Big Blue Plumbing

Tim H.

I was talked into buying a new water heater even though upon retrospect, the old one was in great shape. They just pushed it so hard that I needed to replace it, even though I just needed to fix my piping under my house. The owner himself refused to accept that I neither could afford nor needed a new water heater to the point where he pushed financing on me that I later realized has the most insane interest rates I've ever seen. I'm still paying it off and this was a year ago!

Once installed, the water heater immediately failed. After being dicked around by the awful customer service reps by constantly rescheduling plumbers arrival windows - without even informing me! - I would waste a whole day waiting just to finally call and be told no one was coming. When, weeks after installing, they finally took a look at it, they basically just shrugged their shoulders and tried to say it was a gas pressure issue which is a lie because my old heater worked fine and my house has no problem with gas pressure. They just wanted to pass the buck because they already took my bucks, so to speak.

So months go by after multiple consultations from pg&e tech, the manufacturer 's tech, more plumbers passing the buck, blaming pg&e, blaming me and I just couldn't take it anymore.

Now I takes cold showers and have to accept that nothing gets a thorough wash. All because these assholes just had to upsell a useless garbage lemon water heater that I am in debt for, probably forever. I hope this company gets sued into non existence!

Diane S.

i have done two big jobs with big blue plumbing, paid them well too much!! for what they did! the follow up's a joke! brittany is pleasant well scheduling you for a follow up !!!! but you
do not get a plumber who did the previous job on your place. you get the owner paul because he does not want to pay the plumber to come out to your house again!! he comes his self and tells you they did not do the job and he cannot help you, when clearly they did the job. what a joke!! this is the second time he comes out with a tool bag acting like he is there to help you
then!!! says it wasn't their job, when it cleary it was. and then has they nerve to tell me i need another plumber to come and fix this small shower device
i then tell him that his plumber did do this previous job he then
tells me he cannot do it ! they do no service the bay area anymore!! and good luck!

Richard R.

Big Company with high overhead. They charge a site visit fee just to get an estimate. I am okay with that part.
However. their bid for the job was in the stratosphere.
$2,500 just to replace the pipes under the sink!
I know how much the materials are and I have seen plumbers do the exact same job at my friend's house in San Lorenzo. I know how much time it takes and have good idea about costs.

Totally ridiculous. They do the whole clean uniform thing, you know to show they are professionals.
Um, yeah. You pay a lot for that.
Hire a small outfit that has the guy or gal in a crappy truck.

You'll save a ton of cash.

Also, if you look at some of their 5 star reviews, you'll notice they are within one day of each other with similar names and similar sounding reviews.
Looks like review padding to me.

I almost never write reviews, but do diligence here. Do not hire them without getting other bids.
As others have stated, their markup is in the stratosphere.

Note to Paul G from Big Blue:

I would rather see a guy in a beat up truck with good tools and a lot of experience and a reasonable bid then a new shiny truck and polo shirt that has a 700% markup. Are you outfitting you're team with Izod or what?
And frankly you're assumption that somehow a solid working man in a beat up truck is ""on drugs"" is extremely condescending. You better unpack that.
You're company is the one charging over $500 for a faucet replacement and $92 for a $10 Ptrap.

Chris T.

I have previously reviewed Big Blue, giving them a glowing 5 STAR. This is a follow up review.

Big Blue has done work for us on a two large jobs (replacing water lines, gas lines, and sewer line for two seperate houses)a year ago. When the technicians were working on a job they were professional, courteous, thorough, and informative. The work has been done extraordinarily well and the job sites were left clean (in one instance the tech went above and beyond, cleaning up the site from previous plumbers' work) Their technicians are why they received a 5 star.
HOWEVER
There is NO follow through. Calls are not returned. Appointments are scheduled and then seem to disappear from the system. When I call to confirm an appointment, or to verify follow up issues, my information is taken and I am ALWAYS told I will receive a call back that day. Two days later I call the office, explain what the issue is, that I was told I would receive a call and have not, and request to speak to someone present in the office. For some reason only the technician I initially spoke to can handle my call but I am sincerely assured he will call me back. I do not receive call backs. I call the office again asking to speak to anyone. The person answering the phones has been consistently pleasant, sympathetic and reassuring but I am again told everyone is out in the field but they will call me back. I never receive call backs by anyone in the office or the technicians. To be clear, my questions were not technical in nature, but either verifying quotes or asking about invoice discrepancies. Due to those reasons we did not feel confident to contract with Big Blue on a larger remodeling project. However we had a small plumbing job and I felt Big Blue could be counted on to understand the time sensitive nature of the project and be able to fulfill the schedule. I contacted Big Blue, spoke with a technician, Paul, discussed the scope of the job, told him we do NOT need a quote as we would like Big Blue to handle the job (disconnect plumbing and gas in prep for countertop installation, and then a reconnect 2 days later) and arranged the schedule. True to form, I received a phone call the day before the job was to begin asking me when I would like to be put on the schedule. When I told this person I was on the schedule, they checked and no I am not on the schedule but they would have someone call me back to clear this up. 24 hours later, no call and I am unable to reach anyone in the office beyond an answering service where they will take my number and call me back.

