HJ Pertzborn Plumbing & Fire Protection

Steve L.

Ongoing Plumbing Issues with H.J. Pertzborn Plumbing and Fire Protection Corporation


Starting in 11/2013, I contacted H.J. Pertzborn for a leaking ""push-stop"" plastic supply valve underneath my kitchen sink. The water supply lines in my home are CPVC pipes. The plumber that came out replaced the supply valve with a metal compression valve. He told me these types of push-stop valves were no good and recommended at some point to replace the rest of the valves on the main floor of the house with metal compression valves. I decided to have him replace all of them at this time. The bill was $707.98.

In 05/2015, the supply valves in one of the bathrooms replaced less than two years prior started to leak. I had H.J. Pertzborn Plumbing come out again. The plumber recommended instead to install ""SharkBite"" couplings to new small copper pipes to new compression water supply valves. He thought that because there was no ""give"" between the plastic and metal was the issue. When replacing one of the valves, he pulled on the pipe too hard and the pipe broke within the wall. He had to cut into the drywall in two areas of the house to find the broken pipe. The pipe was blocked by a HVAC duct. He had to call the headquarters and contract out a HVAC company to come to my house to cut into the duct to get to the water supply pipe. The pipe was replaced with copper, the duct patched up, and a drywaller came four times to my house in the subsequent two weeks to patch up and retexture the wall. The original bill was $1592.08 covering the entire day of plumbing labor and parts, HVAC contractor, and drywall contractor. H.J. Pertzborn covered half of the total bill and the portion I paid was $796.04

On 01/18/2017, the kitchen supply valves started leaking. The rest of the valves not replaced in 05/2015 (but replaced in 11/2013) were heavily corroded. The H.J. Pertzborn plumber came out and agreed the rest of the valves were going to fail at some point soon. He replaced the kitchen supply valves actively leaking and replaced the remainder of the supply valves on the main house level with SharkBite male pipe thread adapters to water supply valves. The bill was $758.41

I contacted H.J.Pertzborn on 01/31/2017 after receiving the bill to discuss the issues I've had since 11/2013. I initially talked to an ""Ellie"" whom I described my previous service calls, what I had been told by the plumber. I was told she'd have to research my previous service and talk to the plumber. I offered to send before and after pictures I had taken of all the valves to her. I sent these to [email protected]. She stated she would be in contact with me within a couple of days.

On 02/07/2017, I receive a call from Larry who said he was calling me back regarding my issues but didn't have any idea what my issues were and did not have the emailed pictures I had sent to Ellie. I repeated what services I had in the past and what plumbing issues I continued to have. I was told he would have to research this and talk to the plumber first. I did not receive a call back from him and I called H.J. Pertzborn on 02/15/2017. Larry told me he had been busy, hadn't had a chance to do any work on my issue. He said I would not be charged interest on my bill and would get back to me. On 02/21/2017, Larry called me back stating even though I had 100% failure rate on all the supply valves installed on 11/2013, that there was only a one-year warranty and little they could do about it. He also stated they were ""still learning what works well with CPVC pipes."" He stated that purely as a courtesy for being a customer with them, they would credit only the kitchen work back in the amount of $152.09, leaving a total bill of $606.32.

So within less than 3.5 years, I spent $2110.34 on the same issue. It is important to note that the supply valves that I have in the basement and the secondary floor that were not touched or replaced by H.J. Pertzborn have had no issues in the six years I have lived here. I have had no issues with the water quality and also had the plumber on 01/2017 checked my water softener to ensure that there were no issues with this.

Chris C.

Quick work! The water heater started leaking Monday morning, called Pertzborn and by noon Tuesday we have a new water heater, hot water by 4:00pm! Pat did a terrific job, and even improved on the position of the gas pipe so I don't snag my clothes on it every time I go by.

Lynn L.

