Ernie's Plumbing & Repair

Samuel W.

My 91 year old mother-in-law lives in a small house on the back of our property. She notified me that her toilet and shower was backed up. I called Ernie's on Friday, Nov. 15th and they came out on Monday around 3:15 and ran a snake down the 2"" line on the outside of the house. They ran the snake down the line two times but couldn't open it. I asked them to run it down the larger line where the toilet sits. They told me they don't remove toilets. My wife asked if they would try running the line one more time outside. She was told there would be an additional charge. I was reluctant to pay them until the job was done. So I called the company to speak with a manager about the problem and was told they close at 4:00 and no one was there. I went back outside to speak with the plumbers and discovered they had left. I went over to the company to see if I could talk to someone but everyone was gone. The two plumbers that came to my house were there and getting ready to leave for the day. That explains why they were in a hurry to leave before the job was finished. Ernie came by my house the following day and reduced my bill to $105.00. Bottom line, I paid $105.00 and didn't get the line unpluged. Ernie's plumbers said there were tree roots in the line (to which there wasn't) and that I needed to install a large cleanout.
I then looked on Yelp and found Fantastic Rooter. They adverise NO charge until the line is cleared! They came out around 11:00 a.m. pulled the toilet, ran a large cleaner down the line, but after at least two hours of trying was unsuccessful. The owner, Jaimi, was contacted by his plumber and showed up at my house around 6:00 p.m. with water preasure equipment. He ran the water preasure line down the two inch line outside and was able to open it. He then sent a camera down and the line was clear. He did notice some solder that was protruding in the pipe. He then ran the snake down the toilet pipe and broke the solder loose. Unlike Ernies, Fantastic Rooter stayed until the job was done at 7 p.m. His company was at our house for 8 hours. I was only charged for the removal of the toilet and the water preasure cleaning. Also, their work is gauranteed for one year. Fantastic Rooter is Fantastic!!! if we have another issue we will only call Fantastic Rooter!

Joel J.

Earnie Jr. was great and helped me to solve a problem with what he called a ""Flapper"". Basically it took him 10 minutes to remove an insert at the outside pipe and they charged me $250.00 which was excessively high for the amount of time and difficulty to fix. It was on a Sunday however and they were at my address within about 15 minutes so very good response time. They stated that the standard price for a fix/visit on a Sunday was $250 and wouldn't adjust it down. I don't think I'm going to use them again.

Tony B.

Call them, explained the problem, got a a two hour appointment time, technician showed up as expected, told me the price and promptly fixed the problem. Very nice to deal with. Fair price for the job.

Roy G.

Two plumbing contractors came out and ""snaked the main drain"" and still did not fix the problem of backed up sewer. I crawled under house to find a broken main. Called Ernie's plumbing for help.They came out that same day, crawled under house and verified two problem areas. Gave me an estimate and recommended a company that would clean up sewage spill. Ernie's came out the next day after clean up and replaced the main drain pipe in two locations. They did a very professional job and for less than the original estimate. They were professional, friendly and honest. I will be calling them again when we remodel our bathroom.

Melanie R.

PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE!!!!!! I accidentally broke a piece of pipe at a customer's house; first mistake was telling the homeowner to get it fixed and I would pay the bill. Unfortunately this older couple called Ernie's Plumbing. They ROBBED THESE PEOPLE BLIND!!! They charge $360 AN HOUR. ($210 and hour for him; $150 and hour for A HELPER). There was $20 in parts involved....then they charged them for another trip to ""turn back on the water"". I am a handyman and should have just done the work myself. I will be contacting the Contractor's Licensing Board immediately. This was absolute highway robbery and if the unsuspecting homeowner had not had already paid this bill, I would flat out REFUSE to pay this. They took advantage of an older couple and convinced them it was an emergency (which it was not) so they could charge them the emergency weekend rate. They should be ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES!!! Zero stars for sure.

patrick f.

Ernie's plumbing did not let me down. In fact, they went above and beyond in their service and ability to take on this job for me that many other plumbers would not touch.

