Brownies Septic and Plumbing

Gabriel C.

I had a great experience with Brownie's. I used them as a second opinion to another company that told me I need to spend $4300 on a new drain field. Brownie's helped discover that is was tree roots in my tank causing issues, not a drain field issue. They fixed it for $180 and saved me thousands of $.

Lynne T.

Sunday evening we called the answering service at 6 pm to request service to empty our septic tank. I called the answering service a few more times because we never heard from anyone. Finally, the tech called back at 8:30 and said he wasn't coming out- the tv in the background told me he was probably hanging out on the couch at home. So apparently, they do NOT offer 24 hour service. I wish that was explained when I first called.

Allan M.

On 6/22/15 of this year I called Brownie's Septic & Plumbing out to one of my rental houses to clear a stopped up drain, as I've done many times in the past. They came quickly and ATTEMPTED to clear the drain without much luck, at a cost of approx.$122. It was clear that one of the branches of my drainage system was going to need to be replaced. So Brandon Lepper, Brownie's Estimator, came out to the property to inspect the job quoting $2,350. He told me he would e-mail the contract by the next day. My corporate e-mail address is similar to another company in my business, so I was VERY EXPLICIT when giving him the address. I heard nothing from him and when the tenant called Brownie's to inquire about the commencement of the job, Ashley Pardo told him that they were waiting on me to send the contract back. This made the tenant belligerent as they felt I was """"dragging my feet"""" over spending $2,350. A quick call to Ashley (where she denied talking to the tenant, but then how did he know I hadn't signed the contract?) revealed that Keith, the plumbing manager, had gotten my e-mail address incorrect. So she finally sent it to me 6/25/15 1:28pm. I returned it signed moments later at 1:28pm, also requesting that she send me a copy of the invoice for the call on 6/22/15 (I had gotten a faded pink carbonless). Ashley Pardo responded that she would send a copy of the invoice that day. At this point I was quite cognizant that the tenant had been without a working drain for several days, so on 6/25/15 7:46pm I emailed Ashley Pardo again asking if we could at least pump the dirty water out of the drain in order to make it more sanitary. I even offered to pay them for another housecall for the extra work. Tina Borden responded the next morning at approx. 8:30am via e-mail saying that """"I was advised by Keith (plumbing mgr) until the job is complete you signed proposal on we won't be able to resolve the issue of the standing water"""". So I was pretty much stuck with waiting until Monday or Tuesday, being the dates they promised the work to be done. At this point I hadn't given them a deposit and so I called Tina at 8:00am on Monday 6/29/15 (they had promised either Monday or Tuesday as a start date) and offered to meet her plumbers at the property anytime that day or the next with a 50% cash deposit (per contract). Hearing nothing by the end of the day on Tuesday (6/30/15) in the late afternoon I called their office again and one of the ladies (Ashley or Tina) said that they had delays on other jobs and would get to it shortly. I reiterated that I'd bring the workers a cash deposit the second that they arrived at the property. For the next few days I continued to call getting the same excuse until Friday 7/3/15 where my tenant was facing the July 4th weekend without a working drain. I called Ashely who got in touch with Keith and the following answer came back. Keith says you haven't paid your deposit and we can't come out until you do. At this point I was extremely angry, and as an aside I still didn't have a copy of my invoice. At this point I told them where to go (and it wasn't to heaven). The next week I called Modern Plumbing who had given me a price of $2,650 for the job. I engaged them. To be fair they did have a small delay of a few days in coordinating the job, but they did it without complaint. Upon completion (they didn't require a deposit), I rushed over and gave them the entire amount (within 18 hours). I came too several opinions with regard to Brownies. First I think they're really quick at coming out to clear drains, but anything further should be looked for ELSEWHERE. It's my opinion that the girls in the office are quite stressed and do/say pretty much anything (including lying?) to get to the next call or e-mail with little responsibility and/or follow-up. Thus they come off like complete """"Air-Heads"""", in my opinion. It's my opinion that Keith, the plumbing manager, gives them little if any management and appears to have a """"MAJOR CHIP"""" on his shoulder most of the time. My opinion is that he's got a real attitude problem. I called today (9/9/15 in the morning), some two months later, still attempting to get a copy of my original invoice (The one I had was the faded illegible pink carbonless form). Tina said she'd find it and get it over to me. Once again I felt like she was doing whatever she could to get to the next caller/issue. Later I received a call from Keith, in a very rude tone, asking me what I wanted and stating that they never did the drain replacement. After mentioning that I was aware of that, I pointed out that they did charge me for attempting to clear the drain ($122). He then told me to call him with the invoice number and they would send it. I called back a little while later and Tina answered. Keith had given her instructions and she said she'd send it right over. It's 5 days later and I still don't have a copy of my invoice.

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.