Benjamin Franklin Plumbing

Meems L.

Update: Clog apparently not removed. There was a burst of air pressure when the lid was removed from the clean out. Called another plumber who took care of it within a few minutes.

Wynn N.

Chris C. arrived a couple of minutes into the 4-hour window we were initially provided. Within minutes, he was able to diagnose the problem, get it sorted out; he was on his way, and our water heater was back in working condition. Highly recommended!

Manas H.

DO NOT HIRE THEM

This company apparently does not know the local rules of Fremont city and have put me in a tough spot.

I had a sewer line backup and got it inspected by Benjamin Franklin Plumbing.They looked at it and told me that roots have damaged the old clay sewer lateral and it needs to be replaced from the house till the property line beside side walk and i have two install two clean outs first one near the home and second one near the property line beside sidewalk.I repeatedly asked about the part of sewer lateral from the clean out beside side walk to city main sewer connection and was told that Fremont city is responsible for maintaining that part and they would clean it out in case there is a backup from there.

After the job was done i had a sewer backup again and on contacting Benjamin Franklin (Matt and Chris) i was told that i have to call the city.I informed them that USD told me that in Fremont city the part for sewer lateral from sidewalk to sewer main is home owners responsibility and they initially did not agree and kept on arguing.I was stuck for 2 days without using the restrooms after spending 11K on the sewer replacement and cleanout installation.

After 3 days Matt contacted and said that city changed the rules all of a sudden and informed that homeowner has to now maintain the part of sewer lateral from sidewalk to sewer mains (Really!!!, its hard to believe that they do not know the rules of the job they perform at customer side and want customer to suffer due to their lack of knowledge) .When i asked them to fix their screwup they gave me a quote of 18000 dollars to fix the part of sewer lateral that connects from cleanout near side walk to the city mains.This sounded a unreasonable high amount to me so i checked with other plumbers local to Fremont and got a quote of 1/4the of what they are demanding.

From my personal experience DO NOT HIRE them unless you have tons of money to waste.

Dean M.

I purchased a new faucet for my bathroom and a garbage disposal for my kitchen when I realized I was unable to install them myself. I then went on line to find a plumber since I always did my own work when I decided to go with Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of San Jose because of there reputation. I was not disappointed by my choice. I was informed of a 4 hour window when they would arrive to do the work. I was pleasantly surprised when they contacted me that they would be early. The plumber that arrived was Hector, who was professional, polite and respectful of my home. He wore shoe covers every time he entered my home and explained all parts of the job and the cost involved. I agreed and was relieved when the work was completed in a reasonable amount of time. Hector kept his work area clean and left the areas like he found them. I did realize that the job was bigger than I expected and was glad I hired a professional plumber to do the job. Thanks to Hector!

TheRealBobWhat S.

Scheduled an appoint with these guys, they show up on time, Look at my issue tell me they can fix it, but had to run to another job and cant fix my leaks until Monday .... this is on a Tuesday .... REALLY !!!! you couldnt fix the issue while you are here, what the point of coming out to tell me this... in the meantime, cant use my kitchen sink, Some warehouse on wheels you have ..... maybe i can call back to schedule a time for you to come back and see the work that the other plumber does to fix this , while he was here ..... Maybe your up front approach should be to say that you have someone look at the issue and schedule a better time for you to fix this....

Premal S.

Let me be clear: the technical people here are pretty solid. Chris, our technician was great, very responsive and incredibly competent. Now, for the rest of the company, while nice and trying to be helpful, fall short. Let me explain:

My water heater--about 4 years old--started not warming water (i.e., the point of the water heater). The light on the device was blinking six times, which, according to my 1st grader (and confirmed by me) meant the ""burner needs to be replaced."" So I called Benjamin Franklin as they had installed a new thermo coupler last year. I notified the person on the phone that the light indicates the burner is not working. He responded, ""it's probably the therm coupler."" I responded with, ""No, it's the burner. As indicated by the blinking light."" He was adamant: ""They're all the same thing, it's probably the thermo coupler."" I rolled my eyes (which he couldn't see) but was happy that he said he'd send a technician the next morning (Sunday).

Sunday: Chris arrived early and I was super happy. That was, until, he said, ""wait, the burner isn't working. Why'd you say thermo coupler?"" Imagine my severe annoyance. I let him know that the guy on the phone said it was the thermo coupler even when I insisted it was the burner because, well, I can read. He said he'll check on the part and try to install it Monday or Tuesday when it's available. Got it. A couple days of cold showers. I'll manage--even if I had a sick kid at home. S--- happens.

Monday: Chris called and said the part should be under warranty (I would hope so as the damn thing is 4 years old)--but it won't get in until Friday or the following Monday. I was furious. In this day and age, you can literally get anything from anywhere in the world within 48 hours. Hell, I was willing to pay for the shipping from anywhere in the world. But no, Friday or Monday. Fine, whatever.

