Benjamin Franklin Plumbing

Garrison W.

Get a second quote, they WAAAAY over estimated the work needed for our repairs. If the estimate was even close to actual, I would not be writing this review. Disappointing too, as we have had positive experience with BF plumbing in the past, but this instance left us severely disappointed. We had technician Martin G. come out to take a look at our rental unit for a popup sink issue and a leak coming from a toilet handle. What we got back after Martin's visit were a few estimates, the high being a complete removal of a pedestal sink and full replacement of a toilet. We're talking north of a $2.5k charge. With that high of an estimate, I just had to go to our rental and take a look at the job for myself. The pop up drain was resolved with a removal of the ball and rod lever arm in the back, wiping it down with CLR, re-greasing it, and resetting the pull arm mechanism. I could see if the sink was difficult to get to making this repair difficult, but I promise you, this was not the case as the pedestal in the back is 9 inches from the wall and open, enough room to get a wrench, a hand or two, a beer can or whatever back there. My point is, there is plenty of room to reach the repair unless you are Andre the Giant or have baseball gloves on. Total cost of this repair was two rags, some CLR cleaning solution purchase, and some plumbing grease. Sink back to full working order, and just absurd that the proposal was to remove the entire sink from the wall to fix an easy lever arm, and then reinstall - $1.3k saved. Other than cleaning out some hair from the drain, I didn't really have to touch the popup assembly much, the assembly that BF wanted to charge ~$300 to fully replace by the way. Now off to tackle this supposedly horror of a toilet. With the estimate, the technician took plenty of pictures of the rear tank of the toilet to show that it was in dire condition with rust and mineral build up all over the place. Sure, areas looked like the dirty water of a toilet as opposed to the clean area. Closer inspection, again, way over estimate of the work needed. Drained the tank, removed and tossed the old flush/floater assembly which was indeed rusty, scrubbed the inside of the upper tank with wire brush for about 2minutes, flushed out the debris, and done, good as new. You can now cook a meal in there, it is so clean. Quick trip to Home Depot for DYI universal flush assembly for $25, followed basic instructions on the box, and job is done. Water was leaking from the handle cause the water level was too high - hardly something difficult for a plumber to figure out. Nothing here required any special skills or know how other than a wrench, a credit card for home depot purchases, and English reading skills to read the instructions (or Spanish, or French, or Japanese - guess they sell this toilet kit in lots of places). Most definitely nothing that required replacing an entire toilet for the BF price of $800. Now the end of my review here. Sure, some of the above steps might be worrisome for folks to tackle on their own, I get that, but NOTHING warranted full replacement as this BF technician recommended. I put this estimate that we got on par with a suggestion to get a new car cause your windshield wiper blades are not working. I expected better from BF, you should too.

Update 10/12 - Shortly after posting this review, the South Bay BF representative reached out to me and we had a good conversation. We were offered a fair discount on future work if we choose to call them, so we shall see when the next need arises. Still a cautionary tale to always evaluate the work estimate for yourself or get a second quote.

Stuart H.

Takai worked on our unit in Sierra Crest Condos. He was knowledgeable, professional, very polite and skillful. We couldn't be happier with the work he performed for us. Thank you for great service.

Navid N.

Very friendly staff and did a great job taking care of my plumbing needs for a new home. John was very responsive to my needs and his team did a great job. Nick was my point person and was very detailed and hands on and did a final walk thru w me at end to make sure all to-do items were completed. I got 4-5 quotes from companies to do the same work and benjamin franklin came in at best cost w most responsive team. Thanks Guys!

Keith M.

Email for Ben Franklin Plumbing?
Does any one know of a email address for Ben Franklin Plumbing? All the email from them comes from a no-reply address. I have some insurance papers to send them for a claim. Phone calls go to an answering service, that takes everything down yet no one will call you back. Stay clear. Any business without an email is hiding from something.

Peter K.

