Benjamin Franklin Plumbing - Charlotte

Ben C.

To whom it may concern,

 

I would like to report fraudulent and unethical business practices by Ben Franklin Plumbing.  I recently hired Ben Franklin Plumbing to inspect an apparent leak in my ceiling as reported by a certified home inspector.  We advised Ben Franklin Plumbing that this leak needed to be inspected, the source of the leak located and repaired as per a due diligence request by the buyers of our home which was under contract.  The Plumbing expert came out and inspected and reported that he checked the area by using a scope camera.  A scope camera would have to be inserted into the wall or ceiling above but cutting or drilling an access hole to allow this inspection.  We were charged for the inspection and the report seemed reasonable.  The problem began when the buyer of our home sent another certified plumber and an HVAC contractor to our home to verify the inspection and there was no evidence of a hole in the wall, ceiling or floor above to support the scope camera inspection.  At this point, I made numerous attempts over a week's time to reach out to Ben Franklin for further clarification but all of my calls and discussions went unanswered.  I was promised a call back numerous times but received none.  With no time to spare before the sale of our house, we were forced to call yet another plumber out to perform the necessary inspection that Ben Franklin claims to have done.  It was required that they cut a hole in the ceiling to complete a proper inspection.  The leak was found and repaired and our house sold.

 

My issue is that Ben Franklin Plumbing claims in writing to have performed a service that was not done.  When I spoke with the General Manager, Paul Stefano, after over a week of calling and leaving messages, I explained the situation to him and gave him the opportunity to do the right thing and simply refund the money we paid for services NOT rendered...he refused.  By the way, the plumber employed by Ben Franklin is no longer employed there and no-one could provide the necessary information explaining where the scope camera was allegedly inserted into the wall or ceiling as it was stated on the invoice.

 

In short, the job was not performed as described, Ben Franklin was unwilling to face the situation and is unwilling to resolve the concern.  Therefore, I will peruse this issue as far as necessary until resolved to my satisfaction.  It is clear that the work that was done was unethical, fraudulent and contained inaccuracies and lies.  I will be happy at this point with a full refund for the inspection we were charged for and will allow 5 business days for a reply at which point I will report to all major social media sites as well as the Better Business Bureau.  I look forward to hearing back from you with a resolution.

 

Ben Cooper

J Y.

I scheduled an appointment with Benjamin Franklin at 704-337-4651 this morning to have the gas line connected to my gas log fireplace. I was quoted a price of $149. I was told that price would include connection and testing the logs. A technician just called to tell me that wasn't even close to being the right price; it was in fact much more than I was quoted. He sounded annoyed with me and wanted to know who I spoke to. Instead of performing the service for me and then resolving the pricing issue with the employee who supposedly quoted me the wrong price, he called to harass me about how I got that price and who I talked to. He didn't even know what he was scheduled to do at my house today. I had to explain it to him. That's when he told me that the price was 'nowhere near the right price' and went on to express his frustration that I was the second person today that he'd had to deal with that had supposedly been misquoted. I had no confidence in his willingness or ability to arrive at my house, perform the service scheduled, and do it in a pleasant manner. Very frustrating experience.

Tom W.

My wife called them to replace our garbage disposal on May 10, 2019. They charged us $622. The 3/4 horsepower disposal they installed retails for less than $150. It took the plumber less than two hours to install. Total rip-off. I called to inquire, especially since we had previously signed up for the Ben Franklin Society, which is supposed to provide a discount on future service. Paul Stefano lectured me about overhead and reluctantly agreed to refund us $85, but we still haven't received over two months later. They don't care about making customers happy and also don't seem to value loyal customers, so we will be taking our business elsewhere.

Janice S.

I am very pleased with the service. I called last night because we had water under our kitchen sink and was scheduled for an appt. for today from 8-11am. The technician, Matt, called before he came and was here well within the designated times. He fixed the problem and was here and gone in 1/2 hour. He was very professional. I also signed up for their yearly contract which I found very reasonable and gives me 15% off future issues in addition to a yearly inspection of my plumbing.
Ben Franklin, you have won me as a customer!

Courtney H.

