Brown Plumbing

Dennis S.

I was charged twice as much as I later discovered to have my septic tank pumped ( my fault, I should have checked around first) and then was told that the transfer pump in the septic tank had burned out and it would be almost $1700. 00 to replace it. I did some checking this time and discovered the pump only cost $650.00 and another plumber told me it would take one hour to replace. Seriously, Brown's was going to charge $1000.00 for an hours labor?!

I contacted BCI Septic who is also local and the technician came out, pulled and tested the pump and said the pump works just fine and re-installed it, all for $100.00.

This kind of business ethic constitutes price gouging at the least and calls into question the honesty and integrity of the owner.

Anna C.

In March of 2015, on a Saturday I had a problem in a shower that required me to turn the water off to my house and call a plumber.
The first thing I was told when the repairman called back is that their was a dispatch fee of $98.00. It being a weekend I expected this. So when I said that I understood this he said he would be out in 20 minutes. It took him about 45 minutes to get here.
What came next was not expected. He spent 10 minutes looking at the shower and then went back to his truck and wrote up an estimate for attempting to replace the hot and cold stems at $378.00. If I did not sign the contract for that amount he would charge me the $98.00 and leave and I could call another plumber. Felt like I was stuck and felt intimidated. He took the shower stems out, a screw that holds the washer in had backed out. He then went to his truck and spent about 20 minutes looking for a new washer and screw. Said that he would need to go to the hardware store because he did not have the washer and screw. Came back with new stems, when the Kit to fix mine was only $1.99. Felt that him buying the new stems made his estimate OK and he left with $476.00 for 2 hours work, over 45 minutes of his time here was talking. This Job should have never cost more than $200 for parts and labor.

DO NOT USE BROWN PLUMBING

Anna C.

Tim G.

Had a problem with my plumbing backing up and a clog somewhere at or before the septic tank. They send a guy out and he looks at the clean out line (and not the inline system piping, because he couldn't find it) and says there's no clog there and it must be in the house. I said I wasn't prepared to commit to a work order and I was certain it was in the tank or before it, and not in the house. I further stated that he was looking at the clean-out access line, so it wouldn't be overflowing (the fact it wasn't overflowing was how he determined it wasn't at or near the septic tank). He wouldn't leave and became hostile, demanding I pay them $100 for coming out (because he brought their truck to pump the tank). I should have either became hostile in response to the little jerk, or called the police, but to make him leave I paid the $100, since I couldn't be sure with absolute certainty that it wasn't in the house. Either way they did nothing to justify the money I had paid for him to leave. I was angry and didn't want to get into trouble for fighting this guy, but he wasn't going to leave otherwise. I regret not just dealing with it and telling him to go to hell. Regardless, I called another business in Redding that dealt with septic tanks and they came out and saw the overflow in the actual line to the tank (because they knew what they were actually doing), and they found the clog right where the line goes into the septic tank, knocked it out and the waste water immediately flowed into the tank and I never had another problem. I'd stay far away from Brown Plumbing, as my experience was incredibly unprofessional and the guy they sent out was hostile and borderline threatening in his demeanor.

Totes M.

Charged me $48 for a service call to get a quote on a job that will be in the thousands. Nobody charges service fees anymore, get with the times. The quote they gave me was DOUBLE what another company quoted me for the same job, no way I will EVER call these guys again.

Bill W.

needed our pipe to our toilet snaked browns came out snaked toilet did not fix told wife to tell me to take off toilet and he would come back and snake out from toilet floor hole was charged for both visits did not fix problem third visit the plumber finally asked if we knew were the drain clean out was he could not find it 2 feet in front of were sewer line came into the house he then proceeded too snake from there and pushed clog back and stated we should be fine from there a day later back up again oh yea he stated he lost his snake head in our line and it would be all right. When I called they stated he never said he lost any head and never said it would be fixed after that if it clogged do to the head. By know we were livid wife bought a 50 foot snake hooked it to my drill and i pulled out a huge snake head from there equipment as well as cleared out my own line. they charged me well over 500.00 dollars would not make good and actually told me if I came to there office they would leave and not speak with me.

Galeigh G.

