Brownies Septic and Plumbing

Ashley J.

Called Brownies about drainfield financing for my mother in law who lives in the area. A gentleman by the name of Ryan answered the phone, and called me James. When I stated that I wanted to speak to someone about financing options, I was placed on hold for over 10 minutes. Ryan introduced himself as a salesman, and once I stated that I was not interested in speaking with him, I just wanted to know about financing he """"passed the buck"""". If they cannot even provide service before the service, what should make me think that they can provide service after the sell??? Based upon the reviews I agree DO NOT USE BROWNIES!!! Lapin services however took my information, and provided me with all of the information I needed. We will be using them!! AJ

Laura D.

Run from here! Reviewer 'William B' on here had the same experience as me! I plunged a gurgling toilet and had sewage in the tub! Called them. They were fast. A simple snaking and clean out that they did was all I needed !! The plumber they sent was as nice as could be in all fairness but after he left the other toilet was gurgling when washing machine ran. He came back and used my own wire hanger in my toilet and left again. No charge for second trip. Gurgling still there so I called and they basically said I needed a new drain field for $4.5k!!! Called another company (maitland winter park plumbing) and they came out next day. He found absolutely nothing wrong even when we tried to flood septic tank by running everything at once. Told us NOTHING indicates the need for a new drain field. Haven't had a problem since! So glad I got second opinion!

William B.

We had some gurgling in our toilet and it was slow to drain, then we made the mistake of plunging it. Next thing you know, sewage in the shower. Not good. We checked reviews for plumbers (not here, obviously) and found Brownie's had a good reputation on Google. Our request was to have them come out and clear up the system to make it usable. Ultimately, we paid for service and they never corrected the problem. Instead of taking the time to evaluate the system, they used our problems as an opportunity to sell us services we didn't need. The first guy came out and said we needed to drain our septic tank. We have a wooden gate that gets a bit sticky, so he pulled off a board from the gate and left it tossed on the ground. When he attempted to pump the septic tank, he asked us to flush the toilet. He told us the pipe he used to drain the tank should be vibrating, but nothing was going through it. Turns out we didn't need our septic tank drained. He made the call to his manager and then said another man would need to come out who would need to work inside the house, as the problem was not in the septic tank. The next man came out, but said he didn't need to enter the house. He spent some time outside working and told us everything was alright. According to his work order, he said he snaked a drain. We have no way of telling if we needed this service or if it did any good. Apparently, it didn't help. The gurgling problems in the toilet continued, so I called my first complaint to Brownie's and they told us a specialist would come out. Some specialist. This guy was dressed for the office, not plumbing in the field. He spent five minutes, poked the ground and told us we needed a new septic tank & drain field at a cost of approximately $4500. When we asked him how he came to this conclusion, he wouldn't answer. Then he spent 15 minutes writing up a quote. Magically, the price dropped a bit when we told him we'd be getting a second opinion. After spending nearly $500 without a real benefit, we brought in an independent plumber. Now this guy was great. He was an older guy with years of experience who spent over an hour listening to us, evaluating our system and assessing the ground. Bottom line, he said our septic tank was fine, it never needed to be pumped, and there was no immediate need for a drain field. Our problems happened after a torrential rain storm and that affected the drain field. We may need to replace it at some point down the road, but it's fine right now. I made my second call to Brownie's to complain. A manager spoke with me and said that he would send out someone at no charge to evaluate our system. That never happened and he never called back to follow up. After nearly two weeks, we called back yesterday and repeated the same complaint. A receptionist took notes and promised that we would have a call back today. Unsurprisingly, we never got a call. We've given Brownie's plenty of time to correct a problem, but they just keep blowing us off. It seems that Brownie's preys upon the ignorance of its customers to sell them expensive and unnecessary services. I think that's the epitome of a scam business. My recommendation is to avoid Brownie's Septic and take your business elsewhere.

Nicole F.

Zero srars! I have used Brownies in the past and had a good experience. However this time was just terrible! They made me wait for 6 hours, for nothing. I made an appointment a week in advance, the day of the appointment I called after waiting for 4 hours and they told me they would try to find out what time the tech would be there and call me back. After an hour and nothing, I call back again and get the same run around. An hour after that I got a vm from the tech saying that if I don't call back in 5 minutes my appointment gets bumped! WTF?? I call back 20 minutes later only to speak to a jerk that said he was the operation manager and that basically my business was not important to him. He got very rude when I asked him if it was fair to make me wait for over 7 hours, but he can't wait more than 5 minutes.