Matt came out quickly to diagnose the problems, and Pablo and Salvadore came out promptly afterwards and did a great job replacing the shower valves and installing new hardware. Everyone always wore masks even while they were working, which is reassuring in these times. They also always wore protective shoe covers while walking inside the house as to not attract dirt in. Pablo and Salvadore were very meticulous and made sure everything was installed correctly. In addition, Pablo gave me a lot of good instructions and insight on how to maintain and take care of the installed items in the future. Overall a great experience and highly recommend this team. Thanks!

Kris S.

Edgar Cabrera and Jose Hernandez did an exemplary job getting the recycling pump on my tankless water heater set up and running, repiping the whole house in copper, installing a RO water softener, changing fixtures on my sinks/showers and re-routing outside water lines to make them more easily accessible. Edgar was very knowledgeable. At my request he pointed out where future potential problems could arise via phone photos, but never pushed me to do more than I wanted. Jose worked on the plumbing as well, and also repaired the stucco and sheetrock that they needed to breach to get access to pipes. Both men worked outside during the heat wave (103 degrees), as well as in the crawl space. They worked slowly so as to be meticulous. They showed me the damaged and leaking pipes they replaced. They were pleasant and courteous at all times, and worked really well as a team. They were punctual, maintained Covid protections and cleaned up well every day. I highly recommend them.
Kristin S

Emde C.

The tenants suspected CO and asked the city to check. The city found out the problems: oven-venting need to be aligned, as well as the burner of the oven needs repair. They suggested to call plumber and appliance contractor to fix the problems.

I have Benjamin Franklin came over today to check out the venting. The technician checked and could not find any problem, but he didn't even turn on the oven to check for any CO. Instead, he called me to say that there is gas leakage in the crawl space as the pipes are rustic and could cause explosion any time. He recommended to replace the gas line for $10,000, which is better than any explosion. He told me the visit itself cost $199 if I don't do any work, though it says $79 on internet. When I asked the technician for proof of the gas leakage, he hung up. The tenants told me the technician left without saying anything, or leaving a note.

I was concerned about the potential explosion and wanted to talk to the technician for more details. He didn't pick up the phone and I called the office. They told me someone would get in touch with me regarding the issue. I need someone to confirm the potential gas explosion. But no one called after several hours.

To no avail, I called the city again and told them what the technician told me. They sent out someone to check for gas leakage immediate. They mentioned that most likely the contractor tried to upset. But for peace of mind, they would check for gas leakage. The results from the city came back that there is no gas leakage.

Please be aware of this company - they don't bother to find the problem and up sell you something that cannot fix the problem.

Greg A.

Let me start with the scheduling and communication process with Ben Franklin plumbing was very good 4 of 5.

Where i score vendor Ben Franklin down is when i got the bill it was over $600 for two hours of work. When i asked if the labor late was $300/hr or more i received no follow up communication. I know the parts for the repair were $30-40 tops for the repair so the significant cost is not materials related.

Mike G.

Danny T came to our rescue today and boy did he rescue us! We had a badly clogged/slow drain kitchen sink and upstairs bathroom linked to a main line under the house. Danny was such a pleasure to work with. He was very friendly, courteous and knowledgeable. He was thorough in his work cleaning out the clogs from 3 different entrance points until all drains were draining quickly/normally. Danny explained everything he was doing as he was doing it and he did a great job keeping everything clean in the work area. We got to see the high def camera view in the main line and where the cast iron pipe wall build up narrows. The main line was put in when the house was built in 1967 so theres a lot of hard crusted build-up in the pipe walls that a simple snake cannot remove. Danny recommended babying the current line and if the clogs continue it signals the time to replace the old cast iron main line in the crawl space with a new ABS pipe (between $2600-3500). Charges came in at $298+$149 for the main line clean out and shower drain. Danny was awesome, highly recommend him and looking forward to having him help us out in the future when the next plumbing disaster strikes!

nick l.

Update: John Rossi contacted me immediately and we were able to communicate the issue and worked the problem out! Thanks for the quick response and follow up!