Sugar Bear Plumbing

Ronald W.

I would not give this guy any stars if allowed. He may be knowledgeable about certain basic aspects of plumbing, but I just got ripped off royally! He was here in December of 2010 and charged me $80 an hour for labor, so I called him back for a very simple job to replace a part on my kitchen sink sprayer and to route out a short gutter. He worked a little under an hour and presented me with a bill of $139! I challenged this and he said his costs have gone up - say what?!!!! To the tune of $40 an hour more (his rate it now $120/hour) PLUS he adds on a $19 ""trip charge"", which he duly pointed out on his invoice. Only problem is he did NOT provide me a written estimate nor bother to tell me about this up front. All-in-all I paid the guy $139 for less than an hour of his time with no parts involved. If that ain't a rip off, I don't know what is.

He left smugly saying he will charge $160 an hour if that's what it takes for him to get a profit.

I will probably report this to the Better Business Bureau!

Bernard M.

This is my first Yelp review and I signed up specifically for this. After my water heater (over 20 years old) failed William gave me a free estimate at short notice. The next day he fitted the new one and despite running a little over time he stuck by the original estimate. The work was tricky, linking a newer heater into the older fittings, adding an expansion tank and new safety straps,and he did a great job and didn't leave until it was tested thoroughly. It has now been working for nearly two weeks without a problem. I have already recommended him to the neighbors who saw his van outside and were curious. I have nothing against which to compare him directly but I am very satisfied.

Lynne R.

For personalized service, you won't do any better than you will with William at C-Snake Plumbing.

I use Yelp consistently when looking for new vendors, and, when we needed a plumber for a rather large job, I noticed that C-Snake Plumbing had garnered excellent reviews.

We were interested in having preventive maintenance work done at the property, and I called William, along with several other plumbing contractors, for estimates. Most discussed their prices over the phone in generalized terms, but William actually came to the property; spent two hours, explaining exactly what the work would involve; and gave us a concrete bid.

It was going to be an expensive venture, so I appreciated William's attention to detail and his willingness to discuss all of our options. Later - and before we had decided to hire C-Snake Plumbing - William spent another hour or so with me over the phone, answering a lot of last-minute questions that had come to mind after our first meeting.

For those who are concerned about licensing and insurance - and I totally agree that those are mandatory requirements for a contractor -- I checked William's credentials, and he is indeed a bonded and licensed plumbing contractor. His license will expire in July 2012.

Without hesitation, I would recommend William for any plumbing issue that might arise. Our job happened to be a fairly large one, but William is also equipped to handle jobs of lesser magnitude. While he was working at our property, a neighbor whom I don't know but who saw his truck parked out in front, came over to talk about a problem she was having with her toilet. William was quick to respond to her concern and made sure her toilet was working before he left the area. It doesn't get much better than that.

Again, if you're looking for personalized service, as well as for plumbing expertise, please call William. I'm very sure you'll be glad you did.

David G.

Nice of him not to charge us for unclogging our toilet that flushed on it's own (clearly indicating that there was no longer any clog). If this guy would have just shown up and been honest about the issue (that if there was a small clog it had flushed and everything seemed to be fine) I would have gladly paid him for his service call and thanked him for his quick service and honesty (to certainly be followed by many referrals and call backs). Instead, he chose to pretend there was a problem, then offered to snake the ""slow drains"" in our sink and bath tub for the low, low charge of $85 each.

Incidentally, I bought a barbed zip line and Home Depot for $2.73 and cleaned the hair out of both those drains in less than 90 seconds.... but thanks for offering to ""fix"" that problem for my wife. Instead of tons of referral business, this guy is only getting a bad review from me.

Richard S.

I called C-Snake after reading reviews on Yelp and was glad that I did. Last night, I had a really bad kitchen sink clogged and the problem was in the valve outside the house. (This has happened before). I tried snaking the drain myself but after a few tries, the water was still at a stand still.

I called C-Snake this morning at 8:20AM and talked directly to William. He gave me a fair price quote and told me he could be at my house by 9AM. I called a few other places to compare prices and decided to go with C-Snake. He showed up exactly as planned and unclogged the main valve using an industrial snake.

