Happy Sam's Plumbing

Peter L.

At first Sam was great and very helpful, but he never responded to my calls to finish up a job that I paid him to complete... Stay away from him.

L C.

After reading many good reviews from here, I decided to give it a try. I was quoted by Sam $160 on the phone. A different guy showed up (with different name on his truck). He slammed me with a $480 bill for less than 2 hours of work! After so many nonsense excuses, he (not Sam) agreed to lower to $300. Sam was nowhere to be found. Buyers beware!

JJ L.

Al from Happy Sam's Plumbing did the most amazing job for me, at a price that I can't believe.

I bought an old house this year. What was left undisclosed to me was that a plumber in the past had their snake stuck in the main sewer line. Instead of fixing the problem the plumber had cut the line about 3 feet below the clear out. So, the inspector missed this and it wasn't until I had to have the drain snaked for backing up that the next plumber immediately found the problem. We ran a camera down the drain and realized the snake ran 100 feet all the way to the main sewer line, where it was tied up into a big knot. We tried to pull some, but this snake was stuck. I soon learned that it had been like this for one year--and required a monthly clean out in order to keep the drain clear.

I got a few quotes for the repair. Because the sewer line ran underneath the city street---this repair would require a permit to tear up and repave the street in addition to digging a new 10 foot deep trench. I had 3 quotes--none less than $15,000 for the work.

On a recommendation from one of the plumbers--he said to call Al at Happy Sam's because sometimes he can do things no one else can. On the phone, I explained my situation. He asked if anyone had crawled into the manhole and looked at this from the sewer side. I said no, and he said that he would definitely want to try that.

He arrived on time, with 2 helpers. He said before he went down to the sewer he wanted to try and pull on the line. I told him 2 others had tried, and I had seen on the camera first hand that the knot would not budge. He insisted. From the main clear out he tugged for a half hour and the line wouldn't budge. At this point, I asked him what his estimate would be for the work. He said he had an idea to dig and meet the line about 20' downline. He would charge $1200 if he was successful, and $900 if he wasn't. Still skeptical, I agreed.

Al's attitude was amazing the entire time--he was going to solve this no matter what--not give up and walk away. He dug a hole and snipped the snake in half and easily pulled out the smaller section, but the sewer section remained. He tied a pulley system to it and tugged for an hour, slowly working it out. I went to the store to buy hand soap and red bull. We used some soap to loosen the snake, and Al downed the red bull. Almost 2 hours later he removed the snake--it was almost like finishing a marathon.

He patched the sewer pipe and cleaned up after himself. It has been about 3 months and I have not had a drain backup issue again. He saved me literally thousands of dollars with his can do attitude. No other plumber was as creative or as effective.

Without hesitation I would recommend Al at Happy Sam's. He was upfront and completely fair on his pricing. He did something that everyone else had told me would cost 10's of thousands for $1200.

Michael S.

Don't let the ""Jesus is Lord"" sign on the truck fool you, these guys are nothing short of crooks. I had a major leak in my basement that required immediate attention. Happy Sam's came out, assessed the damage and agreed to come out the next morning to fix it. The next morning, a crew of guys, maybe 6 or more people show up at my door step. Before beginning any work, I asked for an estimate for the work. The lead guy, I can't recall his name but he was fat and somewhat bald (I think it was Al), looked me straight in the eye and said, $1200. I told him that seemed really high. Unbeknownst to Al, my general contractor who was doing work on another part of my house was here. My GC looked at the leaked, assessed the damage and then proceeded to tell Al that he too thought the estimate was high to replace a $50 pipe. Al then lowered the price to $900. My GC told him that based on the work that he thought needed to be done, it shouldn't take more than 2 guys and two hours to complete and therefore $450 an hour still seemed pretty high. Al then lowed the price to $650. My GC said to him that now he didn't trust him cause he just cut the price in half from the initial quote he gave me and that he needed to explain why that was. Al proceeded to tell my GC that, ""this is America and I can charge whatever I want!"" My GC promptly asked him to leave. My GC then called his plumber who came immediately, did the work and charged me $324!!! Happy Sam's was set to gouge me to the tune of almost $1,000!!! These people are unscrupulous and will take advantage of helpless people or a situation to come out ahead. Avoid them like the plague. Crooks! Crooks! Crooks!

kim s.

