Leo Gotelli Plumbing

Teresa Z.

Run away, run away, run away.

Leo billed me $370 to replace two shower cartridges, but they left us worse off than we started. His plumber Bernardo came out for 20 minutes - one shower was untouched, the other was so poorly adjusted so that the shower was not usable after he left.

I called 30+ times to schedule a second visit. Leo's rarely there and no one else will schedule appointments. I left countless messages and the only time he ever called me back was to reschedule an appointment we had made.

When that rescheduled appointment time came, about three months after I first reached out, I took a day off work to oversee the work. I waited for hours and his plumber never showed. I called his office many times as I waited. Finally, I was told that Bernardo couldn't make it because he was in the Avenues. As I left the building, the front desk worker told me that Bernardo was in our building, working on a different unit.

Also, I've been getting email bills from Leo saying I owe more than $1,000. When I called and asked, he said they'd been hacked and there was nothing that he could do. When I suggested that he could proactively alert us, he was belligerent.

He is dishonest, unresponsive, irresponsible, and verbally abusive to customers. Read the other 1-star reviews and stay away!!

Joe S.

Our low flush, pressurized, toilet began running constantly. The previous plumber who worked in our high-rise moved, so we didn't know who to call. Our building manager gave us Leo Gotelli's number... and were we lucky. He sent one of his men to inspect the problem, and then as soon as the part arrived, he came back and installed it. Fast and no hassle. I would recommend Leo Gotelli Plumbing especially if you are in San Francisco.

After reading some of the poor reviews, I can't help but wonder if they were talking about another plumber. I noticed there are other plumbers with the Gotelli name. My experience with Leo Gotelli Plumbing was they went overboard to follow up with phone calls and were extremely professional.

I am not associated with this company and called them for the first time yesterday.

Angelica C.

Tom was very unprofessional! He attacked me verbally! He was in my home for under an hour and didn't get anything completed. He blew up on me when he found out that the water had not been shut off. I feel that as a ""plumber"" it was his responsibility to shut off the water before he would have gotten started on any work. We replaced Gotelli Plumbing with another company who got the job done efficiently, in half of the time without any swearing. Tom took advantage of the fact that it was a home with two women present.

Kristine G.

VERY SHADY COMPANY

These guys showed up to our home unbooked. They called my husband saying they were at our home (nothing scheduled - owner was supposed to call my husband to schedule something and instead just had his workers show up without ever letting us know).

Their job was very shoddy. Loose ends not
tied up and they ACTUALLY HAD THE NERVE TO USE MY HUSBAND'S MATERIAL!! something they should have had with them.

My husband had called the company when the guys showed up at the house. The owner answered and was very rude and arrogant. He threatened to pull the guys off the job and basically made it seem like he was too good of a ""tradesman"" to be listening to my husband concerns.

When they left our home they even signed a bare beam that we had a friend sign for other reasons.

No offer of providing a contract, no estimate of work provided, just forced into work and told we'd receive an invoice.

Owner had the nerve to say that he told my husband how much the job would be- without even looking at our place or asking questions.

Rude and unprofessional. Will be complaining to the licensing board and better business bureau.

Charles M.

I wish I could leave a negative rating!

If you want to use a plumbing company that fails to return calls, where you leave countless messages, only to have none returned, or to have an appointment scheduled only to have the plumber no-show this is the plumbing company for you!!

I had a shower leak, and since my father was a local business owner, thought I would use Gottelli. I am also an HOA president, and heard from the property management company this company could be useful.

The only person that seems to be in charge is Leo Gotelli. There is an old woman who will take messages, and is essentially useless for scheduling, or problem solving. If you reach her, you might as well hang up, and call back.

In regards to Leo, You have to call at almost 6 AM in order to reach him. When you do, he will just promise to call you back in a few days, which as you can guess, never happens.

After repeated calls, when I finally had a plumber show, they were not able to fix the problem, and said they would have to come back. Wash , repeat, and rinse with the process above. When another set of plumbers came back, they couldn't figure out how to install a shower diverter. I even had a Danze technician on hold via phone (the vendor who built the hardware) to help them. The plumbers could not even communicate to the Danze tech, who I had to call, to fix the problem. Doesn't plumber mean you know how to solve plumbing problems or talk to other plumbers?

