HJ Pertzborn Plumbing & Fire Protection

Keiz Z.

I called this company for them to check my water heater last year. A representative from the company came to inspect my water heater. He said that it is a FREE inspection and estimate. He came in and inspected my water heater and gave me a quote for a new water heater. A month after, I received an invoice for the inspection which contained incorrect notes of the assessment. I called the company to question about the charge. I spoke to this rude ass woman and said ""Oh..I dont know if my manager is gonna like this"". She put me on hold for a long time. When she came back on phone line, she slipped her tongue and told me something very interesting about the history of my house from reading their past notes. All of a sudden she retracted back her statements and said those were not true. She then said to me rudely ""Well dont call us anymore in the future for you plumbing needs"". She abruptly hang up the phone.

So yes, I will remember that statement and how bad they treated me. Obviously, I still remember it today and took the time to write this rating. I want other people to be aware of my experience.

This is the worst plumbing company that I've ever dealt with. I dont recommend anyone to this company. Obviously, there are tons of choices out there. I got my water heater from someone else that treated me way better than they did. This company doesnt even deserve any stars. They get a lot of big business contracts that's why they think they're the shit!

Karen S.

Brand new sump pump with battery backup system installed two months ago. First big rainstorm. Everything quits. Basement flooded. Everything ruined. Called emergency number an hour ago. Nothing. Two hours -- crickets.
Finally received a call back from a service rep. He said he'd be here after finishing the one person before us. Three hours later. It's 11pm. No service rep. No call. Still flooded. How long do we wait? Voice mail says""do not leave a message. Call back later.""
I cannot imagine why they ""have trouble getting positive reviews.""
Been waiting five hours for the guy to show up. No call, so I called the answering service and got a snotty man who said he can't tell me anything because the service guy will not answer his calls. Nice service. Really impressed with the all around unprofessionalism of all the people associated with these guys. So do we stay up all night waiting? Or do we assume he's not going to bother calling or showing up. Meanwhile, there's six inches of water in my basement because the brand new sump pump doesn't work.
I would give no stars if I could.

Sara C.

So I had a leaky bathroom faucet and needed a drain cap...

Scheduling went fine, plumber came and was nice. He didn't have the drain cap needed, so had to be ordered. He ""fixed"" hot water gasket that made the faucet leak. As he was walking to his van, I noticed it was leaking again. Got him back into our house, it leaked at first, then stopped. He was nice said if we had any problem with it they could fix it when they return for the cap.

It stared leaking again. I called right away and the woman said I would not be charged for them to come and fix it again. She would call me when the cap came in. Super pleasant.

Two weeks pass...

I called them back. Now there is a new woman (Amy?) who could not honor what the 1st scheduler said because she was no longer with the company. She didn't' have any records from the 1st plumber that it started leaking again. She was quite rude conveying the message. I tried to plea my case. It was clear she did not care. After all, as she said ""how do we know it is leaking because of the same problem?"" Hmmm...

2nd plumber came, different guy, still nice, and ""fixed"" the faucet (maybe another gasket?) and replaced the drain cap. It didn't leak for a day.

Interesting that the $400+ bill came really fast. Their accounting department must be good.

I got a different plumber. The faucet is fixed. 1st time. Too bad. Pertzborn helped us with a clogged drain 2 years ago and were great. I will not be using them again.

John H.

I'm an idiot and someone from HJ Pertzborn came out and fixed something I should have figured out on my own. He didn't make me feel stupid, was courteous, fast, and waived the travel fee as a courtesy. These guys are great.

Sandra M.

I would have given a higher rating if their billing was done better. Their initial visit was back in September and the job wasn't done correctly. When they came back the second time I was prepared to pay the bill from the first visit but the tech refused payment since the work wasn't done correctly and he believed there would be an adjustment. We ended up buying a new toilet and received a final bill at the end of October which was promptly paid. 6 weeks later I received a past due bill for the initial visit which wasn't adjusted. I called to ask why my final bill hadn't included all charges due and why they waited so long to ask for payment letting me believe the charges were erased. ""We don't add invoices together"" was a very lame answer. Receiving a past due bill for an account I had closed out created a hardship. I've gone from never wanting to use another plumber to never wanting to use them again. Pretty sad.

George M.

They came and looked at my pipes and said, ""you know, they're really not in bad shape. I wouldn't do anything to it,"" and left. No charge. I thought I needed new pipes and the Pertzborn plumber said ""not really,"" and did not charge me a penny. I call that honest, and what more can you ask for? Every other time I've had a Perzborn plumber they've done excellent work for what seemed like a fair price to me. Again, what more could you ask for?

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.