Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of North Austin

Charles J.

This guys are total crooks, including the owner Fred that later tried to justify the outrageous pricing. They took my 96 year old mother-in-law to the cleaners while my wife and I were out of town for the day. Her shower started leaking and she called them because she had a FREE service call coupon in the mail. They replaced the cartridge in the shower. At most a 30 minute job if you are slow and dumb. At $100 per hour and a $15 part, the bill should have been $65. So did they double it ? No! They presented her with a bill for $305. She talked them down to $280, paid them and told them to leave. Her water pressure hasn't been the same since. DON'T CALL THESE PEOPLE EVEN IF THEY ARE A LAST RESORT. They need to be run out of business.

Ted A.

Benj Franklin Plumbers:

Summary: Exceptionally competent, unconsciously overpriced.
Prices are quoted from a book which gives a worst case price with tons of padding. No reduction when job is easy. If you enjoy a feeling of having been "took", this is the outfit for you. The work gets done but you're left with a bad taste and an empty wallet.

Examples: 1. Repair gas pipe. Price: $223. Job took 15 minutes and required 1 8x1/2" black nipple and cap. 2. Repair faucet: Price: $153. Job took 30 minutes, no parts. 3. Replace hot water tank: Price $1525. for 6 year tank (after $185. "discount"). Competitors prices were from $850. to $1050.

Bill W.

I got a card in the mail for a free service call and had a leaky hose bib in the yard so I decided to schedule an appointment. It was $93.00 to replace the hose bib, at most a $15.00 part at HD and the installation took all of 20 minutes, tops. The technician was very pleasant and professional but the price was ridiculous. What was worse he tried to sell me an annual plumbing contract!! If I hadn't received that card it would have been an additional $59 for the hose bib??? Never again.

Debbie M.

We learned about a plumbing leak in our yard from an unusually high water bill. We called one plumbing service and were surprised to be transferred to Benjamin Franklin's answering service.
Richard from B.F. came out at 7p that Friday night and gave us an idea of what would need to be done to find the leak. My husband and I knew it wouldn't be inexpensive and it wasn't.
Richard worked steadily on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to install a shutoff valve at the house and then to methodically locate the leak in our large yard which spans a creek bed. He was very pleasant and knowledgeable.
We will call Benjamin Franklin next time we need plumbing services.

Lance S.

Complete Rip-Off!!!! I was given an estimate of $800.00 to fix the plumbing underneath my house for busted pipe. I thought that was high but needed running water. Then they told me they would have to dig in front of my house because they couldn't get to the pipe underneath the house. Now they wanted $1,500.00 I had not had water 4 days and was desperate. So they dug a 3-4 feet and told me they couldn't 't fix it. My options were to seal off the faucet or allow them to put another hole in my house. I said just seal it. After sealing it and filling up the whole they presented me with a bill for $2,000.00. They increased the bill because there was clay!! Red clay in Austin Texas! Really!! I refused to pay the clay fee and moved on. Don't make my mistake! Don't call these guys if they were the last plumbers in Austin!!!! I only gave them a star because you have to rate them to get a review published .

John R.

I had a problem with a tankless water heater last week. Having read some tough reviews of B. Franklin plumbing, I was worried about calling them to work on it. But they had a guy (Jarrod) who they said was trained and could do it. And although he was a little late getting here (hence 4 instead of 5 stars), he did the job efficiently, professionally, and for a lot less money than I was quoted at the alleged "go-to" plumbers for this kind of job (texas heaters--they claimed they'd need a day to fix it and north of a 1000 dollars). So I ended up very happy that I called Benjamin Franklin and got this guy, Jarrod, to do the job.

Edward M.

Horribly overpriced. When I called Ben Franklin, I told them "this is the easiest money you'll ever earn". I had a leaking toilet tank, took the tank apart from the bowl, bought the appropriate gasket and just couldn't get the old gasket off. All I needed was someone with the right tools to remove the old gasket, put the the new gasket on, and reattach the tank to the bowl. This is a 15 minute job for a competent person with the right tools.

They came in and did the job while my wife was home alone and charged her $295. She didn't know any better and just paid. This is a ridiculous charge for an easy repair and Ben Franklin has lost a customer for life.

Marilyn O.

Jarrod was very nice, professional, knowledgeable, and thorough. I was replacing two old toilets with new ones and one of the new ones had a crack I never would have noticed. Jarrod called it to my attention and had to leave to get a proper one. He returned to finish the job the same day.

Mary M.

they put in a new sewer line under the driveway even though I didn't need it; they caved my driveway in with their backhoe and they put big white plastic traps right in front of my front porch: a real eyesore; I had traps already......really sloppy work...oh, and I'm out $4000.....for this lousy job

Tony S.

("Your review will help people find great local businesses." Yes, by having them steer clear of these pirates. TL;DR summary - After quoting me $300 to replace a 2-inch easily accessible plastic dowel on my toilet, BFP charged me $60 for a service call and left me with a broken toilet.)

BFP has been my plumber of choice over the past ten years, until an unpleasant incident today. I have a Niagra commode, which BFP sold to me and installed in 2008, less than five years ago, which had a plastic part break in the upper tank (the "non-handle clip" part #C2216-35) yesterday. I turned off the water to the commode, called BFP, and scheduled a service call for today. To be fair, I was advised at the time that they would charge $60 service call fee for coming out to my house, but I was anticipating that they were going to fix my toilet - once again, the one that they'd sold me a few years ago. I should've anticipated trouble when the dispatcher told me that they weren't installing my model any more "back then, there was an incentive to sell them, now there's not; we still carry parts for them, though."

The tech came to my house, and offered to replace that 2-inch plastic dowel for a (bring out the book) "level 3" charge of $223 (plus the $60 service call).

Dumbfounded, I asked how much it would be to replace the entire toilet (bring out the book) with one of traditional flush technology and was quoted a figure in excess of $600. Our tech said that he didn't have a toilet on the truck with him, but that he'd be happy to do a temporary repair of my commode and come back Monday with a new one. My wife later observed that if we operated the way they did, we should have had him fix the toilet, then canceled the replacement. D'oh!

I observed that $300 (repair+service charge) seemed a little steep for what amounts to a plastic dowel that I could get at Home Depot for around $5, and our serviceman waxed philosophic, "Well, I don't set the price. We have to pay for our trucks." And then charged me $60 for that extravagant (price) quote.

I asked if there was any warranty on the now broken toilet with the obsolete technology that they sold me, and he said that there was a one year warranty from the factory (web searching has turned up that it is in fact 5 years) and two years through BFP.

The plumber from BFP, having given me the outrageous quote, then charged me $60 for the visit and left without fixing or touching a thing. Enjoy that $60, BFP. It's the last money that you'll see from us.

Update: I have since tried to contact the manager, and left a message with a bored answering service. I have yet to have my call returned, which is odd, because when I want to schedule service (money to them), I usually get a call back immediately.

Update to the update: just received a call from the tech (the manager declined to return my call at all), and they will do the job for an extra $120, about $100 off their initial quoted price, or around $200 with the $60 service charge to replace a plastic dowel. Went from one star to two on this basis, but probably will still not use them again.