PLEASE BE CAREFUL HOMEOWNERS - I fell for the good old boy servicemen who ended up selling me an irrigation tank (almost $2000 and completely capped off by BFP bc it runs NOWHERE!) that they said we needed for our sprinklers to work - only to learn 2 days later from our sprinkler co. that ALL houses in the city run on city water which means we never needed an irrigation tank unless we lived in the country :0, and all the little items they said ""oh, don't worry, we are not even charging you for this"" when I said not to clean hair from my drain since I have the same $.59 plastic tool and know how to do that...they DID charge me $272 x 4 even though they did not even clean all the drains nor did I ask them to :0, charged us $228 for ""new toilet handle"" when I have a photo that it is rusted and old, and charged $155 to caulk something he also said he would not charge for AND did not caulk....So I just warn other PLEASE BE CAREFUL! I always want to believe the best in others and that folks are trustworthy....we cannot get them to call us back. SAVE YOURSELF, DO NOT FALL FOR THE GOSH-SHUCKS, I'M JUST A SIMPLE MAN TRYING TO DO A GOOD JOB schtick...I did and we really got taken for $6200 would love to stop that from happening to you by both being stuck with fraudulent items you do not need and items that are old and items that they SAY are not being charged but are exorbitantly (tell me who can't clean out their own shower drain in 2-5 minutes with a plastic tool from Lowes?) BEWARE ~use another company

Rashina C.

I wish I could rate them with no stars. Just like everyone else I was ripped off by the pricing and the services that were not done. They came out for an evaluation of my pipes and told me that everything had to be replaced (~12-15ft worth of piping). However, the tech did manage to replace a 2ft pipe just before he turned off the water valve so that it would leak. What the what?!?

I honestly believe he replaced that random pipe so that they could charge me something. And when I tried to contact the company about getting an adjustment on my price, miraculously, no one was available. I never heard back from anyone except the accounting department to ask me why I placed a stop payment on my check.

It's been an up-hill battle and I'm still going through it with the Better Business Bureau complaint because they have now contacted a credit agency who is coming after me for the rest of ""their money"". It's a nightmare that they take advantage of people like that and they just get away with it. Please don't waste your time with this company. SAVE YOUR MONEY AND USE SOMEONE ELSE!!

Jonathan M.

Just had Benjamin Franklin Plumbing do a whole house re-pipe to replace polybutylene pipes. They did and excellent job and were very courteous. The job took 3 days to complete. They even reconnected the water in the evenings when they left which really helped our family survive this project. Thank you Joe and team @ Benjamin Franklin Plumbing.

Isoken I.

Travis Blanton of Benjamin Franklin Plumbing as been more than outstanding in providing exceptional service. I called the company due to an emergency sewer back up at my property recently. From the moment Travis arrived until the work was completed, he provided nothing but reassurance, and walked me through each step of the process. Additionally, Travis took the time out to continually check in on me until the work was completed. After the service was completed he followed up to make sure no issues was left unchecked.

I will highly recommend Travis at Benjamin Franklin for any plumbing services.

Joel W.

I called Benjamin Franklin Plumbing to address a small leak under my kitchen sink, knowing they would probably say I need to replace my garbage disposer. They charge $140 for a trip fee and confirmed the garbage disposer needed replacing and the total cost would be a total of $741.10. I reluctantly agreed for the technician to do the work because I felt trapped having already paid the $140 trip charge. I then checked with Hand 4 Hire which gave me an estimate of less than $400 (around 1/2 their price) for the same job. I spoke to Paul Stefano, General Manager and asked if he would price match but he agreed to refund only $90 which took 6 weeks to get to me.

I will not use this company again, and would not suggest them to anyone I know. Furthermore, if you have them come to evaluate an issue then you will already have paid more than you should and you too will feel trapped into accepting their overpriced service.

John G.

AVOID - AVOID
Called for a simple waste line snake cleaning and was told they could schedule us for today and the technician would call 30 minutes-ish prior to arrival. After 5 hours of waiting (8pm) they were still a no-call, no-show.

I called back to confirm we were still scheduled and was told that we should be receiving the call at any time. 2 hours later still nothing. When I called back again it went to a voicemail box (which was full) and was instructed to leave my number for an SMS message to the company (which I did) and STILL nothing.

I just made a reservation from a local tool rental company to rent the 100' snake auger for less than the $57 charge they were going to charge me to evaluate the problem and give me an estimate.