Steven K.

HORRIBLE!!! I called for a plumber today because my toilet has backed up and my whole house smells like a septic tank. They told me that they couldn't give me a time, but promised they would be here today. I WASTED THE ENTIRE DAY AND THEY NEVER SHOWED UP!!! I called three times and each time I was told to be patient, they will be there. The last time I called it was about 4:45PM. I was concerned because they would be closing at 5. The receptionist said she would call the technician and call me right back. Now its after 5PM. I tried to call and I got a recording saying, """"We're sorry. This number is no longer accepting calls. Try your call later."""" WTH!!! NEVER USE BROWNIE'S SEPTIC AND PLUMBING!!! They finally showed up about 7:15PM and fixed my plumbing issue in about 20 minutes. I'm so relieved I almost want to give them another star. ... Maybe tomorrow when I'm not still angry.

Kip W.

SCAM! RUN! I also made the mistake of choosing this company for an out of state buyer. Confusion from the very beginning. Two days after they told me they would be there. Under contract so time was important. They told me we needed the complete drain field re-hauled dug up! Only $3,500 rough estimate! Very pushy about making an appointment to schedule this asap. I said wait a minute, I'm getting another opinion, which we did and there was NOTHING wrong with the drain field. They called me again to schedule and I said I was not comfortable with their opinion and was getting another opinion and if it was okay, I would be asking for my client's money back for the inspection. He said good luck and hung up on me! What a bunch of scam artists!!!!!

Bill C.

I made the terrible mistake of referring this company to one of our property investors that resides out state. Problems started to happen almost immediately. They missed quoted and of course had to charge more. They missed the well, which you would literally trip over. They didn't keep anyone informed of the problems. I had to get involved because of the poor communications and bad working relationships with their vendors. Their well company they said the always use wouldn't return their calls. What does that tell ya? They wouldn't take responsibility for their incompetence and it ended up costing the property owner thousands more than initially quoted. The worst part was they had the yard dug up for so long with raw sewage being pumped into opening that the horrific smell chased the $1800.00 month tenant away. I gave the owners of the company a call to see if they would step up and do the right thing......They didn't so beware...use anyone else but Brownies. I will.

Chuck M.

On March 4th while servicing a neighbors septic tank, one of Brownies drivers backed over my mailbox. The driver stopped looked at the damage and drove off. He did not leave a note or try to contact even my neighbor to inform them of the accident. I contacted the Brownie office and they agreed to repair the mail box. Four weeks passed and they had still not completed the task. I called them on April 4th and informed them they had until Monday the 7th to complete the task or return it to me and I will get it done, however I had them agree that they would pay me for my time. The parts and labor needed to repair the box was over $350. Rather than repairing the old box, I purchased a new box and installed it for $295. I called and requested payment including 5 hours of my time. The """"CEO"""" returned my call and told me to get my attorney involved because he would not pay me a penny. UPDATE I called Brownie's on Monday April 14th to verify the CEOs name and I was transfered to the owner Marc B. I discussed the situation with him, and he apologized for the problem, promising me he would look into it. He said he would get back to me in 2 days. He was a little late, however he did respond after tracking down the """"CEO"""" and others involved. He assured me that the """"CEO"""" ( he was not the CEO just a manager stepping over his level of authority) was totally out of line and he would make sure this type of problem would never happen again in his organization. He also stated that a check would be in the mail on Monday April 21st covering all expenses including my time. Marc came across professionally and as a man you could trust. I hope he does follow through and develop a procedure to handle these types of situations, establishing a single point of contact with the authority to work with the customers so the problems can be worked and resolve in a timely and professional manner.

Matthew C.

Thank you for the great Service!!, with my septic needs, very professional and helpful, thank you again will definitely recommend you guys...

Wade R.

Hello, I called this company to pump out my septic and they offered an appointment between 8am and noon. They told me they would call 30 minutes prior to their arrival. The never called and showed up at 11:40pm. Then after partially emptying my septic the driver told me his truck was full and he would be back in 20 minutes. 2 hours later I called the company to find out what was going on. I was told that it took over 2 hours to get from my house to empty a truck and return. After complaining of waiting for them to arrive all morning and then again most of the afternoon to get them back here to finish the job I was basically told oh well by the dispatcher. I urge you to not use this company! They are very unreliable and don't care either way how important your time is! I hope this helps some of you whose time is important to them! Thanks, Wade R.