Wilkes Plumbing

I live in Lannon WI, in the greater Milwaukee area. I was assigned Wilkes Plumbing thru my HSA Home Warranty. We had a leak in a valve behind a pedestal sink in the bathroom that was leaking thru the floor and into the basement.  The plumber assigned, TIM was great, professional and quickly had the problem fixed. He even replaced the faulty valves with an upgraded value and not the builder grade that was there.

While I was with him in the utility room, where he had turned off the water supply to the house... I noticed the top of my hot water heater had standing water and asked him what was going on. He explained that it was part of my NTI boiler system (in floor heating) which uses a special type of dual stage water heater and that there was a clog in my system that was venting water out the top (not good).  This called for a specialized tech for the NTI, not a regular plumber.

I called HSA Home Warranty and they again assigned Wilkes Plumbing to the job as they had an NTI tech on staff.  ROB came out and explained what was happening and that he would fix my issue.  He replaced the broken part, fixed a small leak in an adjoining pipe and reviewed my system with me. He also showed me that a particular part of the system was not turned on... and made sure my whole NTI was working correctly and had proper settings.  When done, he wiped everything down and left it better then when he arrived.

I would greatly recommend WILKES Plumbing.

My wife and I built a home. The builder has used Wilkes Plumbing for many of his jobs. I talked with the owners wife who handles sales and pricing. We had things in the home that we wanted to upgrade. My wife and I set an appointment to meet with the owner. At that time we had questions as to what the itemized cost of things were and what the cost of the alternative option would be. Things seemed off because she could never give a straight answer. I had to ask multiple times because I want to be sure of things. She would never tell me the cost of the original options and would never tell me the actual cost of the alternative. She would only give me estimated additional cost over the estimate. (example: The larger tub would be an additional $300 on top of our initial bid). This made it very difficult to weigh our options. Our third option would have been to purchase things our own. We would not know if we had better pricing if we did not know the original price. I also wanted to know that if I wanted to purchase my own tub what would our credit be for them not providing the originally quoted item. She told me she did not know the prices which was understandable. She claimed she would email me the prices of everything the next day. She emailed me a list and once again the list was only composed of price differences and not an actual itemized pricing of their services or products. The price difference was reasonable and despite my frustration I was advised to just continue because going with anyone else at that time would delay our build. I agreed that we would pay the additional for the upgrades. They were scheduled to start working a week or two after. Upon a visit to the home I found all of their supplies in the house so they could start working the following day. Everything we requested looked to be correct. Up until this point they had been fairly professional even with my reservations with the pricing. They had also been on time and friendly. We were happy. The next day I received an email claiming that the total price had increase. It was substantially higher than previously communicated in emails. I immediately called the owners wife and questioned the email. I was not happy. She had told me that the prices was higher because the changes were based off of the building plans and not the estimate. The building plans were designed to have a walk in shower and a whirlpool tub. She said the price was based off the house having a modular shower/tub combo. The shower and tub would be extra. The home design never had a modular unit and always was designed to have a shower and tub. It appeared that she had based the allowance off of the generic price she regularly charges this builder and not specific to the building plans we had. I told her that this was not acceptable because when we had met with her we had a copy of our plans with us and had previously requested she had itemized costs ready when we meet. She did not have that and never took the time to recognize that my home was a different design than she had previously provided service to. As a business professional she should have had a way of handling this. None of this would have happened if she would have originally provided the information I had requested. I told her that the new price was simply not feasible. She said they had already started the install and that it was to late. I told her to stop working on the job because I do not approve the additional costs and I will not be liable for them. I was irate and spoke to her in such manner. I told her no further work is authorized until costs have been reviewed. I went to the house to check on the status of what was already done. The plumbers were still there working. As soon as I walked in an older man confronted me saying are you the owner I told him yes. He started yelling and got in my face saying if you ever talk to my wife like that again you'll regret it. I told him that his wife was trying to pull one over on me. It turned into a big fight. They would not leave and so I did because I was concerned about my safety. I had emailed them and told them to only do what was in the original estimate. I had to buy and install my own tub and build my own shower including laying a cement shower pan. I still was forced to pay them extra because they would not allow any other person to work on the job because they held the permit. If I wanted another person to work on it I would have had to have the city pull their permit and issue one to the new contractor. It would have delayed my build and Wilkes would not have finished the job they were over charging me for. I was stuck. I was lied to, over charged, screamed at, and threatened. In the end I still had to pay extra and did not get anything from them that I had wanted in my home. Worst experience ever and I would never recommend anyone to use them.

The plumber came out to fix a water heater but it was damaged so he called in warranty for a new one. He stated once I picked up the hot water heater call the company back and they will send someone out to re-hook up the water heater. I called the company and they attempted to give me the run around saying that they were booked solid. I explained that we have been without hot water for days now. She then stated that she was sorry and they could get someone out soon. After she said that the owner got on the phone and stated if I wanted them to come out that I would have to pay first. I stated that I don't have to pay because it's under warranty and the labor is covered. He stated if I didn't have documentation of that then I would have to pay. I asked him to talk to the plumber who came out because he was the one who spoke with the warranty company. At this point I asked him why was he yelling and raising his voice. I couldn't raise my voice because I was at work. He said we won't be coming back, find someone else and hung up. I immediately called back, he began to get irrate. I attempted to talk but he was yelling and calling me names. He told me never to call back again and find someone else and hung up. When I called the warranty company they stated he never called to give them a price for the services. His behavior was very unprofessional and rude especially for a business owner. He didn't let me speak and he didn't talk to the plumber about what was going on. This was a horrific experience and I would not recommend this company to anyone even if he was the last plumbing company on the earth. Needless to say I had to find another company to finish the work they started.