South West Plumbing, Heating, Air, & Electric

Andy S.

I came home to a $2500 SHOCK. I can't believe the NERVE of this business to take advantage like this.

I have no problem paying fair prices, or even a premium for great service and trustworthy business practices. South West Plumbing charges a $49 fee just show up, and then they are supposed to apply that towards to final bill if you choose to do business with them. I think that's perfectly reasonable business practice. It protects the business, and doesn't harm the consumer.

In this case, there were 4 tasks we needed the plumber to accomplish:

1. find and fix a low-flow issue with a hot water feed to a bath tub. This required going under the house, and I don't doubt replacing the hose feeding from the hot water copper pipe to the base of the water fixture. While the hoses are under the house, albeit in a very spacious crawlspace - you can stand up underneath where the tub is. $345. If this took 3 hours in labor, that's pretty shocking as it took ME 3 hours to build it myself 15 years ago. In the end, the hoses were kinked, so they needed to be replaced. They probably also took the faucet apart and re-taped it, etc. 2 hoses? an Hour of labor? Let's say fair price on this was in the ballpark of $150.

2. tighten a loose bushing on a cold water faucet in a powder bathroom sink. It had become a bit rusted in place and I couldn't get at it. $339 for what was called ""rebuild cold lav faucet in PR"", when all he needed to do is tighten the bushing, and it's STILL rusted in place. Oh, and by the way, it started dripping again. I checked, and all the original parts are still in place. Not a rebuild. Fair price on this is a flat zero dollars for not solving the problem to begin with.

3. Toilet arm needed adjusting, the water shut off valve whistles as it's near close. Perhaps it needs to be replaced. $474! The plumber tried to talk my wife into replacing the toilet with a new one for $1100, presumably to make the $474 sound like a good deal.. SHAME ON YOU RON M of South West Plumbing. Shame on you and Shame on South West Plumbing for having such shady business practices. You give a horrible name to all the real service businesses out there. Replacing the inside plumbing of the toilet plus a generous 2 hours of labor, fair price of $200-$250.

4. Fix InstaHot under the kitchen sink. There was some gunk in the line, so it doesn't surprise me that it needed to be replaced. $1100???? Are you KIDDING me??? This was for an Insinkerator model HWTF100S. You can find it online for somewhere around $250. Assuming a very fair 20% markup, and a very fair $80-100/hr in labor, let's call that a fair market value of $500.

This brings me to what I think is a very reasonable fee of $850. Plus tax. Oh, and the $49 dispatch fee was supposed to be applied to the final bill. It wasn't. Plus some amount of I-am-trying-to-be-reasonable amount of fudging, let's call it an even $1000.

So, South West Plumbing, are you going to refund me the $1500 you just STOLE from my family? Or will I need to call the credit card company and claim fraud against your business? I don't want to be unfair. I don't want to be unreasonable. I don't want to post this all over social media and other sites. I don't want to spend any more time on this than you do. You can refund us the $1500, I will update this review, and we can part ways peacefully.

Cameron C.

Highway robbery!! Came and did about an hour work and charged me over $800! Ridiculous! Shame on me for not getting more bids, but I was in a jam and they took advantage of it.

Kerry C.

Had the instahot replaced. It was a bit more expensive than I would have liked but the servicemen Ron M. and Kyle D. were great and very personable.

Austin V.

Had a great experience with Farmer and J.J. They were very friendly, informative, efficient and professional. I called in the morning and scheduled an appointment in the afternoon. I would highly recommend them. I think I found my plumber for life. Thanks, Sun-Hee

Richie L.

Had a rebuild done on a toilet and tub spout replaced by Farmer and his apprentice JJ. They were professional and got the job done expeditiously.

Riley C.

Claims to be a 24 hour plumbing service. Called at 11pm, was told I would be called back shortly with the eta of a plumber to arrive, never received a call. Called again and got the same woman and she told me that at 1:51am an on call person had ""received the request"" and that I would be contacted shortly. Was never contacted again. Ended up being an $895 fix from BEACON so really I guess it's their loss. Don't advertise as a 24 hour plumbing facility if you're not.

Brad Z.

