Reilly's Plumbing Co.

Mitch L.

AVOID. We would not have chosen Reilly's Plumbing, if not for the fact they were foisted on us by our home warranty plan (Old Republic Home Protection, another business with a high dissatisfaction rating). We had an emergency clogged sewer line that caused a mess in the bathroom. It turns out some old homes in San Jose weren't built with clean out drains outside, and this was one of them.

First of all, getting Reilly's Plumbing for an emergency call was a chore. They wanted to come out the next day (though their business supposedly works 24/7). They were finally persuaded to come out later that evening at 8:00 PM. They estimated $850 to install a clean out drain outside and remove a section of old cast iron pipe and replace it with ABS. Since we wanted the sewer line unblocked ASAP we agreed.

They started work next morning ~11:00AM and, as others have mentioned here, were unprepared with parts. At around 1:24PM I receive a text message from Chris Reilly: ""OK so this is an odd thing I have not yet run across but this is your kitchen line...ties into the 4 in sewer main it is broken and leaking badly! We have to replace this fitting and a section of the kitchen line about 2 feet. The price for this is going to be $300 dollars additional..."" I would have expected someone with experience to cover these contingencies in the original $850. What's with the annoying accumulation of extra expenses while the job is underway? Lack of experience or ethics in giving a proper estimate?

After the job was finished, I discovered the dirt in the lawn wasn't tamped down properly after installing the new line. The renter eventually had to help clean up afterwards seeing how Chris had left a couple of kids (not even at ""apprentice level"" according to the renter but working under Chris's plumbing license) to do the bulk of the work.

Overall a big disappointment and will not use again.
1. They might deign to come out for emergencies, after someone begs them.
2. They have a lack of accurate estimates (look out for back loading of additional costs).
3. They use amateurs for critical plumbing work.

Afterwards they recommended more work for $3600, claiming they need to replace more pipe that's broken and install another clean out. Well, why be cagey and not state all the estimate upfront? I paid the $1150 to end this bad experience, and have them move on.

UPDATE (3/28): next day the tenant found the sewer line to be clogged still. I called $15 Sewer and Drain, who discovered invasive tree roots further down in the pipe. This after Reilly's team inserted a camera yesterday and couldn't determine the cause of the obstruction. They (Reilly's) speculated it was a broken pipe and wanted to replace pipes ASAP rather than go for the quick and easy, cheap solution. The real professional plumber snaked in with blades and cleared out the roots in less than 20 minutes. The sewer line is flowing again.

Kathy T.

They upgraded my main water line to 1"" and didn't install a pressure regulator. My toilets started to leak and my bath tub valve gave out. I had to shut off my water and call another plumber to fix them.

Nightmare experience.

Karen C.

Avoid this company!! I had a plugged work sink in my garage. My Home Warranty service set me up with Reilly's plumbing to take care of it. Otis (the guy Reilly's Plumbing sent) came out to fix the problem the very next day after I called, so I give them credit for a quick response. But after explaining the problem three times to Otis, I still didn't get the impression that he understood the situation. He climbed under the house and looked at the pipes and then told me the only way to fix the problem was to replace the old pipes with new ones. The estimate for this work was over $2200. I asked Otis if he could at least reconnect the u-joint pipe that my husband had removed in an attempt to fix the problem himself. Otis looked at the pipe and said he couldn't replace the pipe but that it wouldn't help anyway because the other pipes needed to be replaced. A plumber that couldn't put the pipe back together? Seriously?? And then Otis had the nerve to charge me a $60 service fee--even though he hadn't provided any service other than to give me an estimate for replacing my pipes. I can get an estimate for replacing pipes from any reputable plumber for free! So Otis left and I (who have zero experience with plumbing) went to Home Depot to see if I could get a replacement for the u-joint pipe to reconnect the plumbing myself so I could at least use my kitchen sink. The man at Home Depot explained to me how to reconnect the pipe that I already had without needing to buy a new one (and he didn't even charge me for the information!). I went back to my house, completed the repair that Otis the plumber couldn't do himself with the same parts that Otis said couldn't be used and--even though I have no plumbing experience--the repair works perfectly with no leaks. The plugged work-sink still was a problem, but with some plunging my husband was able to unclog that drain and here we are a month later and everything is still working fine. So, to recap, Reilly's plumbing came to my house, did nothing to solve my problem, tried to convince me I needed $2200 worth of apparently unnecessary work, charged me $60 for their worthless opinion and then my husband and I fixed the problem ourselves for free. I wouldn't call these guys again if they were the last plumbers on earth.