Ernie Jr. was professional and meticulous in his work as was his partner. I can now go to the next stage of my drainage project for the front of my home now that I know the dimensions and placement of my once elusive drainage pipe. These guys rock!

P G.

Though I didn't get to have them do work, I'm not happy with the customer service. My backyard was flooded. It was coming from under my grass, sprinklers perhaps. Anyway, I did everything I knew how to stop the water running but when my yard started lifting, I called, what was listed an ""emergency"" service, Ernie's. The dispatcher took my info and said she will try to contact a plumber on-call. Around 20 min later, I called back to see if she had any luck and she replies with ""oh, yeah, so I was wrong. Apparently they stopped taking calls for the night"". Um, when were you going to let me know?! I had to call them to find out no help was coming? Thankfully my neighbor was still awake to help. Don't call yourself an ""emergency"" plumbing service if you can't deliver emergency help. I'm sure they are capable and professional while on the job but that dispatcher needs training and the company needs to list conditions on ""emergency"" services provided.

Forest C.

Ernie's replaced about 50 ft of sewer line for me. Unfortunately, I have a monster of a sewer line and part of it ended up collapsing over time. Ernie's came out quick and went through all the protocols to try and solve the issue. """"TIP If you have a clogged sewer line and it cant be unclogged by the powerful snake they have opt to use the camera. I think if i would have used the camera first I could have saved some money on the digging and prior work before the main problem was fixed. Alfred who was th main contact for me was awesome. Customer service and communication was superb. All the work was done very professional, the landscaping of the grass to go over the trench was put back satisfactory. They are plumbers not landscapers so if you have to do trenching prepared to level and fix the turf yourself or gardener. They cleaned up very well and Ernie was able to work with my home insurance so I wouldn't take the complete hit on my wallet. Like some other Yelpers have noted Ernie's isn't the cheapest plumbing company in town, however as the saying goes :you pay for what you get."" Definitely would call Ernie's team again. Thanks again!

Bryson S.

These guys were not easy to work with. When they came to our home to replace the kitchen faucet (I was out of town) the Plummer didn't have a few simple parts with him. He left our home without fixing the problem and gave instructions to my wife for what i would need to buy (a simple water supply hose). Then when I came back in town a few days later he came out to replace and complained about how bad the construction was under the sink (remodeled within the last 10 years). Grumbled about how difficult it was for him to hook up the new faucet (duh! i would have done it if it would have been easy). In the end, he charged me for two full visits (even though the first time he didn't fix anything) .

Now, about two months later, the darn thing is loose! I call them back and the same guy gets on the phone and tells me I'm going to have to get a contractor to modify the cabinet under the sink. I have 15+ years experience as an electrician and if I had to get a contractor to fix every little problem I ran into while installing lights, fans, equipment, i would have never completed a job!

These guys aren't concerned about customer service or quality and they over charge. Very sad for a local business.

Heather M.

Nice to deal with and on time on both visits. But caution is advised as they overestimate the time and cost then do not discount when it takes less time than estimated. End result was very unprofessional looking and ugly.

I feel taken advantage of because they described my toilet replacement as a very complicated job that would take a lot of time. Estimate was over $700 to replace the toilet due to complexity of dealing with old house plumbing and the need to ""sweat old lead fitting"".

Turns out they did not need to deal with any lead sweating but the end result was ugly as the replacement toilet sticks out further and there is a huge gap between the wall and the toilet.

They were here one hour and took only $40 off the price even though work effort was much less than estimated. Toilet was $230 according to plumber and I suspect that price was inflated. In the end we paid $710 for a simple toilet replacement that took less than an hour and looks unprofessional.

The old adage, ""fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on you"" comes to mind. They got a premium price for a below average job this time but they have lost any future business in plumbing our old house. I'd rather deal with the big boxes than be taken advantage of again.

Updating this review: we've since discovered through our own research that there are viable options for retrofitting an old toilet so there isn't a huge gap between the wall and the toilet. One would think that an expert plumber would know this and provide advice on how to make the end result professional and not an eyesore.