American Plumbing & Drain

Robert S.

I strongly advise anyone looking for plumbing services to avoid American Plumbing and Drain at all costs. Mario has to be one of the most untrustworthy, degrading, and pompous individuals I have ever met. Terrible customer service, doesn't care about anything except his own opinion, and can't get the job done properly. Unfortunately, American Plumbing is who our home warranty told us to use and I have read the other reviews suggesting that we should cut Mario some slack because he is limited in what he can do. That is complete non-sense. This guy does not want to do anything except keep a recurring revenue stream by doing a quick fix instead of solving the problem. We have spoken with numerous people at our warranty company and looks like they will be pulling American Plumbing and Drain from their list of vendors, so you can thank me later.

We have had a stoppage issue with a toilet that could be solved by snaking the entire line to the clean out. Mario chooses to just snake the toilet and sure enough it flushed fine after his 2 minutes of work. I spent the next 20 minutes listening to him rant about how he knows how to fix everything and how he should get paid more money. But within one day, back to the same issue, and our warranty company required us to deal with him again to repair his work. Unfortunately, my wife had to deal with him directly and aside from being directly insulted by Mario and feeling extremely uncomfortable being at home alone with him, he showed the same lack of customer service or confidence in solving our issue.

So many other solid plumbers to use and many who have great customer service and don't offend you in your own home. Take my advice and spend you time and money elsewhere.

Margot G.

I have dealt with Mario of American Plumbing and Drain on multiple occasions and have found him to be rude, unprofessional and not demonstrably competent. I have only dealt with Mario in the setting of an American Home Shield work request which may have some influence. The most recent two occasions are as follows 1) a tub in the bathroom was leaking. Ultimately it caused a hole in the downstairs ceiling. Mario came, looked through the hole in the ceiling hole downstairs and said that he could not access the area, and thus the repair was not covered. He said that we were going to have to get a carpenter to take out a ceiling joist and prop up the house to get the repair done. (n.b. American Home Shield will not allow their workman to make any type of access and will not repair any access made). I offered to make an access so he could better see the area and assess the situation. He refused. I made the access, a matter of 5 minutes with a jig saw and drill, and thought there was not a real access issue. I asked AHS for a second opinion. Robert from Street and Rooter came out and repaired the tub without difficulty (and without taking out any joists). I am repairing the access hole (in a closet). Today he was asked to fix a leaking pedestal sink. He came in, looked at the sink and said he could not access the gooseneck because the pedestal was cemented to the floor so it was not covered. It was grouted actually. It took me about a minute with a chisel and a hammer to get the grout out. I think however what was causing Mario difficulties was the two screws which attached the pedestal to the floor. I would think that unscrewing such fasteners would be in a plumber's job description and would not constitute an access problem.

Lisa K.

This is the second year Mario has come out and helped us with our sewer system, and he's been fantastic both times.

Last year, we called AHS because we had blockage in our sewer. Mario came out, and we found that the blockage was caused by roots, which wasn't covered by AHS (other causes were). So in this case, AHS was annoying, but Mario was amazing. He worked with us to get in touch with AHS, and when AHS wouldn't cover it, he provided a really great, thorough, low-cost solution for us. He explained what he was doing very clearly to us, put in sewer line access (which we didn't have before), and completely solved our problem.

AND the first time he came, he fixed our garbage disposal for free!

After that, we had another problem with our bathroom that he again solved for us at reasonable and low cost. He has also always come very promptly.

Mario is great to work with and he works really well with AHS - he knows the ins and outs of the system. He also will not ""upsell"" you - we thought we needed roots cleared out of the sewer more frequently, but he told us we didn't, even though we would have paid for it.

I also just want to add that if you're thrown off by the 1-star reviews, sort them by date, and you'll also see that some people have issues with AHS, not Mario. And - I think I had the exact same issue as Meg P., and I'm sorry she had a bad experience, but we had a fantastic experience with Mario installing a sewer line access (clean out valve). Both my husband and I have interacted with Mario and have found him really helpful and informative.

Ben C.

I am in real estate and my team has used Mario with American Plumbing for many years. Please take all the negative reviews with a grain of salt in regard to the AHS Home Warranty reviews. Many times it is not his fault as he is limited by the Home Warranty Insurance Plans.

We have used Mario for over 10 projects both with the home warranty and without. He is an excellent plumber. He always fixed our problems when covered by AHS and has always been good to our clients. His prices are very fair.

One client hired the top ranked plumber on Angie's List and got a quote to extend a gas line. Long story, but at the end of the day Mario was 4 times cheaper for the same scope of work. This included the Finaled permit from the city of San Mateo which the other company wanted to charge us more money to obtain.

If you need a fair and reliable plumber please give Mario a call.

N M.

Was asked by AHS to use this company. Initially the person that showed up, can't remember his name (a french guy), seemed genuinely helpful. Once he started having issues with the leaky faucet he did nothing but complain and he complained for 2.5 days. Each day he left, he failed to pick up after himself and left a mess. Once he was done, the problem wasn't fixed. Unprofessional, unqualified, dirty, etc.

Clement S.

Unfortunately, Mario treated a female property manager in a rude manner today. We called American Plumbing & Drain due to a Home Warranty claim, but unfortunately his visit did not resolve anything, due to his behavior.

Even if a claim cannot be honored in the opinion of the plumber, he still could engage customers in an entirely different manner:

Because even if there is no warranty claim, we would HAVE GIVEN HIM THE WORK if he would have been professional, and he could have generated more business.

Cindy W.

Mario does a thorough job explaining and completing plumbing repairs. He is knowledgeable and honest, which is a rare combination. Will use Mario again and highly recommend him.

Mot Y.

This company is solid. Mario is a very detailed individual explaining every problem with my draining issues. He even proved to me on several points of failure.

Straight up and honest at a fair price. Buying an old house can be fun. lol.

Heather A.

One star is too much for this company! I have not forgotten the terrible service I received from MARIO when I was forced to use this company through American Home Shield. He was extremely unprofessional and belligerent on the phone and in person. I see that the company has now closed and I can see why. He had no regard for how he treated his customers and didn't care that I was offended and unhappy. Even though he could not fix my problem, which I would have understood, his attitude and the way he handled the call was appalling. Glad to see they are no longer in business.

Jenevieve D.

AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID!!!!!!

Mario is NOT someone you want in your house doing work on your plumbing. Unprofessional is only the start of his problems. First thing he said when seeing my water heater is that it wasn't placed properly. Ummm...I just moved in and am not responsible for that. Then he moved my washer and dryer so he could work on it which he never moved back. He worked on a water heater without placing down rags or anything else to deal with the water that leaked out which made it over 15feet to some boxes. I started cleaning it up so my things would not be damaged and he walked out of the garage only to come back a few minutes later as I was done and say ""I would have taken care of that"".

But none of that is the worst. My husband had turned our water heater down because it was constantly too hot. Mario decided he knew better than our settings (there are only letter labels to set it, not numbers) and turned it back up again. He told me he put it at 120F. NOT!!! Idiot never came in and checked. Just took off. Water temperature was at over 190F!!!! I have small children in the house who could have been seriously injured by this. When I called and told him, he was very blase and what do you want me to do about it???

Oh, and the problem he came out to fix? Still not fixed! Avoid this incompetent person at all cost!