Benjamin Franklin

I had a bad experience with this plumber after working with them for years. They offered a «free inspection» and ended up finding $ 2000 worth of «fixes» that did not last. On top of that, one of their plumbers was outright hostile!

I had 4 things I wanted to get done. Toilet replaced. Kitchen faucet replaced. Video inspection and cleaning of the the drain pipes. Look for a leak going into my neighbors. I only paid for the toilet to be replaced.
I’ll start off with the good. He showed up between the times he said he would. He wore booties over his shoes when he came in. He replaced the toilet and pointed out that a small leak might have come from there. He seemed very knowledgable and got the work done quickly and professionally.
Now they bad. The toilet seat is crooked and he pointed that out to me. I’ll give him a pass and chalk it up to manufacturer defect. I was quoted an $ 80 service fee just to show up and that would be waived or used toward the work being done. When he showed up, that wasn’t the case and I had to ask for it to be waived. I was told over the phone that the company couldn’t give me an estimate of the work I wanted done. When he arrives he has a booklet clearly stating the cost of everything. $ 800 for a toilet install if you don’t have your own and $ 350 if you do. Kitchen faucet install was $ 250. Home depot charges half the amount. Snake and then video inspection was $ 650. Cut a hole to look for the source of the leak but not repair/​replace the hole was $ 250.
The plumber was great but the prices are awful. The whole telephone conversation was like it never happened and you get sticker shock once they arrive.

We had a back up and had to get the line snaked — our home warranty got these guys to come. Do NOT use these guys. I was only supposed to pay my deductible, and the guy lied and said I had to pay his prices and my deductible regardless of him doing work or not. We were given a window of 1 – 5 and they showed up at 11:30 saying they would leave if no one showed up.
So we ended up paying nearly 2.5 times more than any other plumber to get it done. And on top of that, they lied to the warranty company and said we didn’t pay the deductible. The guy kept threatening to leave and reminding me i still owed him $ 100 if his price seemed high. Not really a company that is looking for your best interest or looking for repeat business. DO NOT use these guys.

It’s a scam. I became a bit suspicious when I called to get an appointment for someone to come out to the house to fix a bathroom leak. After taking my information and setting a time, the receptionist said that for $ 99 I could «guarantee» my appointment — meaning that I could pay them $ 99 to make sure that they actually showed up at the time that we had just agreed they would show up. I declined.
Second red flag is that they charge $ 75 just to come to the house. They said that this fee would be folded into the final bill after the work was completed.
When the guy got out to the house, he looked at the small items we wanted done (that we’ve since had done by another firm for $ 700), and quoted a price of –I’m not making this up– $ 3100. I had to laugh.
I now realize their scam is that they only want to collect the $ 75 first visit fee. If you actually contract to do the work at their absurd prices, then they make out like bandits. But even if you don’t, they’ll pocket the $ 75 and move on to the next sucker.

What’s the saying — «a sucker is born every minute»? Well I guess I was the sucker the day Benjamin Franklin came to check my leaking kitchen faucet. The faucet in my perfect, almost new kitchen was leaking and I was afraid the water would damage my beautiful wood cabinets. Benjamin Franklin is punctual and the technicians they send are courteous and helpful so I arranged a service call. The technician arrives to check on the leak and discovers a line connecting the faucet under the cabinet has a pin hole in it. But he has an exclusive line of faucets that are guaranteed for life – lucky me! So, wanting to protect my beautiful cabinets, I pay an absolutely ridiculous amount of money for this wonderful faucet. Ooops, a year or two later the wonderful new faucet starts leaking. Out comes my technician with bad news/​good news. The bad news – the manufacturer of life-​time faucet found a flaw — but the good news, for just a few hundred more dollars I can get the new and improved faucet. So what did I do? I bought the new, improved faucet. What an idiot I am. And now a few years later the new faucet is the biggest piece of garbage ever – the «metal» is actually peeling. I’m just going to have my general contractor install a very nice Moen faucet from Home Depot – I don’t want to deal with Benjamin Franklin ever again.

Too expensive!
I haven’t had to call a plumber in ages, so maybe their price is competitive, but it was a bit of a shock nonetheless.
The woman I spoke to on the phone was a very good salesperson. She said that the plumber would come, evaluate the problem, and give a flat rate that would guarantee that the job would get done. She said they normally charge $ 74 for the plumber to come out, and then whatever other work they do is on top of that. She then said that since it was our first time, they would waive the $ 74 if we get the work done (in other words, if we said «no», we’d still be charged $ 74 minimum).
We had a stopped up drain in our laundry room, and the plumber took a look, and said that he could try a snake, but that he couldn’t guarantee it. To guarantee the job, he said he’d have to replace a major section of our old pipe, and it would cost over $ 600. Just to try the snake, with no guarantee of success, he wanted $ 240. Ouch! I was confident the snake would work, so I told him to do that. He did and it worked.
Very glad we didn’t go with option A. I think for $ 600 I can probably find a good plumbing class for the wife. :)

The service was true to it’s name — completely punctual.
the technician’s were very courteous and were very careful to wear cloth boot covers in the house and clean up the work area extremely well.
I appreciated the flat rate pricing system. I didn’t price compare extensively, but I was impressed with the service because that was extremely important to me.
I will definitely be using them again in the future.

The plumber they sent was on time (early even) and very professional. They have a flat rate pricing system so you don’t have to worry about haggling.
The people we called to set up the appointment were also very helpful. All in all, I’d highly suggest you give the place a try if you’re looking for a new plumber in the area.
They will try and sell you on their «club» pricing, but if you have a lot of work to do this may not be the worst thing ever. Basically, you pay a fee up front and get reduced prices on everything – including drastically reduced costs on emergency appointments. It isn’t a hard sell, though, and you can pass on the club membership without a hassle.