Cal Home Plumbing and Construction

Michael T.

First American sub contracted Cal Home because my water heater was leaking. Reached out to Cal Home to setup an appointment to take a look at my water heater. Was told there was a $60 service fee, ok no problem. 2 days later the technician came to take a look for 5 minutes and said I need a new water heater and will contact me and drove off. 2 weeks later I still haven't heard back so I called them back. Pointing fingers at whose at fault for taking this long to get it fix. Finally, I had to agree to pay $500 out of pocket to get it fix. Fast forward 6 months later, I received a bill from a collection agency for the $60 I didn't pay. I never got a bill for it and Cal Home claims they been trying to reach me, bullsh*t!! Why didn't you charge me when you had the chance? Never received a phone call or an invoice for the $60. Bottom line. I will not use First American or Cal Homes again and will never recommend them to anyone.

Arman M.

First American assigned Cal Home. I called them to schedule, didn't seem they were going to call. Scheduled a day, sat home for 4 hours, called during to confirm they are coming out. NO SHOW no call nothing. According to First American they left a notice on the door, but lies lies lies. Live in a secure building connected intercom to my cell. They claim they came out at 2, but I called at 4 to confirm. The reviews I read appear consistent with the service, or lack there of, I received. First American should pull their contract with this group.

JJ ..

These people are the WORST. First time they missed the appt, they claimed I never made one. Second time they missed the appt, I received no call, no explanation, no apology. That is two days I have had to take off from work just to sit at home for no one to show up. Beyond irritated, and cannot believe the lack of professionalism.

Marco R.

Extremely Professional , Jose was amazing , took care of our issues without hesitation, went above and beyond call of duty . Highly recommended.

Gen M.

Have dealt with this company twice and if you can, do yourself a favor and use another company. The fellow they sent our (has an Eastern European accent) is both rude and unprofessional. He clearly does not want to work or fix anything. The last time our water heater needed to be fixed he spent perhaps 30 seconds glancing at it from afar and said, ""I can't diagnose it because it is empty."" It was empty because all of the water had leaked out--that's why we called them.

So now we are back to square one and need to call a plumber who will actually examine the water heater to fix it.

Patti P.

My first interaction with this company was not a pleasant one. I will be back to update this review if they show up.

Elena was not customer friendly and had the worst phone line connection in history. Yet she remained apologetic and almost defiant at my challenge hearing what she had to say.

This is through my home warranty First American Home Warranty.

Westcoast B.

Most pathetic business and customer service ever. If I could give them a zero star. First step up the appointment via Old Republic on Monday...Tuesday set up an appointment for Friday. Called Friday morning to confirm...they said, ""no appointment shows"". Set up appointment for Monday. I took a day off for this stuff...Monday rolls around...the time window is 11-3 wow. 4 hour window? at 315 no show..called the company. The technician had reported ""he called and also came home and no one was at home"" wow, lies. You guys really need to get better at this. Pathetic.

Miguel W.

Like most others on Yelp, I was put into touch with Cal home through my warranty with First American Home Warranty. I was very worried when I read the reviews, thinking here we go, it's gonna be a nightmare.

My Experience.....

My Garbage Disposal started leaking right before Christmas leaving the one side of my kitchen sink and my dishwasher unusable. I was left with a decision of paying the service fee for the Home Warranty company or replacing it myself for about $15 to $20 more. I decided that for the principle sake of having the warranty I would file a claim.

I called First American and I was told that I would hear from Cal Home to schedule an appointment for the service visit. After expressing my concerns with First American that I need service timely (after reading these reviews) they explained that it is more than likely going to need 2 separate service calls as their policy is for the repair company to diagnose and fix if they can on the 1st visit, but any major parts or replacement needs to be written in a report, submitted to First American, authorized and installed on a 2nd visit. I was not really too happy with this but not much I can do about it, as this is the way they operate. Note that this is a First American policy and not Cal Home's fault, therefore Cal Home should not be judged on this policy.

So on to Cal Home. They called me once after around 24 hours of contacting First American and left me a message to call them back. I called them back 4 or 5 times but as others have stated there was no answer and no voice mail. The 48 hours that First American said Cal Home would contact me by, came and went. I was not going to play this game, so on hour 49 I called First American to let them know, they put me on hold and called Cal Home right then and go figure, they got hold of them on the first try and scheduled my service appointment for me for the next morning.

The technician (Roman) arrived the next day on time as scheduled, diagnosed the garbage disposal as non serviceable and explained the same process to my family member (I was not home) that I was told by First American that they need to submit a report, order the replacement and come back to install.

I waited until the following week, between Christmas and New Year, to check the status of my claim online with First American and sure enough, the replacement had been authorized for a few days. I called Cal Home (they answered right away) and said they can come out to install the new disposal. I did get the impression that had I not called them, I might not have heard from them for a few more days. Only because, the appointment was ready to be scheduled as soon as I called them.

The same technician (Roman) came out to replace the disposal. I was home for this appointment. Roman was very courteous, friendly and cracked a few jokes. He made recommendations regarding my under the sink setup with the hoses and filtration system. I had no impression that he did not know what he was talking about and seemed knowledgeable about his work. He told me he made sure to order the exact same disposal so it does not create more work for him, Cal Home or additional expense for the warranty company as all the pipes and disposal fittings will be in the same place as the old one. I appreciated this since I know enough about plumbing to know that the minute you start touching old pipes and seals, other problems tend to arise. Roman also explained that the drain hose from the dishwasher air gap to the disposal was too long, trapping water and will cause water to come through the air gap as it did while we were standing there testing out the new disposal. Got that fixed and sure enough, no water coming out of the air gap. He also explained what I can do if the disposal freezes up and gave advice on how to keep it running as long as possible.