Sandeep M.

Don;t go here. They don't show up on time. I lost 2 precious holidays waiting for them. They don't pick up their phones. I can't comment on their work because they haven't yet shown up..

STAY AWAY

E L.

HORRIBLE HORRIBLE company. Reilly's Plumbing is assigned for a home warranty plan and should no longer be. They should just close the doors and look for another career.
#1 They took forever to schedule an appointment
#2 They didn't give a written report as to what additional fees would apply not covered by warranty
#3 They started the work without approval.
#4 Charged us for the additional charges that weren't approved, let alone the work charged wasn't even done.

This has been the most frustrating experience and I thought having home warranty would give you NO frustration.

Who is to blame? Lame Plumbing company or warranty company that continues to use them

Drew G.

This is a long review, just to be warned. I want to start off by saying I am writing this for a family friend who had the work performed on her property. We started with submitting a claim to the home warranty company on Friday for two issues. 1. the toilet was totally malfunctioning and 2. the sewer was backed up completely. I have some construction experience under my belt, so I spent most of the day Friday snaking the line with an auger and had no luck. Later that day, Reilly plumbing came out and put there snake down the toilet drain and had no luck unclogging the line. Chris told us that we would need a two way clean-out installed on the main line. I agreed with him up until this point. His apprentice Otis started to dig out in the front yard for a few hours and uncovered the pipe. I arrived the next day to her house to find Chris working on the line. The first thing he told me was how he should have charged us more money to perform the work. He said the pipe was deeper than expected, and he said several times that he had 15 yrs. experience. Isn't that something he should have expected? He suffered an arm injury while doing the digging and, had limited tools on hand to finish the installation. He finally got the clean-out installed and left for the day. He promised me that he would re-root the pipe with a root cutter since he initially said it was roots in the main line. He also wanted to re-scope it to make sure there was so shifting or sinking of the pipes. Otis came back that night and snaked the line and it finally drained. However it was with a small snake and no root cutter! The next day his apprentice Otis came to repair the toilet. He did a botched job on the guts and installed a new shut-off valve that was leaking. He told our friend to put a bucket underneath it and he would return the next day. I came over that night and replaced the shut-off valve myself. We were told that he would be out today to finish the work and we got a no show/ no call. I have highlighted a few things below to watch for with this company.

- No Christy's box ( a concrete box with a sewer cover) was installed over the clean-out cap which posed a dangerous situation. Someone could have rolled there ankle off the sidewalk or could have tripped and fallen.

- This company has NO workers compensation insurance. Please feel free to read this info on the CSLB website.

- Dont expect phone calls returned or to speak to a live person.

- The drain cleaning machine they use is called a punch snake. I have a plumber buddy who told me this type of snake makes a very small hole in a clog, so that it can quickly back up again and they can make more money to keep re-snaking the line.

- They walked into the house with muddy boots, no shoe covers or removal of shoes.

- They didn't clean up the bathroom floor

- They didn't tighten the washing machine hoses as promised.

This company has many red flags. I think Chris and Otis are very nice and pleasant people, however the professional work ethic needs to be raised. These guys are charging people who work hard for a living to work on there home, and the professional standards need to drastically improve.

I would like to highly recommend you contact Gladiator plumbing or San Jose plumbing. Both companies are very good. If you submit an insurance claim ask for another company.

Pete B.