William was fair, honest, and took care of the situation very efficiently. He was also nice enough to come inside the house to check out the pipes under our kitchen sink to make sure they weren't the causing any of the clogging problems.

5 stars for great service, coming within short notice, and fair pricing. I highly recommend C-Snake.

Robert G.

A bathroom sink drain burst this Saturday morning and made a little mess. I called several numbers for help and reached a couple of answering machines at other businesses. Curtis answered right away and said he was available right now. Wow. He arrived in less than 15 minutes and had the repair done in less than that! Fast, friendly, professional and reasonable rates. It does not get any better. Five stars. And, I know which number to call first the next time.

Michael M.

These guys are FANTASTIC! Looking here on Yelp, most of the biggies like Roto-Rooter had poor reviews. I prefer to support locals anyway, so I took a chance with CSnake. Had a major bathroom backup, shower, tub, toilet, sink. I called and they were here in 20 minutes as promised. They assessed the situation and clearly explained what the problem was and the estimate. We have an older house without trap access from the back, so he had to remove the toilet to run the snake. He first put down floor protection (surprise!). I believe he exceeded the minimum 1 hour charge, but only charged me for an hour. Unbelievable! When he was done, he reinstalled the toilet (even better than it was), cleaned up all the mess and deodorized the room - sweet! I highly recommend them and will use them for all future work. Yes, they don't have new fancy shiny work trucks like the biggies, but don't let that fool you! ""William"" is the man!!

Siobhan N.

I came home from vacation to find my water heater leaking. After being unsatisfied with the plumber dispatched by my home warranty company, and in a fit of frustration, I called William.

He arrived 15 minutes later. Professional, knowledgeable, and courteous, William diagnosed the problem and patiently answered all of my questions. After fixing the initial problem, we discovered another leak in the water heater that wasn't repairable. Rather than put off the major job of replacing my water heater until the next day (it was after 5pm at this point), William called in an extra set of hands (his son, Curtis) to get the job done that night.

After wrestling with some complications getting the new water heater to fit into the closet in my condo and 5 1/2 hours later, I had a working water heater. Both William and Curtis took their time, made sure the job was done right, and never balked at the late hour.

They did a wonderful job. And, most importantly, I have every confidence in the work they did. When it comes to plumbing, it pays to use a professional and William is definitely that with his 23 years of experience.

A leaking water heater is not what you want to come home to after vacation. But it was worth it to discover William and C-Snake Plumbing. He's my go-to plumbing guy from now on!

Jack G.

I had an abysmally clogged kitchen sink and tub that I had tried for days to fix. I called C-Snake Plumbing and talked to William about the problems I was having.

William was quick to come out and help, keep in mind this was at 6:45 at night. William showed up in a timely manner, had the right tools with him and was courteous enough to wear little foot slippers when he came in the door.

He got right to work and within a few minutes the pipes were off and he was running the snake down the drain. After doing this for a little while, he reassembled the plumbing and ran water through the system. After this first attempt did not work he clearly explained why he thought it did not work, what he needed to do different and got right back to disassembling the pipes again. No complains, no sighs or any sort of negative vibes. You just get the impression he likes to get the job done right. After the second attempt he was able to clear our the drain just as he expected.

Let me tell you as a guy who has a hobby of cooking, not having a functional kitchen sink is not fun. I was ecstatic when everything was working again. Anyhow William owns/runs this company and you can see his pride in his work. His knowledge about plumbing hardware was fluent and precise. He is a genuine friendly local guy and I will call him again if anymore plumbing problems come up.

As a side note he charged me what he said he would and did not add any extra complications to the bill at the end. I like that sort of a deal.

++

Jane D.

BEWARE, this guy is no more than a handyman with a website, he is NOT A REAL COMPANY, he is committing fraud and cannot protect his customers financially.

Agreed with previous review:
WARNING!!! This is an unlicensed contractor! Dangerous, NO INSURANCE NO WORKMAN COMP BOND! Fraudulent, posing as a licensed contractor. Beware! PROTECT YOURSELF and hire a real licensed contractor, you can check this kind of information at http://www.cslb.ca.gov

Good luck to you if you decided to go through with using this guy

I was lucky enough to have researched a little before I called someone out and realized I could have had a whole headache of issues had I used this plumber. I recommend calling Bell, they know what they're doing, and are legit are affordable