Joe B Sullivan & Sons Plumbing Co., Inc

I recently woke up to no hot water and realized that my hot-water heater was leaking and was probably shot.  I called a few of the obvious companies, one of them being Hiller Plumbing, and they sent somebody out to give me an estimate. I met the technician at my home and he said right away that it would have to be replaced due to the leaking, which I told the lady when I first called in.  He was going to charge me to come out and tell me that ($65.00, if I remember correctly) and said that it would be $1,200 to replace the appliance.  I told him I didn't need the top of the line model, and he said that was what was available and that was the cost.  Due to my pointing out that his office should have known it was shot if he didn't even have to look at it to know that it was shot (the leaking), I didn't have to pay the service charge (a plus for Hiller).  I thought the price was very high, so I asked some friends at work if they had any suggestions.  They told me about Sullivan Plumbing, so I called and talked with them.  They were able to fit me into their very busy schedule the next day, which I thought was wonderful since I had already been a couple of days without hot water.  They came out and the end result was a new water heater for $850.  They were very gracious, kind, helpful and weren't out to rob me like I believe Hiller was.  They are a family business that have been in the area for a few generations, which says a lot to me.

When my 10-month-old water heater, still under warranty from the factory, stopped heating well, this was the only company approved in my area to do the warranty labor. The first guy, Justin, who came out said I needed to turn up the thermostat. I told him that didn't make sense because it had worked perfectly last winter through much colder weather without a need to turn it up and because it was cold when we were still having 70 degree days, but could not force him to do anything else.

A few days later, I called the water heater company to get another visit approved. They informed me that their approved technicians are supposed to call them while on site and go through a specific trouble-shooting list. I mentioned this when I called Sullivan & Sons to schedule the 2nd visit, and the lady on the phone flatly told me, Oh, we Never do that. Not encouraging, but I hoped the second tech would be better.

Unfortunately, he wasn't, and Frank frankly treated me worse than anyone I've ever encountered in the service industry, especially in my own home. He was so rude that a worker who was at my home for a different issue later apologized to me for not having intervened.

Upon arrival, Frank quickly stuck his multimeter on the elements and thermostats, stuck his hand under the nearest faucet for 2 seconds, laughed, and snottily said he could turn the thermostat up for me to whatever temperature I wanted it to be. I told him that wouldn't cut it, that had already been tried and hadn't worked, which I had also told him before he started.

He then said my problem was that my 50 gallon water heater was too small to produce enough hot water for a single normal-sized tub. I explained why that was clearly wrong (although you'd imagine someone who's been working on them since they were 15 years old--as he told me 3 times during the visit--would have enough sense to know that).

He then said the problem was that the valve in the faucet nearest the heater needed maintenance, even though I had already told him the problem was house-wide, and even though he didn't actually inspect the valve.

He also suggested that the lines on the heater had somehow been swapped, even though the thing had worked perfectly for 10 months and the lines very visibly had not been touched since install.

After all that nonsense, he finally said the problem was because a cartridge had not yet been installed in a new shower fixture 2 floors away. That didn't make sense to me either, in part because of how the pipes run and in part because it took asking *eight* different times for him to have any remotely reasonable explanation of how that could work.

I was willing to try it, but as I suspected, 24 hours after the cartridge was in, the heater still did not produce adequate hot water for even a quick shower.

Each of Frank's explanations was delivered in a haughty tone, with admonishions that I didn't have enough faith in his obviously-ridiculous explanations, with him interrupting and talking over me, and clearly not listening to more than about 10% of what I said.

I was not about to have him or anyone else out from Sullivan & Sons to try to fix it again, so ended up doing various testing myself.

It turned out that the problem, very simply, was a faulty upper heating element, which Frank clearly missed. After I replaced it, the heater has been working flawlessly for a week now.

We had an underground leak, these folks told us they could not detect. Their solution was to recommend for us to completely replace the leaking line. They never returned any of our calls. American Leak Detection found the leak in 5 minutes. Holt Plumbing repaired in 2 hours. Needless to say, we won't be using Sullivan again.

Sullivan Plumbing is great! We have been using them for years.. they are fast, good, smart, honest and fair. I wouldn't consider any other plumbing company. Do yourself a favor and skip the companies that have the fancy trucks and advertising everywhere (those things cost money, which is why they may try to upsell you). Sullivan Plumbing will shoot straight and get your work done quickly!

Sullivan plumbing was recommended from a friend of ours. We had multiple plumbing issues with our new home. All issues were fixed and we were billed, what I consider, a fair amount. We will continue to use this plumbing company for future needs.

Scammer beware frank and his crew of thieves. I have explain to them exactly what the model and the problem I was having with my water heater and they told me they will bring parts to fix it . Frank came by and told me he will not fix or look into fixing my water heater and left with in a minute after arriving . Few weeks later I get a bill saying I owe them money . I have used hundreds of companies various times and never had a company ever bill me a service fee weeks after they have done anything.Every company tell you up front and charge you before they leave or after they have done the job . I have called them several times leaving my number and they have not called me back . I will not recommend this company to anyone . They are trying to make money for doing nothing. Look at all there reviews they have a very bad reputation with drunk employees and shady owner . Do not use this company do your research there are many good companies out there with better reputation and good customer service . Who doesn't try to steal money from hard working people. Only good review he has is from his friends who he paid to right reviews for him. I will contact bbb and report this shady company .

UPDATE! I received a phone call from Joe B Sullivan and Sons Plumbing today. I spoke with Bill who apologized if there was a miscommunication about the service and bill I received. He first and foremost wanted to assure I was a happy customer and offered to provide the services previously rendered free of charge. I told him I was happy to pay the price I was quoted and did not expect a free service. Kudos to this company for reaching out and making it right.

Sullivan is 4 hours late at this point for and appointment I made almost 3 weeks ago they did not call so I called them they really do not care about the customer at all at this point I had used them in the past and they where great
they failed this time I can no longer recommend this business Everything would have went smooth if some one would have just picked up the phone and communicated with me from the start.