SO, I was left with a failed leaky shower, 3 service calls and a bill for $365.00. Plus countless left messages, and no shows. I wish I could bill Leo for *MY* time lost on this escapade.

I told Leo I would not pay given their horrible customer service, lack of follow through, and inability to problem solve.

I ,also, told our HOA association NEVER to use this plumbing company. (See a review for R and S Erection whom you should steer clear of as well, and has the same inept management - I believe it is the same family that runs this business, too).

I eventually paid the bill, as it seems the only part of this inept business that works is their billing department, and their collection threats.

I eventually used their competitor George Sales Plumbing. WOW! They fixed the issue in one visit! They showed on time! They had someone schedule! They are responsive!

My advice to Leo Gotelli is if you cannot take small jobs, be honest. Refer them to George! At least they know how to deal with customers!

Sharice W.

I have worked with Leo Gotelli Plumbing for many years on work projects and the level of expertise and innovative thinking they have always blows me away. A special shout out to Tom, Bernardo and Leo himself! Thank you for all that you do!

Matt B.

I had a particularly difficult wall mounted toilet job that other plumbers (teams of 2 people) had struggled with and hadn't been able to solve. I spoke with Leo over the phone and he sent someone initially to evaluate the job. We scheduled the work and Bernardo showed up from Leo Gotelli Pumbing. He was on time, came equipped with the proper tools and was ready to go. Bernardo quickly and competently installed the bowl of the toilet, we then noticed that the tank had cracked during transport. I purchased another tank and Bernardo returned after his mid-day job to completely the work. This job had been half completed for months because of other teams of plumbers, but Bernardo made the installation easy and professional. I will use Leo Gotelli Plumbing for any of my future plumbing needs.

g w.

I had a radiator removed from my apartment, it took two techs 1.5 hrs at $145 rate and resulted in $475 charge. Leo's estimate over the phone was $200.
Calls are still not being returned.

Saied E.

Bad repair work, hostile office staff, and just an overall terrible experience. I will never use these guys again.

Catherine W.

The work Gotelli did for my building was back in March 2011 so I have lived with the work now for almost six years. My husband and I purchased a 1906 Edwardian building in Feb 2011. Within a couple of weeks of moving in we became aware that every drain pipe in the building was leaking. We are talking about four separate pipes leaking raw sewage down the outside of the building, into garage and into the alley beside our house. Having been around since 1906, the plumbing was a Frankenstein job and much of it apparently done without permits because it wasn't up to code. A general contractor I was working with brought in Gotelli to fix the mess.
Gotelli's team set-up scaffolding on one side of the building to replace the drain pipes coming from one of the third floor bathrooms. The whole back side of the existing pipe was rotten. Gotelli tied in all the fixtures into one new large cast iron drain pipe that ran into the concrete pad at the ground level below. One of the pipes from the shower had to be accessed by opening up the ceiling in the lower unit.
On the other side of the building, the three different drain pipes ran from the third floor down through a cramped light well. His team had to jimmy ladders into the tight space which serviced two bathrooms and a laundry room. The work in the light well was the most gosh awful project I can imagine. His team had to spend hours on those ladders pulling old pipes and putting in new ones. There was no space to work. While doing this they determined that the overflow for one of the bathtubs wasn't connected to any pipe so when the bathtub was filled too high, the excess water just ran down in between the walls and into the garage. They opened the wall in this cramped light well and repaired the bathtub plumbing. They replaced pvc pipe (not to code) that was part of the existing system and other rotten metal pipes. They tied it into cast iron drain pipes that ran down to pipes under our foundation.
All of Gotelli's work was done with permits. They got the work done in one week. The final inspection was effortless. The work cost about $12,000 and there have been no problems with their work in the six years since. Very professional, very prompt, high quality work. We are just about to call them again for a new project so I thought I would write a review of their first one.