What a joke. I was having a problem with my garbage disposal. Reilly's Plumbing was assigned to my claim from my home warranty plan. It took a long time just to get them to come out to my house and that only happened because I called them repeatedly. They were very dificult to reach (nobody would answer the phone, mailboxes were full so you couldn't leave a message, etc.) and whoever does their scheduling was not very good. She seemed to get confused quickly and often. When they finally sent someone out the young tech they sent arrived at my door with no tools on him, just a cell phone. He walked over to the kitchen sink, turned the garbage disposal on, it was clearly jammed and he tells me I need a new garbage disposal and there is nothing he can do. He never puts his hands down the disposal, never takes a wrench out to see if he could dislodge whatever was jamming it. He just takes pictures of the unit under the sink (?) and said he doubts the insurance covers a new disposal (which it does actually) and that he would submit a report. He asks for the $65, tells me they don't make any money off these home warranty plans and then leaves. He was there a total of 2 minutes. Over a week later I get a call from someone from Reilly's saying my claim was denied and if I wanted my garbage disposal fixed it would cost me $325. I called the home warranty company to ask about why the claim was denied. They looked it up in their system and said they had not yet received the report from Reilly's so the claim couldn't have been denied. They put me on hold and called Reilly's. Reilly's then reported that their plumber had found glass lodged in the disposal and that I needed a new disposal. The home warranty company said that based on that info, it wasn't normal wear and tear and that is why the claim was denied. Seeing as the plumber never put his hand down the drain, never even looked to see what was jamming the disposal, never used the wrench to see if it could be unlogged or fixed, etc. the home warranty company issued a 2nd opinion and dispatched Jake's Plumbing. This morning Eric from Jake's Plumbing (who was great) arrived and within a minute, armed only with an allen wrench dislodged a small foreign object. We weren't sure what it was? He had the disposal working fine. It did not need replacing. it just needed a plumber who knew what they were doing. This clearly wasn't the case with Reilly's. I'm not sure what is more upsetting, the incompetence and lack of interest on the part of Reilly's plumbing or the fact that I felt like they tried to screw me and the home warranty company over by telling me something couldn't be fixed in order to make more money off us. Not very ethical in my book.

Robert T.

The owner Christopher Reilly is really good. He has been doing this for 18+ years, a nice guy and honest person.
I had the other rooter over 4 months ago and the problem happened again. My bath tub clogged up again. Chris came and looked and then as he worked we figure out that the previous guy probably did not have enough experience and did not get through a bent in the pipe and just stopped short there so the real clog was never removed in my old pipe.

He explained the trick of bending the snake properly at different sections of the snake going down and it is sometimes frustrating to get through all bents and it takes time to build up the experience.

Now my pipe is really opened up and the drain was real fast.

Good job, Chris
Robert

Tal A.

I had the worst experie with these guys.
-We had a leaky sink, and the drains were draining slowly. Someone came on Saturday, and when he left the leaky sink wasnt working and the drains were not draining at all. He said he would come back the next day
- No one came back the next day even after calling several times
- They came back on Monday and were not able to fix it
- Two guys came back the following dat and just when we thought it couldnt get any worse, they went out for parts and while they were out the bedroom completely flooded, and all the carpets were ruined. Instead of dealing with the issue they just fled the job site and we never heard anything from them. We now have significant water damage......
- The sinks are still broken btw....

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!!!!

Flaquita G.

DON'T DON'T DON'T call these guys. I had to give them 1 star because it wouldnt let me post this. They have no idea what they are doing. If there were negative stars I would give it to them . I called them because The tenant downstairs had a tub problem, when they came to check it out they said it came from upstairs unit sink.. Which is not even near their bathroom.. (I dont know how they connected the two)Then when checking the sink upstairs( which had nothing of course) they broke the pipe and all the water from upstairs sink was leaking downstairs. They came out for 3 days tore all over and couldnt even find the pipe to fix it.. And they call themselves professional.. They didnt even want to take responsibility for what they did. I had to find another plumber to fix it. If you want to end up with damage call them at your own risk... But be warned. Dont let the 5 stars other people gave them fool you!!!!! When the other plumber came he fixed all their mistakes in one day.