Please don't do what I did or rather what I didn't do! Which is to say I didn't do my research! I hired Browns Plumbing because they were the only ones available right then. There is a reason for that! Browns Plumbing charges double/triple what all REPUTABLE plumbers in Redding ca charge! Once again, do your research! They charge $58 to drive to your location, which I was advised would be taken off the cost of the repair (which was just a simple snaking of the lines, I have done every year) unfortunately, I couldn't recall who I normally use. I was charged 271 $ ! I was so shocked,I asked that the owner Steve Poiner call me which took 2 weeks for him to return my calls. when I questioned him about his cost he raised his voice in a threatening manner and told me "" customers DO NOT DICTATE what I charge them""! went on to tell me that I was ""not told the 58$ dispatch fee would be TAKEN OFF YOUR REPAIRS"". This is not a company you want to do business with!. If you do research before you hire you will find out many bad reports as I have since. Not only here but on RIPOFF.COM. This company also is not a member of the Better Business bureau.

Russel S.

Had under-slab water leak. Browns ""located"" one leak, ""isolated"" that one, and found another leak in another area. They also rented an excavator($200) to dig a 2'x2' hole near the original leak, that did nothing to help the issue. Total to ""find"" the leaks to produce an estimate for repair: $1800.
Using their ""sophisticated electron leak detection equipment"", they marked the water lines from the meter throughout the house, then gave an estimate just under $10,000. to re-pipe the entire house. (and stated ""much more"" to dig through the concrete to find and fix the leaks)
I used another plumber for the repipe who charged right at $3,000 for the whole project. This plumber found the markings for the main from the street was not anywhere NEAR where the actual pipe was (off by a good 20 feet), so wasted a few hours digging in the wrong spot (and he did NOT charge me for this).

So, Browns GOUGES the customer, and in my case ""found"" water lines where none existed. Wish I could sue to get my $1800 back...

George S.

I would be hesitant to have Brown plumbing do any more work for me. I was charged $498.00 for a exploratory procedure to locate root damaged areas in underground plumbing (a 20 foot area close to the surface).

After questioning the cost, I called around and found a plumber who charged much less for this diagnostic tool. If I had not dismissed the Brown plumber, he would have charged me $2650.00 to replace that 20 foot area of plumbing which was in an easy to access location, with no gas or electrical concerns present.

Their representative was not interested in earning a fair day's wage for a job well done. No, he wanted me to help pay his mortgage. Unacceptable behavior, and I personally will not consider them for any future work. Anybody that knows me--also knows that I don't do this sort of thing (complain on the internet) but this kind of robbery has got to stop.

We are all human beings trying to do our best to pay our bills and live our lives as efficiently as possible. I don't expect those who purport to run reputable businesses to behave late predators. Life is hard enough!

G.S.

Katie F.

There is a $50 call fee for just coming out to look at the problem and give you a quote. If you decide to use their services they charge that fee ON TOP of their fees for the job.

We were quoted for 3 hours of work. The technician finished in under an hour and still charged us for the quoted price. We had to pay because we had signed the contract. We felt taken advantage of and ended up paying almost $300 for less than an hour of work and one tiny valve. He couldn't even tell me what he charged per hour, he said we could ""take it up with the company.""

The worker was friendly, but I would look for someone else if you need work done.

Susan S.

Our experience with Brown Plumbing: A plumber from Brown came out to fix a clogged drain with their snake. Initially, it seemed to work and we paid him $225....that seemed a bit high but at least it was fixed. But then and hour later, the drain clogged up again....it was not fixed.
The plumber came out a second time and determined that the snake this company had was not long enough for this job and our only alternative was to have some kind of hydro jetting done to our pipes......that was going to cost about $1000.00!!!...What??!!
So, we said....""No.""
We called around and found another plumber who owned a longer snake. When he arrived the first thing he said before even starting was that if this snaking doesn't work he would Not charge us anything for this visit!!
He then proceeded to snake the pipes and ....lo and behold...it worked and has been clear for weeks now.....the problem was fixed and bill for that was only $89.00!!!!
Plus, he gave us a 120 day warrenty for this service....none of that was offered by Brown.
So....we called Brown back and asked for a partial refund since we paid for a drain to be unclogged and they were unable to do the job. It took about 7 phone calls before we actually talked to the owner, who clearly hoped we would go away. We didn't even ask for a full refund....all we wanted was about half back or $100.00 out of the $225 that we paid for basically nothing. He finally agreed to a refund of $29.00 ....and that's what we got back....$29.00. They have certainly lost our business and probably the many others who know this story.....I hope Brown Plumbing thought it was worth it.