Rpb Delta Plumbing & Rooter

Romel B.

I heard about RPB Delta through a friend of mine who recently had his water heater replaced. I gave Rojen a call and he was was able to schedule an appointment for a water heater replacement the same day. He was very punctual and arrived right on time. Upon meeting him, he was very polite and listened to my concerns. He quoted a fair price over the phone and he did not deviate from it.
After he finished the job, he asked me to come have a look. He explained what he did, showed me the safety features (shut-off valve), as well as the warranty.
Excellent and organized work and he was a pleasure to work with. Definitely my go-to plumber from now on

Wendy B.

We have always had great results from referrals using the Service Magic website when we need something beyond Mr. B's skill level done around the house. They are well screened, licensed, and selected based on that specific skill needed and proximity to my location as well. We usually instantaneously get 3 referrals who have access to our name, phone and address.

Today, thanks to the stellar hard water in our area, we found ourselves in an emergency situation brought on by a leaky old water heater. It was inevitable, our old water heater had surpassed its 12 year warranty by 6 months. They are programmed to break right after the expiration date, you know.

I was doing my homework first. Within a 12 hour period, I had talked with several plumbers to find out how much this would set us back. One, Rojen of RPB Delta Plumbing, had no Yelp reviews, but he had one recent, nice 5-star review with Service Magic. That, and several other factors were the reason he got the go-ahead:

1st- When I put in an on-line request for emergency plumbing work with Service Magic, Rojen contacted me almost instantaneously. To be fair, all three referrals called within minutes of each other. A great first impression for all of Service Magic's professionals. Or maybe they are hungry, like many these days?

2nd- While talking to all three referrals, plus two from Yelp, I was fishing for estimates. Rojen (and one other) would not give me a quote over the phone. Both wanted to come out to see what they were bidding on. That impressed Mr. B, the hubby. Quotes over the phone, says he, are guesstimates and they can easily bow out and charge more, claiming they did not account for something. I must admit, I saw the wisdom of his ways.

3rd- Rojen would install the brand name water heater I was interested in - a Bradford and White. He said he could install it at the same time as his initial visit. That made this whole ordeal much less painful and fast.

4th- Rojen arrived on time, looking very professional and clean. He was very friendly and respectful, easy to talk to.

5th- Rojen's projected prices were about what I expected, after getting those other hypothetical ""over the phone"" quotes. Bottom line, a new 50 gallon, good brand water heater amounted to about $1000. More than I wished, but not as high as some quotes.

So, I gave him the go ahead. Now that he has finished the job, here is my final impression.

In most ways, he lived up to his name. He was a good plumber, pleasant and hard working, took the time to do it right, about 3 1/2 hours with clean up. But.....here are the problems.....

First of all, he did not give me a written estimate. Looking back on it, I was stupid. He is required by law to do so.

Secondly, he did have to run out to the local hardware store to buy the heater (I thought he had one already) and secondly for a few minor items, including a new pan. We had warned him the pan was corroded and leaking, but he did not believe us. So when he found out we were right, he added another $95 to our bill for that. My guess, we were way overcharged for that part.

After the installation was done, he also informed us that he would be charging $20 to haul away the old unit. Something he had not mentioned before, and something the other plumbers did not charge for. Later on, he waived that fee.

So the itemized charges included $850 for the water heater, $175 for parts and labor to replace some flex tubing, $140 to replace a gas line regulator and connectors and gas value. And of course, the solid gold drip pan, $95. We ended up paying $1260, not $1000.

While that was the same price that one other plumber had quoted, it was the high end bid I had hoped to avoid. All others were lower. So you see, he was doing exactly the same thing to us that ""the others"" might have done after sight unseen bids. Foolish me.

And then, he was giving us a 6-month warranty on his labor. The other plumbers quoted me a full year for labor. I told him this and said I wanted the full year. He did change it on our contract, but it caught me off guard.

And, then he informed me there would be a charge added if I used a credit card. Tired of all these ""Oh, by the way"" charges, I paid by check.

Would I ask for him again? Probably not. Once bitten, twice shy. Even though he did the job installation well, he was not true to his verbal quote. Omissions are a betrayal of my trust in my eyes. So, I'm just telling it as it is.