Beacon Hill Plumbing & Heating

Bruce F.

Be careful with this company's service. I have the 2nd appointment scheduled for the day. The 1st appointment was @ 8am (which was too early for me) but the repair person didn't come until 1:30pm. When he showed up he said that they charge travel time also which I was not told so I immediately called Ted (the guy) I talked to previously. He said yes they charge travel time unless it's the first appointment of the day. I said how can that be, if the 1st appointment is two hours away why should I be stuck with two hours of travel time. Since he didn't tell me about this he finally agreed to not charge me for travel time. The repair persons that came are contractors and they did an ok job so they are not the problem but the main problem is with the Beacon Hill company people. I will not work with them again.

Ric N.

I was told that I had an appointment at mid-morning, and though they couldn't promise a time, they would call before they come. After waiting all day, and not hearing from them, I called at 4:30, only to be told that they had another customer with a water heater issue.
I told him that, while I understand that things come up, he should certainly have called to tell me that they couldn't make it. Apparently he disagreed. I was rude, he was rude.
Oddly, I've used them in the past, and haven't had an issue. However, that time has passed.
If you value your time, I would look elsewhere.
This is no way to run a business, and they should know better.
There are options, though Beacon Hill Plumbing and Heating is no longer one of them.
I've sending this to all my friends on Beacon Hill and Back Bay.

Joanie B.

My water heater was about to let go and my regular plumber had discounted it this morning because he obviously did not want to do the work. As the heater began to leak, I called Beacon Hill Plumbing and Heating who had been recommended by my rental broker. Steve was here within two hours, efficiently disconnected the old heater and installed a new one saving me untold distress and money had the heater given way and flooded my apartment. Steve was friendly, professional and a no-nonsense worker. Beacon Hill will have my business from now on. I couldn't be more appreciative.

emily m.

These guys are masters of ways to overcharge customers!
Either they ""forget a tool"" and need an extra half hour to go back to the office and get it (even when you live down the street from them) or they insist that you need to pay for 2 plumbers so that one can run errands like picking up the forgotten tools.
We had this experience and upon talking to other Beacon Hill residents have heard similar stories.

Besides the overcharging, they don't stand behind their work -- they damaged the drain in our tub which caused issues in the unit below us but wouldn't do anything to fix the damage.

Alana K.

Have lived in Beacon Hill for years and have experienced major issues (old pipe in basement burst) and minor (replacing fixtures) and the guys at Beacon Hill Plumbing have always responded immediately and provided excellent work.

When I put in a new kitchen they were able to do the plumbing and gas work, even though this is not their general business. They priced better than other plumbers who really were not interested in a small job.

Recently we had flooding in the basement without any idea of the source - turns out it was a boiler in the building next stoor which has burst and somehow (gotta love Beacon Hill!) the water seeped through one basement floor and up into another. The only reason we knew that is because BHP had been considerate enough to contact us when they heard - thru the grapevine - about our mystery issue. This saved us an incredible amount of worrying and $$$.

I always ask up front for an estimate and take into account any minimal charge - a few of us in the building have on occassion coupled our plumbing requests to make it worth their while. When we were considering piping gas so that the electric stove could be replaced with gas, they stopped by, took a look, provided all the answers, no charge.

They are also happy to share information - for free at the shop or over the phone - just ask a question and they have been in the business on Beacon Hill long enough to know the answer or way to approach it.

S. U.

Very happy with their service. Reasonably priced and showed up on time and completed the work in a timely manner. Would definitely use them again!

M M.

I had Beacon Hill Plumbing do some work for me last winter, and was very disappointed

They were asked to do a specific job, to repair my boiler. Rather than repairing the boiler at one time, in one visit, they stretched the job over several visits and billed me much more than I expected. Upon review of the invoices I realized that on a few occasions, when I knew that they came over for no more than 5 minutes because I had spoken with them upon arrival and when they left, they charged me a full 1 hour, at $130.

One of these visits was in response to my call, as I was notified that water was pouring out of my boiler, which they had fixed, to the best of my knowledge. It turned out that they had only partially fixed it and they had left the valve open. When the heating came on, water came pouring out. I received a $500 bill from my building for damage to the unit below me. I approached BHP and they did not and have not to-date, responded.

Additionally, BHP billed me $130 to go and close the valve that they had left open. Again, for not more than 5 minutes of their time, I was billed a full hour and this call was a direct result of something they had not done correctly.

I have phoned BHP several times and have sent a letter to them asking them to respond to the damage, and also to explain their charges. I have not received any response. I have paid the full invoice, minus approximately two hours, which they continue to invoice me, and for which I am now accruing interest.

I will not use BHP again, nor would I recommend them, under any circumstances.

L. T.

I'm sorry to have to say this, but avoid this company if you possibly can. I switched to them last year from my regular plumber, and I regret it.

While the plumbers they send out to your home may do decent work, the owner, whom you may reach on the phone, is scary. He has a strange, robotic voice, which is how you can identify him.

If you have a problem after the work is done, and you hope to discuss and resolve it politely, he may refuse to listen and hang up on you.

In my case, I got charged more than $300 over two visits to replace a toilet flapper (a simple operation with a part most hardware stores carry -- but I didn't know it at the time.) But the cost and extra visit are not what bothered me most about them. Nor is the fact that two out the three repairs they'd made in 2009 failed within the year. Chalk all that up to a learning experience....

When he came to fix the flapper, I had the plumber also replace some hoses on my washer, since he was charging me for a certain amount of time and the toilet repair just took a few minutes. He let perhaps a dozen or more small pieces of elastic fly all over my bathroom and bedroom when he cut them off the hoses. I found my kitten choking on one after he left; I had to pull it out of his throat. (We had to force-feed the kitten lots of goopy hairball remedy, which he hated, twice a day for a week to help ensure that any other elastic he might have swallowed didn't cause a blockage, which could have killed him.)

Plumbers should clean up after themselves and never put kids or animals at risk.

When I called the owner and tried to find out how much elastic was used to wrap those hoses, to figure out how much was missing, the owner actually told me he wouldn't listen to me or answer my question, was sarcastic and nasty, and hung up on me. (I kept finding pieces for months afterwards, behind furniture, in a vase, etc.)

It seems this company doesn't care if they cause problems for their customers and they don't want to hear about it if they do. I caution you to think twice about hiring them, in case they are as unhelpful and unprofessional to you.

Gin P.

It must be nice to have so much business that they never call you back. I've had decent luck with these guys in the past and they're reasonable. But I called them three times, left them three messages before I called a 4th time and got a human. Bob was very nice and said they were booked but would call me at the end of the day (Tuesday) to let me know when the next day or that week when they could come. THEY NEVER CALLED EVER. Not a week later to apologize, not to call to say they just can't make it. NOTHING. Very unprofessional and as a customer, it's clear they don't care!

Noah F.

Very overpriced, very much unimpressive talent.

They charged about 2x the going rate, and then they managed to hook my new garden spigot up to the HOT water. They never bothered to test it- the only way it was noticed was that i insisted on testing it before writing the check, they rolled their eyes, and i saw huge gouts of steam coming out...