Benjamin Franklin Plumbing - Charlotte

Rick Z.

WARNING! DO NOT CALL THEM, their pricing is so ridiculous that you will end up paying the call fee ($59-$99) and tell them to leave. There are plenty of other reliable and trustworthy companies out there, these guys are criminals. They quoted my me more than triple what another company came and fixed it for. I will be calling the B.B.B. to enlighten them of these predatory practices.

Ozzy G.

BEWARE ! They should be put out of business. I paid $59 for service charge, there is a small leak on the water reservoir on the toilet. They asked $400 to fix the leak. The new toilet system costs $200 at Lowes (Kohler brand), and the installation is $250 (lowes pricing). I asked the installer how much will it cost to replace the whole system, he told me $799.

Never take a chance, they probably make money just getting $59 service calls. I will explain this business practice to the NC attorney generals office, by getting $59 service calls and asking a overpriced fix, without doing anything you are making $59. I think they invented a new business model, you don't need to be a professional.

From service guy to its manager; they are sticking to their business scheme. Manager called me today and he was sticking to their plans, so they are a good team how to get your money without doing anything.

Jarrot B.

My very old mother called about a leak under the kitchen sink. Leak was a seal that could have been easily replaed. Plumber sold and installed a new disposal for 458 dollars. Then installed a new faucet fixture that was already purchased. The total charge was 1152 dollars for an easy 1 hour sink job. They took advatage of an elderly lady.

Gary S.

Got a reply from the company stating that they are upfront about pricing. My review stated that. However, pricing so high indicates a predatory approach to customers, hoping that they are ignorant enough to not realize how ridiculous the pricing is. What is the phrase? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Smarter now about this company's practices, I would be stupid to use them again. This review is intended to help others avoid the same mistake. My original review was very fair, my only problem was the outrageous charge, which I admitted was revealed in advance of the work being performed.

Jeff S.

I had read reviews on another website, which is why I ended up calling Benjamin Franklin for a slow laundry drain that was backing up into the house. If I had reed these other reviews I may not have called. That said, I had no problem getting through to get an appointment scheduled, and the plumber, Jim Daly, showed up exactly at the promised time. After a brief conversation about what our problem was, he went right to work snaking out the line and didn't seem to mind at all that he had to haul his equipment up to the roof to go in through the vent pipe. Jim was very thorough, very patient (he insisted I run 2 full wash loads so he could see/hear that the line was draining properly before he left. He also located my outgoing sewer line and provided an estimate for installing a cleanout and put his camera down the drain so he could give me an idea of the condition of the pipes (the house is nearly 60 years old...).

I have absolutely no complaints about the quality of work performed; I am overall very pleased...However the one thing Jim didn't share with me was that there is a coupon available from this site to pay $99 for a $242 line clearing for any line in the house other than the main sewer, so between the trip charge and the drain clearing, I had to write a check for $331 right here just before Christmas. That is probably my own fault for not doing just a little more research, but he could have mentioned something about the coupon (unless he was not aware it is available). Jim did ask if I were pleased with the outcome, that I come here and post a review. That is how I found the coupon...and the only reason I am giving a 3 star rating rather than 4 or 5.

Coupon issue aside, I expected to pay between $200 and $300 for this trip, so I don't think their fees are much out of line with usual and customary fees most any plumbing service would charge.

Jayson K.

"" The punctual plummer"" said between 10-12 at 12 they said it would be 1230. At 1pm they arrived. How do business get away with time wasting like they do? Anyway they where fine otherwise. I just do not deal well with tardiness.

Pathik S.

Wow, this place is a complete rip off. Now the $80 trip charge i was okay with. I know what work needed to be done, i even knew the parts costs estimate which was roughly $25.00 and that is generous. A skilled plumber would have taken no more than 30 minutes to complete the job and i estimated $80 an hour which is very generous. So i was thinking i was gonna spend about $150.00, fine. Now not only did he come here and try to fill his quota and then he insulted me. He gave me an estimate for $230.00 which was more than i thought the job was worth. And i told him i would do it for $150. He said ""remember you called me because you couldn't do it"" . I gave him his $80 and told him i wont call them again. I will just invest my time from here out. I didn't do it because i don't have the time to take care of it right now.

Save yourself the hassle and call somebody else, this company is only going to rip you off.

Kate M.

We used these guys when the city pipe leading to our house began to leak. The repairs were supposed to be covered by the city--they gave us a bill of more than a thousand dollars, which we later found out only 200 was reimbursable. BUT THAT:S NOT ALL--less than a year later, we have a leak in exactly the same place--called them, hoping it was under warranty or at least a discount, NOPE. They will happily charge us full price to come back and re-do the work they did a year ago at full place. Awesome business plan--over-charge and do crappy work and force the person to hire you again and again. DON'T use this company--period..

Stephen P.

Sigh...It really takes a lot of effort (or should I say lack thereof) from a business to warrant just a single star, as even if a business makes any sort of attempt at something, anything, they can get themselves up to at least two stars if for nothing more than effort, but there is a place for one star reviews and unfortunately these guys earned it and then some due to their lack of communication and follow up with a prospective customer (me).

Contacted them a couple of weeks ago to get an estimate on some plumbing work needed at my home and things started off fine as they took my information and scheduled someone to come out no problem. The guy came out and spent a good thirty minutes looking over the work to be done so that he could create an estimate for me and he was solid and everything was going fine, so I know you are thinking...why in the heck are these guys getting only one star?

Well...the guy took down my information and verified my email and told me he would send me the estimate by 5pm that day no problem. 5pm comes and goes, no estimate. Not a huge deal, as I understand things happen...Sat...Sun...Mon...Tues...Wed...no estimate....hmmmm...I follow up with an email...no response...I follow up with a phone call and again things started off just fine, they say no problem they will figure out what's up and after being on hold and then transferred, they tell me they are on top of it and will give me a call back in a few minutes to let me know what was going on....that was 2 days ago....

For the life of me, I will never understand why some companies can't seem to understand the importance of communication. Even if they would have followed up to say ""hey, we screwed up, we lost the estimate, the guy was fired, the guy lost your email, the guy hit his head and got amnesia, something anything, other than nothing...""

Time to wrap this up, as I think I have actually spent more time on this review than they did on follow up, but guess that really wouldn't be that hard since the time they spent on follow up with me was actually nonexistent. Welcome to the one star club guys....

Robin E.

Wish I had read previous review before calling them. When I called I inquired about the minimum service trip fee and was told it was $69. Knowing this was an easy repair, I just didn't have the correct wrench i thought how much could it be? Paid $320 for a repair that had a $10 part and took 10 minutes. A total rip off. But once they are there and you know you have to pay the service call you feel stuck. Will NEVER use them again.