Another side note, be sure to check any quote or invoices from Big Blue. We found mistakes in both which would have resulted in overbilling.

Etienne D.

It's unfortunate when the first impression of a company happens when you engage in a LiveChat through the company's website. ""Mark"" was the representative who vacillated between saying he works for Big Blue Plumbing and is ""only the LiveChat representative."" He was incapable or unwilling to answer a basic question: is there a fee to get someone to come out and give us an estimate on a project? He kept telling me he could have someone contact me rather than answer the question. Twice he shut off the chat in the middle of the conversation. It's hard to have confidence in a company that is so unwilling to be transparent and can't answer an ordinary question.

Marti W.

I telephoned Big Blue Plumbing on 8/27/18 to have shower fixtures installed, and made an appointment for 8/31/18. That appointment was confirmed by email twice and once by phone.
On 8/30/18, less than 24 hours before the appointment time, I got a call from Big Blue staff cancelling the appointment and saying they could probably schedule the installation on 9/5 or later. I took PTO from my job to be at home for this install, and now cannot find another plumber on very short notice to install the fixtures.
Don't believe the 100% satisfaction guarantee on their website.
They don't mean it.

Marti W.

Larry M.

BEWARE! Big Blue is a pretty immoral company. My landlady had has them work on the house multiple times and every time they are here they find a new ""essential"" project that HAS to be done and it always gets more and more expensive. Not only that, but on this visit they told her that her brand new water heater will have to be replaced after 5 years (despite the fact that she pays them to service it yearly). A water heater that only lasts 5 years is both defective and poorly maintained. With what they charged her to put it in, the assessment says a lot about their beliefs in the products they sell. She called another local plumbing company to come out for a second opinion (thankfully) and the guy said spending what they were asking to put in extensive new plumbing was superfluous given its age and location in our house. Maybe if the water heater was 10 years old, but not 18 months. In short, beware of their estimates! If it feels like they are taking you for a ride, they probably are.

Joel S. W.

Apart from some billing snafus I have been pleased with the service I have received from Big Blue. They have assisted us with clogged pipes, faucet installations and pipe retrofittings.

The people they send are always top notch. Nick is who you want to request if you can get him. I am a member of the Big Blue program which gives you priority service and cost discounts. You pay a few bucks a month to be in the program. With an older house like ours it is worth it. You need those discounts too because these guys tend to be a bit more pricey than other plumbers I have priced out. But as the saying goes, ""cheap plumbing can get expensive"".

Zachary T.

When I called in for service for a clogged drain I spoke to Ebony, who right off the bat was helpful and informative on what I could expect from them during their visit.

We were serviced by RJ Mattson. Who was prompt and understanding of our loud and obnoxious pit bull which is a plus because some people are afraid of loud barks...

He quickly realized our problem was not just a clogged drain but that we potentially had a much bigger problem and proceeded to explain in detail what issue we were dealing with. He even offered to explain the issue with our landlord which was very helpful. After all he is the expert, he could explain it much better than me.

The visit was relatively short being we weren't prepared to handle the repair cost immediately.
But with the visit being short RJ was kind enough to offer to take the $67 dollars they charge for a diagnostic and put it towards the estimate total. We will be using BBP without hesitation!

William Y.

the best plumbing and heating company bar none. for nearly a month, we experienced intermittent hot water outages. we called two other plumbing companies who did nothing but waste our money. one of them, Leapfrog, after gladly charging us a handsome sum simply told us that they didn't know what was wrong and told us to call the boiler company directly. ridiculous. Paul and Zach, unlike other companies, were professional and knowledgeable from the start. they took the time and effort to understand our house's heating and water systems. after patiently troubleshooting everything, they found the root cause. we now have hot water and consistent heating throughout our house thanks to their work. these guys are busy and in high demand for a reason - they're simply the best and worth every single penny. don't waste your time with others who claim to be experts at what they do. Big Blue Plumbing are true masters of their craft. we'll be lifetime customers and proud advocates for this great business.