St Paul Plumbing & Heating

Doesn't Recommend

Olaf

Joined 4 years ago

They prey on the innocent. They fleeced my mother, a widow who lives alone and doesn't know much about plumbing. She had a pipe break, and they pressured her into signing a HUGE estimate. The work was done in less than two hours, and they took her for almost $1400. Because they came recommended by a neighbor, she assumed they were trustworthy, and that that's just what things cost. When I called to complain, they claimed the prices are "per task," -- but that travel time should be considered too (to Mounds View???), and that gas is expensive nowadays.

Their business model appears to be this: make huge estimates, because some people will trust you and be foolish enough to pay you.

Avoid them at all cost.

Doesn't Recommend

JannaI

Joined 4 years ago

Expensive, inexperienced, and shady.. Last December we called SPPHC b/c we had a frozen meter that broken and left inches of water in our basement. We had been out of town and discovered the problem upon returning on a Saturday evening. We told the dispatcher at least 3 or 4 times over the phone that we KNEW it was the meter - we had cleaned out the water from the basement and saw it spraying from the meter, plus we could see the break. She sent a plumber out (at weekend rates of $200 for just a service call); when the plumber got there and we told him it was the meter, he immediately said he couldn't touch it b/c it was city property and that he never should have been sent out. We paid, begrudgingly, and called SPPHC to air our grievance come Monday. They said they wanted to keep our business so they credited our account (not refund our money...but pretty much guaranteeing we'd call them for any future service).

Fast forward to this week: We called to clear our sewer line b/c of backed up basement drain, but the "drain guy" wouldn't auger past 30' b/c he found a "severe dip" that needed to be repaired and the guy said he was afraid that he might break his cable. Stuck a camera down there and said we had the dip + an offset pipe and told us we'd need to replace sewer main - thousands of $$$ and HUGE headache - basically major surgery on your sewer system. Called around for quotes and another RELIABLE plumber said he wanted to auger himself before quoting or digging. Turns out the "severe bend" was a normal connection between a 4" and 6" pipe; the "hard impenetrable obstruction" was just tree roots! Our pipe is perfect (no breaks or offsets). St. Paul Plumbing was over 2x as expensive (we paid more even though we had a $230 credit) and they didn't even DO what we hired them to do (auger/clean roots from our line). They spent nearly 3 hours here to do nothing and gave us a WRONG and extremely costly diagnosis. Will NEVER EVER call them again. This was the second time we had issues with them, thought we'd give them a 2nd chance, but we're through with them. Call Joe Francis from Ace Plumbing instead - a true, experienced tradesmen who won't rob you.

Doesn't Recommend

saintpaulhalls

Joined 4 years ago

A rip off for plumbing work - Try another provider. St Paul Plumbing came to repair a toilet and change a water valve in our utility sink which was frozen. Dan spent about 70 minutes working and the bill was $648. He also broke one of the other spickets, and it took some persuading to get him to fix that before he left. I had no idea that plumbing was so expensive, and after reading the other reviews I see it doesn't need to be. We moved here recently from NY and really would like to trust the tradesmen here in the twin cities. It was an expensive lesson for me that I need to be more careful.

Doesn't Recommend

OneGuyMinneapolis

Joined 4 years ago

FInd another plumber if you don't want to be fleeced. $400 for a half hour job at my house - no parts, little labor. This was a scheduled meeting, regular business hours. Supposedly their "fixed rate". ABSOLUTELY GET A FULL QUOTE IN ADVANCE. If you don't they won't budge from their outrageous bill afterward. Keep these guys away from your parents, anyone who might be strong armed into excessive bills.

Hire them at your own risk! Call around, you deserve better.

Doesn't Recommend

Ripped9

Joined 5 years ago

Buyer Beware. They came out and fixed a leaking toilet and charged $478 for an 75 minutes work. Won't use them again!

Doesn't Recommend

jstanoch

Joined 5 years ago

Way over priced - to the extent I was gouged. I had this company perform an emergency repair on a Sunday night in early August that cost an arm and a leg (+$700 for 45 minutes work). I chalked the cost up to it being a Sunday and an emergency. To their credit they showed up when they said they would and did a proper job.

I called them back last week for a leaky pipe that was not an emergency repair and upon arrival at the scheduled time, their service person quoted me $508 to perform the repair which seemed very expensive to me. The reason this seemed high was the leak was at the water softener at one of the 90 degree elbow joints. So it appeared that all they needed to do was re-solder the joint. The repair person insisted that this was the "going rate" for any plumber I might call but I still told him to forget it. I called Pokorney Plumbing and they came the next day, performed the repair and charged me $146.50 for about 40 minutes of work. Pokorney also did a great job but only charged 1/4th the St Paul Plumbing quote. I feel cheated by St Paul Plumbing for the repair they did for me in August. LIve and learn......

Doesn't Recommend

arns0011

Joined 6 years ago

Unfortunate experience leaves me looking for a new provider. We discovered that the drain pipes going down into the basement were corroded and leaking. We called STP Plumbing & Heating up again and the scheduled service between 2-4 the next day. I arrived home for the scheduled appointment time and Jennifer called at 2:40 to say that someone was available and was heading out. I live less than 2 miles from their STP location, so I figured they would easily be there in the next 30 minutes. At 3:58 the service truck comes rolling up out front. The plumber, Tim, comes in the house and takes a look at the sink and then goes into the basement to look at the troubled drain pipes. He determines that it's larger task than he was prepared to take on and I would need to schedule another appointment for him to come back out. If he did any work this evening, it would be considered overtime. I asked is he could at minimum give me an estimate, so I would know what we were looking at for cost. After about 10 minutes in the truck, he came back in with an estimate of 3.5-4 hours and $850 for the repair. He also stated that I needed to pay $150+ for the service call today. I was a bit appauled by the events that were transpiring and was already on the phone with Tamara. After putting me on hold for several minutes, Tamara said that I needed to pay the service call even though he had arrived only minutes ago. I expressed my concerns for the service I was receiving. Tamara then put me on hold again. Upon returning to the phone, she told me that there was no need to pay and that St.Paul Plumbing & Heating would not be able to perform my repairs. I proceeded to void the check I was writing and told Tim that Tamara said that his company would not be providing me with service. His radio began scream "blah, blah" - literally "blah, blah" - as one of the girls from the office attempted to contact him. He left and I am still a little dumbfounded by what transpired. Since I wasn't happy with their service, they just left. Strange but true!

Recommends

unlucky01

Joined 6 years ago

EXPENSIVE AND RUDE!!!!!. PLEASE DONT USE THEM! They are just another large company that wants to make money. I called a plumber to fix a problem. He takes his own sweet time to figure out that he needs a part to fiz the problem. He leaves to buy the part for more than an hour ( and I pay for the time he works $ 38.50 for every 15 minutes). The shop he was going to buy the product was literally 10 minutes away. He comes back, is on the phone for the most part, goes out for a smoke and screws on a part on my boiler and charges me $ 500. The worst part being - I DIDN'T even need that part. He puts down our heater temperature and freezes all our pipes and made the situation worse and now my pipes have broken down and leaking and now I need to fix everything which is going to cost me Thousands!

Whats unbeliveable is that I call the company telling them about my high bill for the plumber just screwing something on and they were ABSOLUTELY RUDE! She said that she has other calls to attend and wont give me my money back. I had to pay for even the time he went on a jolly ride for longer than an hour and for all his smoking breaks ( which were so frequent).

Please go ahead to a local small business person. They are far more loyal and much more integrity!