My Summary.....

Maybe the dice was rolled in my favor with this one, who knows, but I can only review them based on my experience. The technician was everything great, showing up on time and completing the work. The scheduling process and the communication by phone lacks a little (hence why they get 4 stars). If they can't get hold of me they should keep trying, obviously if I didn't answer, it means I was busy. If these guys could shore up the customer service side of the house and do exactly what they did with my service calls, they will probably start to get some positive reviews and look much better than they do on Yelp.

I would give them another shot if I ever need plumbing work through my warranty company.

Joshua O.

Obviously First American Home Buyers Warranty has a sham deal with them. This is ridiculous. A full claim went in Friday for our overflowing toilet/bathroom. It's Tuesday night at 843pm and still no one has shown up. They've called to say they're coming earlier today. Alas...we wait. Do NOT rely on this company...NOR on the promise of this warranty company to reach out to actual, reputable companies to solve your home plumbing problems.

Candy W.

NOTE - this business does not even deserve the one star, but Yelp wouldn't let me continue with the review unless a rating was selected. Dumb.

I should have known better after reading the reviews here about Cal Home, but I already had a bad experience with the previous plumber that Old Republic referred to me (Daniel Plumbing & Maint. - the plumber, ""Robert,"" NEVER showed up, even after confirming my appointment multiple times) so I figured it had to be better with the next vendor, which was Cal Home. IT WAS NOT. Worst customer service EVER. Wish I could give this place negative stars. If your home warranty company tells you they are sending your work order to Cal Home, you need to vehemently protest it. If your time is valuable and it's difficult for you to take time off of work to take care of house maintenance nonsense, and you value good customer service, this review is for you.

1. Today, a technician from Cal Home was supposed to show between 11-3. I called in the morning to confirm I was on the schedule and confirm that they had the correct phone number at which to call me (more on that later); yes I'm on the schedule and yes, they have the correct phone number. At approx 2:30pm, I still hadn't received a call nor had anyone come by, so I called Cal Home to get status. Hmm, they were not able to reach the technician so they left a message and told me they would call me back. ONE HOUR later - Cal Home STILL hadn't called me back, so I called THEM to get a status. They tell me they haven't heard back from the tech. Oookaaaaay, soooo, is he still coming today???! ""I don't know. We'll let you know"" was the response. 5:10pm rolls around - still no phone call. So I call them AGAIN. This time, no answer. Are you freaking kidding me?? I've waited around all f-ing day and you don't have the courtesy to call with status or offer to reschedule or to apologize or ANYTHING??! Un-freaking-believable.

2. Last week (yes, just last week), Cal Home was scheduled to come out on Friday. Again, had taken a day off. They were supposed to come between 12 - 4pm. At 3pm, I still hadn't gotten a phone call and something told me to call them. They tell me that they ""tried calling at 12:15pm and no one answered and no one called us back."" REALLY? I've had my phone in my hand ALL DAY. What number did you call? They read off the number and it's my work number. Keep in mind that since I had to be at home to wait for the plumber, stands to reason that I wouldn't be at work waiting for their phone call (amiright? Or is that a ridiculous assumption??!) In addition, I had an out of office message that indicated that I was out of the office that day. These Cal Home people are SMART. So then I tell them that the phone number has already been deleted from my account at the home warranty company (because of a different fiasco) and where did you get that number? The lady on the phone wasn't sure because she didn't give a rats a$$ about my situation. Excellent. This is getting better and better. Then I ask what can be done now - can the plumber come back late since it was your f-up? No, he's already out of the area. We can reschedule for another day - another WORK DAY. REALLY?? I'd love to take yet another day off to wait all day for a f-ing plumber.

3. A few weeks prior to the above two incidents, a plumber had come out to ""diagnose"" the problem and was supposed to come back to make the repair. (thank gawd it wasn't an emergency situation). Tech said he told the Cal Home office people what the issue was and they have to confirm if it's covered by home warranty. Of course, I have to be the one to constantly follow up with Cal Home and Old Republic (the home warranty company). Turns out the idiots at Cal Home told Old Republic what they thought the issue was, which was an issue that isn't covered under the home warranty; when in fact, the technician had told them a different issue, which IS covered. Back and forth for three weeks. (I'll write a review about Old Republic next). How can you mis-understand what the issue is? You work in a plumbing office and the two issues are completely different!

It's going on 2 mos now and the issue still hasn't been fixed. I find this unacceptable. Again, not an emergency situation and seems insignificant compared to some of the issues other reviewers had. However, due to length time of unresolved issues, the lack of professionalism/responsiveness of office staff and complete disregard for customer's time, I was compelled to write a review. I doubt the company has people read reviews and actually try to improve their business (since they can't be bothered with follow-up phone calls and such) but hopefully it'll help release some of the pent up anger. LOL.....

Take your business elsewhere. They don't deserve your money (or your home warranty's money) but more importantly, they don't deserve your time.