time I called it was a hassle to schedule as they only have two techs that service Bakersfield.  I called on a Saturday as this was the fifth time the AC quit working and it was 85 degrees in my house.  I was 6-1/2 months pregnant and they couldn't get anyone to come out until Tuesday afternoon.  We had another company come out and fixed the issue quickly.  They mentioned we paid for repairs not needed.  When I called to complain the manager wasn't very responsive and wouldn't refund any of our money except the maintenance plan which we canceled as soon as we found out they couldn't accommodate schedule or fix issues.  Please do not make the same mistake we did.  It cost us over $2000 and a lot of hot days and frustration.   We did purchase a maintenance plan with the other company and it was cheaper and they actually fixed this issue.