COMPLETELY UNPROFESSIONAL!! Our water heater was leaking pretty substantially, so we called Pertzborn, whom we have used many times in the past and been exceptionally pleased with. However, this time, the person they sent was nothing like the people we have encountered in the past. We had standing water on our basement floor when he arrived, that we had been mopping up since the night before. Expecting that he would clean up the excess water after taking out the old water heater, he then set a new $1800 water heater on top of the dirty water that was remaining. WHAT? He also had cut old and new pipes that left many metal shards scattered throughout the area, to which he walked up and down our steps and across our rugs many times transferring the dirty water and metal pieces! When he was done, there was still standing puddles of water and metal pieces strewed throughout the area. Do they not carry a shop vac with them? Odd for a plumber! When he was about to leave, we noticed that we had very little water pressure in all of the faucets in our home, so we went out to his truck to ask him about it. Reluctantly, he came back in to check them and realized that the sediment from the old water heater had clogged the faucets. After needing to replace the screen in our bathroom faucet, he then checked the kitchen and found that it was going to be a much more involved job than he had thought, to which he replied in a very rude manner, ""If I have to take care of this, I'm going to be late to my next job."" Reluctantly again, he pursued to fix the problem, but not without attitude. He claimed that the sediment that had clogged the kitchen faucet was due to us having run cold water through the pipes while he was installing the heater. However, he told us prior to fixing the heater, that we could in fact use the cold water if need be while he was working. Needless to say, I called Pertzborn to complain about his shoddy work ethic and behavior and pretty much got the run around from the receptionist. I was told that they would ""look into it"" and get back to me. When they finally did, the plumber who had done the work claimed that the mess he had left in the basement was actually our fault for having run the cold water while he was working. This being said, he had access to the shut off valve in the basement that would have remedied the problem from the start. AND, not only did he tell us we could use the cold water while he was working, if it was such an issue, why did he simply not come upstairs to tell us to stop using it?! UGH!! When the job was finally finished, he did half-heartedly apologize for his attitude, but not without complaining that he now had a very long day ahead of him. Ultimately, after many tense phone conversations with the company, we were left cleaning up the mess and were only compensated $118 for an almost $2000 job.
ANYBODY KNOW OF A GOOD PLUMBER?

Abe T.

I called them to fix my toilet. They sent a plumber as promised, Jake. He had to go back to get a replacement part and he did not even charge me for that. Great work and very reasonable price. I would definitely recommend them.

Sheri P.

THE WORST COMPANY TO DEAL WITH. making financial judgement denying service not even knowing what we even bring in a month!!!! they told me one thing for a ""cc deposit?"" since we were new customers and then when i call back to pay that deposit the next day, i was told they dont want to service us as they have no guarantee we would pay them?!!! WTF.. customer service accountant LORI was rude and dismissive out of Madison Wisconsin. and amy in service tells you the deposit will be one charge on my cc and found out the true deposit charge was double the amount at $100 for a deposit for coming out as we are new customers? never had a company do that before..

Mo B.

These guys are awesome. I just had my 2nd experience with Pertzborn, and it was as excellent as the first; I now will use no other plumber because their customer service and expertise is so top notch. A previous plumber botched an earlier job. By contrast, Pertzborn was highly efficient, skilled, clearly explained the issues - and beautifully took care of it. I also appreciate that they have several plumbers - so they can usually send someone out soon. Finally, they explained the billing/charges up front when I first called, so there were no surprises. Icing on the cake: each person I dealt with was super friendly and professional. Great stuff!

Marla O.

Ethics, ethics, ethics. I am extremely disappointed in this well-known company for not standing behind workmanship and the spoken words of a plumber who came to repair two outdoor faucets. After speaking with the plumber about one faucet in worse condition than the other, we agreed he would ""repair"" and not ""replace"" with the understanding if it continued leaking in the future, he would come back out and replace it completely. He stated there would be no $98.00/first 30-min charge, and additional labor would be as if he never left the job.

Two weeks have gone by and of course, the repair did not work, necessitating a call to Pertzborn to reschedule the plumber to come back to replace the faucet. The scheduler would not guarantee the same plumber (which I was okay with), but also would not honor what was told to me by my plumber. She was rude during the initial phone call when I explained the situation and I felt disrespected as a customer by her. After clearing my head of my disbelief, I promptly cancelled the appointment she had set. I had already forked out $470.00 and I certainly didn't feel the need to give them anymore of my money.

Oh, and one more thing, one of the same exact parts was double the price than Benjamin Plumbing. Thank you, Benjamin Plumbing! Hmmm. Pertzborn, never again!

April S.

I set up an appointment to have a plumber come to the house and give everything a once over as well as get in writing some ongoing issues that my landlord didn't seem to find needed any repair.
They inspected everything and gave great details as to just how much damage the issues were causing and how much they could cause in the future which allowed me to have several major issues fixed and making my home safe once again.

Megan C.

We called HJ Pertzborn at 9pm on a Friday night to roto-root our basement drain after it backed up while we were having a housewarming party in our 91-year-old home. Not only did they respond promptly, they sent a crew over within 30 minutes after hours and they had our drain unclogged in about an hour. GRATEFUL!

EM C.

I called them after discovering a horrible smell coming from the bathroom and basement. Their office staff was cheerful and polite, and they put me in touch with the service department immediately. I was told someone would be by within a couple hours and that they would call before they headed out. Maybe 45 minutes later I got a courtesy call saying a plumber (I think Greg) was on his way. I was SO impressed already! Then he discovered that the smell was coming from a sewer pipe from a toilet that was removed during a foundation repair. The pipe was never properly capped, but Greg fixed it in ten minutes. No more smelly house! He answered some other questions I had about our fixer-upper and he was so nice with our dogs that I sent him off with a bag of homemade cookies. HJ Pertzborn was worth every penny, and now I'm going to have them replace our water heater. SO impressed!