Vigilante Plumbing

Grandmaster MC K.

I wish I could give them zero stars. They charge 200-400% more than ""real"" plumbers, ""upsell"" you on every visit even for the simplest work, and refer you to third party contractors, from whom they extort huge kickbacks for the referrals. The people they send are so friendly, but now I realize they are actually salespeople with decent skills. They attempted to charge me $1,000 for a job that I later had done for $200 (sewer cleaning) and then referred me to a third party cleaner who wanted to charge me $1500 for a simple 20
Minute job (the owner said Vigilante collects a hefty 50% ""referral fee."" Uh-huh: these guys will not be coming within a mile of my house.

Le K.

Mixed review: they did a good job replacing two sets of shower heads - worked very fast and clean with a minimum of damage to the walls.

Today I had them out to snake the sewer main - they said I needed to have someone clean out the ""pit"" first. Sent me to a company that wanted to charge me $1,500 for about 20 minutes worth of work. Turns out Vigilante gets a ""vig"" from the third party people they recommend - my guess is that they were going to get another $500 for recommending this place.

I turned the guy down, and canceled the work Vigilante would have done. From reading these reviews, it appears I'm not to only ones who were taken to the bank.

Ctown W.

I thought I had found the holy grail of responsible, reliable, and honest team of service providers. I could NOT have been more wrong! After purchasing my first home 5 years ago I signed up with them to do the regular services for maintenance of the heat system in my brownstone. Every time they would come, they would up sell me on one thing or another. I would agree or not and carry on, most of the time I did what they suggested, like change the boiler incase it fails... But oddly enough every time I had an actual issue with a furnace, or trying to adjust the sound of the steam heat, or a leak, they would do the ABSOLUTE minimum, if that. They would say they did the job, they would charge me for the job and then the problem wouldn't be totally fixed. I can't tell you how disappointed I was with them when a couple weeks ago I chose a new service provider who did the annual maintenance only to find out they had clearly NEVER serviced my boiler in those 5 years. I am so lucky nothing worse happened. PLEASE be advised, these people will up charge you, do lousy work if any at all, and maintain a totally ""free of responsibility"" attitude towards their service.

Alyssa H.

I've used these guys a number of times for a few different plumbing issues. Found that they've always been honest, helpful and their fixes STAY fixed, as opposed to when we used another company and they misdiagnosed the problem.

D D.

Hello,

I am writing this review on the basis of a recent experience that I have had with this company.

NB: this experience occurred during the pandemic of 2020.

The company was contacted due to an issue with an air conditioning unit at our home.

The staff on the telephone were friendly and helpful initially. They gave precise instructions and developed and very clear plan, which included a representative visit and determine the specific problem and develop a strategy for repair and/or replacement.

Subsequently, a repair person was dispatched. This person was very friendly and helpful.

Inspection and cleaning of the unit was completed. Instructions and information were provided.

The cost of this was several hundreds of dollars.

After some time the issue recurred. After contacting the company again by telephone, it took several phone calls to have a representative re-visit the home and review the issue. After this was done, a specific and new problem was diagnosed and a new strategy was developed. I was provided with a plan that involved hearing back from the company in order to proceed.

After a significant period of time, that had not occurred. Thus, given the lack of communication and unfulfilled plans, it was decided that this company does not meet the expectations that were initially set out.

NB: The person who attended the issue in person was very professional, very personable and very clear.

In conclusion, I would definitely hire the person and not the company.

Thank-you for your attention.

Zuhal M.

I'm writing this review on behalf of my parents. This company is very unreliable and deceiving. My parents were advised to purchase a brand new boiler (installed by Vigilante) as they misdiagnosed the problem. 5 years later my parents are experiencing the same problem over and over again. Not only were my parents conned into replacing a boiler that was perfectly fine, but now they have to pay to fix the REAL problem. Vigilante has failed to rectify the situation and is unresponsive to service calls. Do yourself a favor and spend your money elsewhere. These people will leave you hanging high and dry!

Bruno D.

THESE PEOPLE ARE CROOKS. DON'T DO BUSINESS WITH THEM. Spent $12k in a split AC system in 2017 that NEVER worked . They have sent 5-6 different technicians which were incapable of fixing the issues created by their own people who did a really SHITTY installation. When I finally lost my temper after being told that I have to call the AC manufacturer to deal with the warranty myself, the OWNER called and told me to go FUCK OFF. Ill definitely fuck them off at the small claims court

K K.

The tech came out on time for a consult on a Mitsubishi system. He was pleasant and professional. He wore a mask, booties, and gloves as per our request. The problem arose when I attempted to email them blueprints for the system. They do not have an email listed on their site. On the chat function, they interrogated me, gave me a huge runaround, and would not release an email without a phone call. This raised a massive red flag. I can't have confidence in a company that is unwilling to share their email address for the purpose of conveying blueprints.

Chris W.

I have used Vigilante on and off for over 20 years. The last several years though it's like knocking your head into a brick wall. I tried to call them today to set up a service and the young woman who answered is either lazy or clueless on how the customer experience should work. I laid out for her in specific detail what is going on at a building I own. I asked her clearly if when the tech comes will he hopefully have everything he needs to complete the work (a leaky sink and possibly dishwasher and getting the heat to stay on) and if not will he be able to get what he need and return the same day. She said she didn't know, he had to assess the jobs. Ok, I can live with that. I then asked her to see if she can schedule me an early visit and she put me on hold and came back with a late morning 4 hour window. I asked her again if he came would he assess, give me a quote and if he lacked a tool or part would he come back or would it turn into a multi day job? I told her he's not trenching pipe or installing anything major, but I did not want him to say he had to go back for a washer or a tool when his truck should have those items. I expressly told her the building is without heat or water. She then decided to tell me she has no idea how the plumber works she ""just schedules the jobs"". So for all you folks answering the phones at these companies let me tell you that you are the face of the company. The first point of contact. If you get salty, frustrated or flummoxed by questions by your existing or potential customers you need to rethink your existence at your chosen profession. To kick the can over to the service desks means that maybe the service desk should be answering the phones to set up the jobs and you should be home eating bon-bons. They say stupid is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. I've been loyal and stupid but that is changing right now and I won't be coming back to Vigilante

Emily W.

Working with Mike from Vigilante went far beyond what we had hoped. Our co-op building in South Park Slope had a gas leak and Mike informed us of a program that could help us - we would have been clueless without his help. He really went the extra mile in helping our building and was very quick to answer all questions and concerns. All of the workers from Vigilante were extremely professional, helpful, and quick! Highly recommend Vigilante - no surprise they've been around over 80 years!