Carl's Plumbing

Anne C.

I have a contract with AHS and was assigned this company to deal with a leak dripping from my basement ceiling. I assumed it was the pipe in that vicinity. The serviceman correctly diagnosed a leak from a toilet, a simple fix, and recommended that I point a fan toward the basement ceiling in an effort to dry it out. A week later I checked on the results only to find a significant leak, larger than the previous one. Yes, the connection from the back of the repaired, offending toilet was leaking. The next serviceman indeed took care of the problem. I noticed the first repair was done with a PVC type material; the second repair with metal.
The last thing the final serviceman said to me; ""it wasn't your fault"". Odd thing to say. The point of this for me is that the first repair should have been the only repair on this specific job. I experienced another plumbing issue today; AHS again assigned this company to me. This problem as described to Carl's required the main water to be shut off to the house and the wind chill is below zero! Next available appt. in 68 hours. I called another company and they texted a serviceman to arrive within the hour and the problem was fixed in 20 minutes. Regardless of the cost, this was the best option. I felt uneasy with the Carl's assignment today; I've lost my trust in their capacity to fix a simple problem let alone a more complicated one.

Yiargo G.

I had them come out for a whirlpool issue with the motor not working. They came out the next day after I called and were extremely knowledgeable and professional. The plumber was from Muskego unfortunately I forgot his name. Overall he was extremely detailed and I'd highly recommend them to anyone.

Ralph C.

DO NOT USE THIS PLUMBER!!!!!
They are a SCAM. Do not even call for an estimate, advice, or service
The first time we used them, we arranged our work schedule to be home, just to have a plumber come to our house and tell us he does not have experience with gas pipes, and we would need to set up another appointment so a more experienced plumber could come.
The second issue they came out for, (under Home Warranty), and told us that they were not sure if it was covered under home warranty, and that I should give them my credit card info, WHICH WOULD NOT BE USED UNLESS IT WAS COVERED AND WORK DONE. We received a text saying that the work was not covered by home warranty (useless), and two weeks later, received a a little paper receipt in the mail showing that our card was billed $100.
After being told right to my face that the card would not be used unless the issue was covered.

Ann G.

Awful plumbing co!!! Left me with cold water in shower and said it would be days before they could correct their mistake. Plumber was unfriendly... didn't fix any of the big issues and inserted the internal parts wrong on the shower faucet so I have COLD water. Pls use another Co.

Sarah G.

Our water heater went out, our home service warranty had us call Carls Plumbing. The guy came out and said our water heater had a leak, took 75$ and said they would call in a few days. It's the middle of October and taking a cold shower and doing dishes in freezing cold water was getting ridiculous after a few days. Not that Carls cared. When we called to follow up, they said we needed to hire an electrician and plumber and get permits for the hot water heater to be put in first. This is absolutely not true and if it were I'm really not sure why they couldn't have said this right away rather than us calling days later. My husband finally called back very upset and they said they have a water heater but they didnt know which was ours, and that it would take 1-2 weeks to be delivered. We finally got them to agree to let us buy the heater and send them the receipt for reimbursement. they sent an email closing out the contract order and after we sent the receipt we still have not heard from them for reimbursement. Never use this service.

Piera B.

I would like this story to be short, unfortunately to give full facts, it can't be.

If there was a star lower than 1, this company would get it. I've had the misfortune to have to use Carl's Plumbing through my HSA home warranty, a few times.

1st time, the person was yelling being a jerk, I'm the customer!!

Fast forward 1 year, I have a clogged toilet, also had an garbage disposal issue (different company, whom were fabulous). Garbage guy tries to unclog toilet, says, no go. Carl's Plumbing gets called in. One of Carl's guys comes in, tries unclogging toilet with snake (which has already been done my me and 1st plumber) and recommends that Carl's come back with a sewer tool. Two days later, another guy from Carl's uses snake, no sewer tool, which was recommended by 2nd of Carl's people (which the 3rd guy didn't even have in his truck).

Third guy manages to somehow get clog cleared, but everyone has been trying anyway, so we have made a little hole, becomes unclogged and walks away. Not 5 days later, I walk into my basement, its flooded, shite everywhere!!

Call HSA, wait on hold forever, (of course its after hours). Rep says she has called Carl's Plumbing. After waiting an hour, I call their emergency number, guy is obviously in a saloon somewhere, cause he can't hear me. He steps out, I tell him my problem and say I absolutely have to have someone here tonight. He says and I quote ""if you don't hear back from me in half an hour call back"". I did and the bastard had turned off his emergency pager.

Another call to HSA, FINALLY get approval to use an out of service plumber. He has to call before he starts work to get authorization....guess what its 10pm by this time and everyone has gone home. No approval, no working toilets.... HSA What a bloody scam !!

I'll drown in shite and water, before I ever have Carl's Plumbing out again. And a word of caution to other HSA people out there in Milwaukee, half the vendors HSA has on their list are now defunct. BEWARE!! 7 Hours gone trying to fix a plumbing issue, which should have been fixed by CARL'S PLUMBING a week ago,

Tad M.