Tues-Thursday: Cold showers, showering at the gym, boiling water and giving kids bucket baths. You know, real Silicon Valley lifestyle. I called Thursday to see what was up. The woman on the line told me that she'll schedule something for the following day, Friday, to get it installed. Awesome, I thought. Finally, some hot water.

Friday: Chris called me Friday morning and I'm thinking he's on his way over. Nope. He just called to let me know the part isn't in yet. And he hadn't spoken with anyone at HQ. Again, I was furious. What is wrong with communications at this place? How hard is it for the left hand to talk to the right hand?

Saturday: I called BFP again and the woman insisted the part was here and she'll schedule something for Sunday morning. Again, I thought, fantastic, hot shower tomorrow! So grateful for living in 2017!

Sunday: Chris called and said no part in yet. ARE YOU SERIOUS? What is wrong with you people? To his credit, he apologized profusely on behalf of the company and I told him that while it wasn't his fault at all, the company needs to get their you know what together. This is beyond ridiculous. I'm blocking out times for people to come over, moving things around, planning on showers (yes, planning to take showers in 2017!). He said he would call back Monday

Monday (note, 10 days since water heater stopped working): Chris called in the morning said he's going into the office to check on part. He called back a little later to say it was in (now, not to be a skeptic--but I will be--how does a part magically appear Monday morning when nobody could find it over the weekend? Unless they're getting 10 AM delivery on Monday, there's no chance that thing arrived on Monday. Especially because he called me before 10 to let me know he'll be at my house in an hour. Sounds shady). Anyway, to his credit again, Chris was over in a jiffy, got the burner fixed in 15 min and I had a hot shower an hour later.

So, kudos to Chris. Everyone else needs to be sat down and yelled at. This is complete nonsense. 10 days to fix a water heater part. Oh yeah, even though the part was under warranty, they were going to charge me $680 for the install. You know, something that took 15 min. Magically, Chris was able to ""knock it down"" to $380. I'm not sure the economics of this, but as a captive customer, they could basically charge anything even if the service was absolutely horrible.

Look, I like these guys--I think they the techs do a good job, but the company is completely unorganized and when in a pinch, didn't do me good here.

Eileen S.

Benjamin Franklin Plumbing was very professional and customer oriented. In particular, MANUEL was able to fix the leak and troubleshoot the water pressure issue in just a few hours. He did a very thorough job and was very professional at all times. The rest of the team did a great job also. Thank you.

Eric T.

I called Benjamin Franklin Plumbing to come and look at a leaky bathtub plumbing problem in a condo that I rent. The leak was damaging the downstairs neighbors unit. As such the ceiling was opened up exposing access to the pipes that were leaking.

Plumber (Matt) after talking with boss (Bob) on phone told me the job would be $1850.00 to replace bath tub waste overflow and ptrap. When asked why so much, he replied it woudl be a 2 person job, and take half a day. Since it was a 2 person job, they wouldn't be able to do it until 2 days later.

I got a quote for $350.00 over the phone later from another pumber based on a single photo of the pipes. I had him also replace the downspout on the tub for a total of $425. The complete job was done in 3 hours by a single plumber.

Update:
The Manager (Bob) at Benjamin Franklin Plumbing called and appologized profusely after reading my review here. He offered to make it up to me by giving me a $300.00 credit towards my next job. As luck would have it, my kitchen sink was backed up next day. He sent a different plumber to my home, who cleared the leak and replaced all the pumbing underneath with ABS for free. So I will raise my rating to neutral. He never asked, implied or hinted that I should make any adjustments to this review, and its been well over a month since this new work was done, and the sink still works great!

Rich D.

I give this company 2 stars for prompt service and free estimate . I needed the gas lines in my house redone . They promptly sent over Chris to have a look . After taking a look he gave me a quote for repair that was well over double what every other company quoted .i mentioned this fact and he dropped the estimate price by 400.00 but where still 2400.00 more then 3 other company's I got quotes from . I was shocked needless to say . I declined there service and went with another company ,

Laura S.

I am so happy we called Benjamin Franklin. Danny was courteous, professional, efficient and patient. We called him to put together our bathroom after our new floors were installed. While the floors were being done, a weird pipe was found in the house and he came that day to take a look at it and offer advice how best to deal with it. He was knowledgeable and didn't try to upsell us into doing an expensive fix we couldn't afford. Since we weren't sure when the floors would be completed, we had to keep him waiting to be called. He made quick arrangements to come to our house when we did call and got the bathroom put together quickly and professionally with attention to detail. He stuck to the estimate and we had no surprises.
I usually hate dealing with workers but I was quite comfortable and trusting of Danny and will for sure be asking for him for all our plumbing needs.