Nichols Plumbing & Drain Cleaning

Carla Jayne R.

We contacted the company to replace a garbage disposal in our kitchen. We had used them before. An appointment was made and I agreed to get a new unit; I was told it would be less expensive this way. The following day the technician showed up, looked under the sink, opened the box and said it was the ""wrong"" unit. He then handed me a bill for $165. I was told it was their policy to charge a dispatch fee, call the office for complaints. He left and I got a receipt literally 5 minutes later. Their office is literally 1 mile from our home. When I called the office I was told the office manager wasn't there. This is the biggest racket in town. They never called back or made any effort to reschedule. Don't use them.

Lucinda S.

There is such a long list of grievances. First of which is being charged for 45 minutes of driving to get to my house 7 min away. About 125 dollars. They said it was to prepare equipment but have a giant truck full of equipment and then had to go back and get the tolilet anyways. I needed a toilet and a pipe. Total bill 2700 dollars. The first time they came to do the estimate which was supposed to be free was 270 dollars. It took 6 weeks and me calling three times to get them even to come back and do the job. After all of that, they didn't even have the toilet I repeatedly asked for. Which was just the tall kind. The answer when I asked where my high toilet was, I was told well, it's not on my paper. Seriously? So of course, I have a low cheap toilet.
I was told the pipe for tub was special and had to be ordered. My son is right above me and has them same pipe. He ran right down to the hardware store and got the pipe.
Biggest rip off yet.

Jim S.

Avoid. Waltz hooked up a standby generator completely wrong. It was so wrong that the warranty would not be honored because of the way it was hooked up to the main gas line. In addition and most concerning was that they left us with a slow gas leak for three days which kept building up in our house. The odor was apparent when the workmen packed up, said the job was complete, and got paid. They assured me the gas odor was residual from a pipe they joined and it would dissipate - ""just leave the windows open."" Next day, when called about the lingering, growing, odor the person over the phone advised - ""Open the windows and doors and call the fire department."" Finally on the third day the gas company found the leak, turned off the gas, and told Waltz they would not turn the gas back on until the leak was sealed. Waltz came out to seal the leak and gas was turned back on. However, the plumbing to the generator was completely wrong. The gas pipe was hard plumbed into the generator which would cause the piping to shake, and the interior of the generator to shake too which would cause failure. This, I was told by a reputable agency that inspected the work later, voided my warranty. This company found numerous faults with the work done by Waltz and were flabbergasted at the naive nature of what had been done. Never, ever again would I have Waltz come inside the door. Or outside for that matter. Horrible experience. No apology or no call of concern for what could have caused a home explosion.

Whitney B.

We had a shower head replaced and it cost much more time and money for the install than anticipated (or likely necessary if the person installing had more experience) and it was really left a mess. No attempt was made when cutting into the wall to cover things or to clean up. There are now a lot of brown marks (hand prints maybe?) on a wall section that will now need to be repainted and a tile is newly-cracked on the floor. It's an old tile floor, but it didn't need a new crack! Very frustrating. The person was nice, so I hate to leave the review. They had also done a good job once before for us. But after the high bill and the mess of this job, I don't know if we will repeat.

Pam S.

Pay attention to the 1 star ratings! Don't waste your time or money - poor quality incomplete job, inexperienced technician, way over priced.

I had two drips under the kitchen sink. The left strainer was dripping and I didn't know where the other drip was coming from. I had both strainers replaced so they would match, I had the screw in stoppers and they were not replacing with a screw in stopper. The guy was young and I'm guessing not very experienced. It took him over an hour to remove one strainer. I was charged 4.5 hours of labor with travel time calculated in. $391.85 for parts, two strainers and two feet of pvc pipe and a few other small parts. Parts also included plumbers putty and 2 saw blades!! I don't call those parts. $1,066.85 total!! The next morning I put paper towels under the sink and did the dishes. I still have a leak!!! I called them, the guy came back and said, I didn't work on that, so I have to charge you to fix it. Needless to say, I sent him away. I'll live with the poor choice I made in selecting a plumber... they saw me coming and sold me a bridge!!! I could have bought a new sink and faucets for that price!! I'd rate them with a zero if I could.

A H.

No one likes being on call overnight - I get it. Even more so, no one likes getting an emergency service call at 2am on a Sunday morning. It sucks, and again, I get it - been there and done that. However, if your business is going to proudly advertise emergency 24/7 service, one would assume that you'd want to actually offer emergency 24/7 service. Not so, apparently!

That was the situation in which I found myself very early this morning. I discovered a HUGE leak in the basement while going to bed at 2am, with massive flooding, an entire area of flooring above completely soaked through, and the Maine version of Niagara Falls coming out of a busted pipe. In short, pretty much the textbook definition of a ""plumbing emergency..."" you know - exactly the kinds of things for which certain heating and plumbing companies advertise 24/7 emergency services.

In a panic, I looked up the 24/7 emergency Waltz number (because yay for brand recognition, so... good job there, I guess?) and called. The woman who answered the phone treated the call as if I were the IRS calling to collect 5 years' worth of back taxes in the middle of the night. After a brief ""conversation"" (and by ""conversation,"" what I actually mean is ""me explaining the situation and getting a few one-word grunts that I *think* were questions in response, which hopefully I answered correctly""), I was able to translate the last few exasperated grunts into some variation of ""I'll have someone call you."" Great!

So I waited. Contemplated the crappy situation. Waited some more. Got pretty antsy. Continued waiting. Started thinking about selling tickets to Maine's newest indoor waterpark. Kept waiting...

...you see where this is going. Finally called it a ""night"" at 4 am, hoping I'd wake up if the phone rang, which it never did - nor has it, 8 hours later. Again, I 100% get it - being on call overnight, especially on the weekends, sucks, and when I used to do it, I'd spend the entirety of every call I got contemplating creative murder. However, the services were delivered, and clients were not just grumpily and unceremoniously shuffled off the phone, never to be contacted again, as was the case here. Had I not been in a panicked, sleep-deprived stupor, I probably would have taken the time to read the thousands of other one-star reviews and call someone else, but I didn't, and now I know why they exist. Happy to add mine to that esteemed collection.

Avoid.

Gerald G.

My mistake created a problem that needed a plumber's attention. After calling several companies around the area that could not provide service for a week or longer, Waltz answered the call the very next day and showed up 5hrs early! Our plumber ""Justin"" was professional and efficient!
Total bill seemed a bit high after job was completed but it was done properly!

Joseph F.

After buying a new home I called them to come out, inspect, clean and repair the viessman boiler. The tech failed to hook up the external sensor correctly. When January came the boiler couldn't keep up with the cold. I asked for instructions on how to reset it and he gave me the wrong info. I asked him to come out to evaluate it again and he still didn't hook up the external sensor and said the electrical board needed to be replaced per Viessman tech ( I called Viessman usa tech line and they said no one ever called). He failed to notice the flu sensor that was malfunctioning or the damage that the recycled flu gases were causing the fan and venturi. I called another company to get a second look. They noticed the damage right off and hooked up the external sensor which enabled the electrical board to function properly. I tried calling Waltz several times before the service manager finally called back. He was very unprofessional and defensive and irrational. He stood by the poor work of his tech which was completely proven to be so by the second company that cleaned up their mess. I would never do business with them again and advise anyone to avoid them.