Update:

After speaking with a rep from American Home Shield, it has become apparent that throughout this ordeal the management of Carl's has been in violation of their contractor agreement- and likely has been with countless previous customers as well.

With the home warranty referral, payments are to be collected at the time of service, or else only routed through AHS to ensure documentation. (For you other AHS customers, their billing department reiterated that ANY ATTEMPT BY A CONTRACTOR TO COLLECT MONEY AFTER THE TIME OF SERVICE SHOULD BE REFUSED!)

Carl's repeated phone attempts to extort money from my girlfriend were an effort to fraudulently make them money off the books. Little wonder the scumbags swore up a storm at her when she said she wouldn't send them a check.

To make matters worse, a few days after their no-show they filed the job as completed with AHS despite never having set foot in our building, let alone looked at our plumbing. After becoming aware of the balance on our account I got in touch with AHS, explained the situation and was easily able to have it removed.

Now begins the process of formal letters to the AHS contractor complaint/review department (which I suggest to other AHS customers here) as well as the Better Business Bureau. Few things would make me happier than to see this company shut down.

Original Post:

Bottom line- anyone rating Carl's Plumbing greater than 1 star probably works for the company. DO NOT USE THEM UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

Like many, I was referred to Carl's by American Home Shield. They did set up an appointment in 1 business day as promised, but that's about the best I can say about their customer service.

My girlfriend and I are both physicians and because we work from 6 am to 6 pm, we had a family member drive two hours up to stay at our home and ensure someone was there for the appointment (scheduled from 11am-1pm.) She sat around all morning and afternoon without a phone call. I got ahold of the technician, Pat, around 4 pm and it became obvious that the main office had provided him with incorrect details. The service window he had been given by the main office was 2 hours later than the one they had quoted us and the contact number he had been given to call was not the same as the one we provided upon scheduling (which was likely just a transcription error.) So Pat showed up 15 minutes late, called the wrong contact number, inevitably received no response and then left.

To his credit, Pat himself was incredibly helpful, pleasant and apologetic. Unfortunately he does not run the company, schedule service or do billing- that is all left to the rude, slack-jawed inbreds who comprise their office staff. After several unreturned calls to Carl's office (and a few that were met with apathy to outright hostility,) I placed one to American Home Shield, who said they would reach out to Carl's and have them reschedule. But when Carl's called it was not to apologize for their error and reschedule service, but to insist we owed them $75 for the missed appointment. They called my girlfriend a liar when she explained the situation and said it wasn't their problem. As of now the issue is ongoing, but I'm in contact with AHS to switch services.

P.S. Pat, find a new place of work, you're too good for them.

Derek S.

Was reffered to this company by American Home Shield home warranty. i had a leaky pipe and water was coming into my basement. i called at 8am to reschedule my appointment due to my daughter getting sick and could not make the scheduled 11am appointment. the person who answered the phone was rude and had zero customer service. i was told that i had to take the scheduled appointment and it would not be changed and i had to pay them $75.00 no matter if they came out or not. I promptly called my home warranty and told them i didn't want these people in my home. I wonder how Carl's Plumbing stays in business with such poor customer service. i will never call or use this company again. To be honest i will start a petition to get them removed from American Home Shield all together, dont wast your time with rude and arrogant people!!!!!

Andrew B.

Bottom line: plumber charged $75, fixed nothing, probably broke the overflow mechanism, was hostile and dismissive.

Of course this would be a zero star review if possible. Carls Plumbing was sent to my home to work on three faucets by American Home Shield. I see that I am not the first to have this experience but I neglected to look up the referred plumber before agreeing to the assignment by AHS. When I called the plumbing company directly to discuss the poor service, I told them I would be posting ANOTHER poor review here and on YELP. The person who answered stated that he didnt want to discuss the service with me and ""didnt care"" about the posts that I mentioned.

The plumber arrived and absolutely refused to even look at anything before I gave him my credit card to charge the $75 service fee. As soon as I gave him the card he started to explain that there was nothing wrong but then looked at the items and agreed that they were broken. The main thing was the Waste and Overflow system in a bathtub. He started to work on it while I was in another room and soon came to tell me that he couldn't fix it because it was ""too big a job"" and he had to get to other calls. He covered the overflow with a cap and said he was done. He would not look any further at the other items again because he had to get going because he was ""losing money"". I managed to get him to put me on the phone with the authorization department at AHS and while I was on the phone he stood over me trying to tell me what to say to them, while continuing to repeat how much money he was losing while at my home and how he had to get going.

NEVER USE THIS COMPANY

Mel R.

I requested service on a Wednesday night after 7 pm. I received a call at 7:45 am Thursday morning and they were at my home by 8:15 am and unclogged my laundry drain before 9 am. I was super pleased with the Pat's work! Saved me taking time off from work and super prompt, professional service.