He was prompt in arriving to my place to give me an estimate. Promised to get me an estimate soon but after two phone calls I gave up. Al is the new owner and he speaks english, but his crew does not.
I'm not sure if he does the work or if his crew of 3 guys, who came over with him, do the work independently. Never got a chance to find out because he never sent an estimate as promised.

H K.

if you read my original review of Happy Sam's Plumbing, you'll know that i thought the world of Sam, the quality of his work, his prices, and his fair approach to the whole experience.

something has drastically changed and i will no longer recommend this plumber to any of my friends or real estate contacts. details below (lengthy review!) as to why this went from an enthusiastic 5-star review to just one star.

last time i saw sam, we talked about replacing two toilets in my house for around $200 for labor if i purchased the toilets on my own. he said when i was ready to do that to give him a call. so, when i called last week to have someone come out and look at the toilets that were now leaking, Al answered the phone and we made an appointment for the plumbing issues in my house to be addressed the next day on saturday.

* first, they were an hour late.
* then, they used my towels to clean up the leaks.
* after that, they asked if i had a small bucket to catch the leaks because they didn't bring one. what plumber does not have their own buckets to catch leaks? when i said i didn't have a small bucket the guy said, ""oh ok, i'll just use your towels again."" so, i went and found a bowl they could use.
* the repair turned out to be replacing washers and a valve - much smaller than the job sam and i talked about earlier.
* they drained everything into my bathtubs, but didn't rinse them. thus leaving a dirty residue all over my bathtubs.
* they dented the seats and lids and left shoe prints all over my bathrooms.
* they left my wet towels bunched in the corner of each bathroom.
* then they charged me $385.

when i balked at the price, it went down to $345. then i said that it didn't seem like a fair price considering a larger job sam quoted me was much less. i asked where sam was and the reply was ""ok, $285."" i said it still didn't seem right and that i wanted to talk to sam about it. suddenly, it went down to $245. i asked where sam was again - they said, ""he's on vacation in germany."" so, i said, ""ok, fine, i'll pay by credit card, but i want to talk to him when he returns.""

i guess they no longer take debit/credit cards! the guy said i had to pay by check or cash. i told him i don't have checks, but that i could have the bank cut him a check on monday morning.

HE MADE ME DRIVE TO AN ATM TO GET THE CASH OUT. i am not kidding. he met me at an atm and stood outside waiting for me. i handed him $245 in cash.

there were so many things wrong with this experience, but the last bit made me feel unsafe, creeped out, and angry. time to find a new plumber.

choule s.

We were happy to know that there still is honest and decent plumbers out there like Happy Sams Plumbing. We were afraid that we might have to repipe the whole house, but Happy Sams quickly fixed the trouble saving for us thousands of dollars. They have the expertise which enabled to locate the trouble spot immediately and get the repair job done in no time. We are also impressed with their prompt response to our distress call and were on the scene within an hour after our call. The fee was also very reasonable. Thank you Al for your honesty and professional skills. Your fan in Arcadia.

William A.

The toilet overflowed when we ran the clothes washer. I called them based on the reviews on Yelp. I was very pleased. A couple of years ago I had this problem twice and those plumbers ran a snake and the problem when away, but we stopped using the dishwasher because that also caused the problem.

The team of guys from Happy Sam ran the snake, but they also crawled under the house and found a 25 foot of old pipe (the house is 99 years old) and replace it. This pipe had 3 holes in it that leaked water. Now I run the dishwasher and clothes washer and toilet and no problem.

Why didn't the other plumbers crawl thru the dirt under the house? They did the job in about and hour, too. So I am very pleased.

Vincent G.

We are very pleased with Happy Sam's Plumbing, every time they work for us are very clean, safe and professional, I recomend them to my neighbors.
another good thing aobut Happy Sam's Plumbing is that they finish their work on time, and the prices they charge are reasonable.

Don M.

I had a very bad sewer stop I need a plumber right a way everyone
wanted to charge way to much ,and wanted to change the hole sewer line . then I called Happy Sams and he fixed the problem right away
No line had to be changed Thanks Happy Sams

I recomemed for any sewer JOB !!!