Washtenaw Plumbing & Heating

Ryan H.

We hired Washtenaw Plumbing and Heating to install a toilet because the cast iron flange needed to be replaced. Martin got back to us quickly and scheduled an appointment for a few days away.

Cameron showed up to do the job. He was very confident and said it would be no problem until he saw the toilet, a Toto Aquia 2, which has smooth sides and uses a different mechanism than the usual bolts to hold it down. When he saw it, he said it would take longer than he initially thought because he had never installed one like that before.

We were a little annoyed that our bill went up because of the plumber's self-described inexperience. Martin explained that it's just more difficult to install a toilet like that, and we decided it was worth the $600 or so they would charge us. Cameron did a great job installing the toilet. He did leave a mess of iron shavings and wood in the basement below where he did the work.

A couple weeks later, the countertop is installed and we now need our sink plumbed and installed. It's a vessel sink that sits on top of the counter, and we explained that to Martin when we made an appointment so it wouldn't be a problem. I even sent a spec sheet on the sink and the faucet, along with a photo of the countertop with the sink and faucet mocked into position.

Cameron comes to install the sink, and when he sees what's required, he asks my wife, ""How do I attach the sink to the countertop?"" That's very disconcerting, because we hired them to know that and do it right. I wasn't home so my wife called me and asked what to do. We agreed that Cameron shouldn't do the work until he had gone over the job with Martin. It was going to be another $500, and we wanted to make sure it was done right.

My wife told Cameron how happy we were with the toilet and explained that we'd prefer he talk to Martin first before he did the work. He acted a little defensive, saying ""I'm a master plumber,"" and explaining that if he did the job it would be done right. She made sure he had a code to get into the house, and he left abruptly.

I followed up with Martin on the phone, who said he didn't have time to go over the job with Cameron in detail, but that he should have known how to do it. He also said Cameron was embarrassed that we were hesitant to let him to do work, and that Martin would have to come do it himself. I asked when the soonest he could come was, because I was expecting to have a sink, and he said he would call me back in the afternoon.

I got home in the early afternoon and hadn't heard from Martin. I also found that the water was off to the whole house. Annoyed that Cameron had not turned it back on, I did so myself. When I did, I found that water was pouring into my basement from the bathroom because Cameron had left the sink valves open! I had had them closed because they weren't attached to a faucet.

In my mind, a Master Plumber should leave the house in a way that it can be used, offended though he may have been. It wasn't our fault that for a second time, he didn't know how to do the work we hired him to do. We shouldn't have had to deal with a flooded bathroom for the sake of his ego. We had just installed new linoleum floor and a hand-made cabinet. Cameron's mistake could have cost us all of that work.

I was furious, and I called Martin right away. I explained what happened and asked him to call me back to make things right. It's been over a week, and still no word from Martin. In my message, I was clearly very angry and I said the phrase ""flooded my fucking bathroom,"" so maybe he thought he didn't owe me a call because I was rude.

TLDR - This company is expensive, and we had 2 bad customer-service experiences with Cameron, who expressed doubt in his ability to do the jobs and took it personally when that made us uneasy.

John B.

Washtenaw Plumbing & Heating (WPH) - Martin Crisp recently did some plumbing work for us. They were prompt, efficient, professional and very knowledgeable. They completed the work in a very timely manner and were very fair on pricing. He answered several of our questions on other plumbing concerns we had and straightened out one of our faucets. If you have any plumbing concerns, I would highly recommend WPH without any reservations.

John Boyless