Never use this company. I only wish I had read their reviews before I called them. I had a backed up sewer line that I had them come out to clear twice. Their hydrojet drain cleaning didn't work. They came out again and said they needed to dig up my entire line and replace it for a total of $5200. I declined and called another company. They fixed the problem permanently for $700. I registered a dispute with the better business bureau for a refund. Turns out they sided with Southwest. Without sending me a bill they immediately turned me over to collections. These guys are scammers and should be put out of business.

Scott R.

Get multiple bids before getting any plumbing done by southwest plumbing. Our drains started backing up so we called southwest plumbing. Two technicians showed up the next day and without discussing any prices scoped the line and discovered that there was a break in my sewage line about 50 feet from my house and I also needed the roots jetted out. When he told me about the break was also when he notified me that the scoping of the line cost $500. He then said that if I had them fix the pipe and jet the lines they would waive the $500 scope fee. He quoted jetting and pipe fix at $6000. Since I was already in $500 I figured I would have them do the work assuming it would take a day or two and require heavy machinery for that price. Wrong! It took the two men less than 4 hrs to get the permit, fix the pipe and jet the lines. The pipe was 2 feet under ground and they used shovels to dig a 4 foot long trench and replace a 4 foot section of pvc pipe. At most it cost them $150 in parts (pic pipe and 1 yard of gravel), and the jetting cost 1300 (which is also insane) that means the pipe repair cost around $4000 in labor. That's $1000 and hr. After the repair was done I called a different plumber who quoted the entire job around $3000. Southwest plumbing is a rip off and I will never use them again. I gave them two starts only because they fixed the repair in a timely manner and the fix was done properly. But still an incredible rip off.

D F.

Homeowners do your research if you want to save money. Had an emergency and needed help with a drain clog. No real plumbing company could get to me right away, Southwest Plumbing was the only one. They got here late after the scheduled time. By the time they got here the problem fixed it self unbeknownst to me. Southwest plumbing wanted to check the status of my sewer line any way and I agreed, what a mistake I made. So, out comes the paper work, the contract. They said I didn't have a clean out and needed one after the camera scoped the line price to complete the work including camera, clean sewer lines, call for locate company, and permit came to a whopping $ 3000 and needed 1/2 up front, before they start. Wow I said. Now remember I had an emergency and when senior's have an emergency we just want it fixed. Didn't do water jetting to clean sewer and also found out didn't need locate or a permit. Bottom line, for the work i had to pay $2000 after some negotiation's to install a clean out, which the inspector said I had an existing c o just about 2 feet away. No discount for senior or veteran, what a mess I got myself into. Never, ever use this company even with a smiley face on their website or vehicles. Other companies will charge you 1/2 as much. Please people beware especially senior's that are on fixed income, when our money is gone it's gone

Anne H.

Call someone else. Called for a bid to change out a bathroom sink. One of the sinks in our Master Bath had developed a bad chip. identical sinks had been installed in every bathroom by the builder so when we remodeled our Powder Room adding a vessel sink, we set the old sink aside to be switched out in the Master Bath at a later date. Again, these are identical sinks, no other problems (slow drains, leaks, etc.). The plumber shows up on time as scheduled, so far, so good although not sure why they sent two for a simple job. I show them to the Master Bath at which time he sets down his clipboard and asks me if I have ever used South West before. Told him I wasn't sure as, happily, we have rarely had need of a plumber. He says what they like to do first is a ""comprehensive check of the plumbing throughout the house"". I said, no, thank you, not today as I didn't call for that service and I was heading into the office immediately after they left. Then he looks under the sink and says "" you want me to tell you what's wrong with these shut-off valves?"". I said no, thank you, as this was not the service for which I had called and we had no trouble with the valves. He excuses himself to his truck to consult his pricing book, returns 10 mins later (with NOTHING even written down on the form) and tells me ""we like to include as much value as we can for your dollar, the install will be $851 w/o tax"". Are you kidding me?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

At this point I told him he could be on his way, thank you very much. He was shocked and flustered as I saw he and his partner to the door.

Outcome...after I got to the office I called three other plumbers, explained what I was looking for (w/out mentioning what I had just been through) and asked if they could give me a rough estimate, or at least what the prevailing rate for something like that might be. One said they couldn't, the other two gave me estimates of $350 and $375 respectively. NOTE: the two plumbers who did give rough estimates did caution me they couldn't really be sure of anything until they saw the job in person, understandable.

I have an appointment with another plumber for tomorrow morning.