Colepepper Plumbing

Recently, my tenants let me know that hot water in the shower would suddenly cut out after a few minutes leaving only cold water. The shower was the only place in the house that couldn't sustain a hot water flow.

Colepepper Rancho Bernardo bid the repair and asked if they could do a "home inspection" in case there was anything else needing repair. I agreed to an inspection of the bathroom ONLY since there were no issues in the rest of the house. After their assessment the job was planned as follows:

1. Install a new single valve for the shower. According to them this would be a lot of work that involved cutting the ceramic tiles, pipes, and installing the new valve.

2. Reset the toilet that showed signs of a leaking seal.

3. Replace leaking sink popup.

They said the job would take a few hours. The custom price was several thousand, however, I felt pressured to go forward as it was a rental and the tenants needed a working shower and bathroom. Unfortunately, after I had authorized the work, I spoke to the tenants and they pointed out there was NO OTHER ISSUE EXCEPT THE WATER TEMPERATURE ON THE SHOWER.

I made the mistake of trusting blindly. After reading other reviews, I see that creating urgency and upselling is a trend with this company. The plumbers were on the premises from 9am to 9pm on Friday. The next morning my tenants informed me of the following.

The shower hot water flow issue was still NOT fixed even a little bit. Colepepper charged me to replace the entire shower system and the original issue was never fixed. Cold water still interrupted their showers after a couple of minutes.

The appearance of the valve installation was shoddy. The face screws were not flush but crooked on the valve face cover. For the price this should have been impeccable. Plumber said getting screws to fit would be another "up charge" as they only use screws which come with the "kit", which was cheap in appearance and obviously off the shelf at local box store.

They also installed a brushed nickel sink popup while the faucet handles and spout are chrome. The sink drain was misaligned and leaking after their work. After the tenants sent a video of the destruction in the bathroom, I sent my handyman to inspect everything. He discovered that the sink popup seals had been INSTALLED UPSIDE DOWN. He had to reinstall the popup, fix the wonky drain pipes, and reset the sink against the wall, as they KNOCKED SINK LOOSE FROM WALL and left it this way!

They left a mess in the bathroom for my tenant to clean up. Tile dust covered everything and boot prints were inside and outside of the bathroom. Tenant also heard the workers watching videos on their phones to try to figure out how to do the work, which explains why they were onsite so long.

After much back and forth, Colepepper sent another plumber who determined that the hot water flow issue was caused by the shower head being obstructed which made the flow insufficient to keep the heater turned on. He drilled out the water flow restrictor in the shower head, and upon my insistence, installed a chrome popup to match the sink faucets. NONE OF THE EXPENSIVE WORK WAS EVEN JUSTIFIED.

Colepepper refunded about half of the charges after I sent photos/video, but I still paid way too much for a really bad experience, unnecessary and shoddy work, and was taken advantage of with aggressive upselling. These guys are not a professional plumbing company, more like predatory scammers.

Pilot light on my gas would not stay litGas company could not light it eitherMiguel of Colepepper came to houseHe shook my hand and introduced himselfHe found numerous problems with year old heaterHe pointed out the problems to me .After discussing options , decided it was time replace the water heaterAfter it was installed we went over instructions on lighting pilot light and how to due a yearly drain of the tank and what to look for to,prevent future problemsHe was cordial and professional

The plumbing done for me by Colepepper was fairly complicated, being in an older home, and it was accomplished professionally and with attention to detail

Excellent service in a very shot time on a Saturday afternoon! Terrific!!

Quick response and efficient service, including cleanup

Colepepper plumbing was at my house within an hour of my callThey immediately identified the leak and fixed itService was professional and politeWould highly recommend them

Had a Shower valve issue that needed correctingThis company sent out one of their plumbers who then quoted me a worst case scenario quote for that he got reduced to from the company manager since I was prior military servicehe replaced the valve cartridge in minutes then charged me the full for the time he was hereHe could not offer any other explanation for the inflated cost of the repair other than it was company policy and he didn't know his own hourly rates for conducting repairsI estimated the cartridge to be around worst case and the hourly rates about per hourI didn't expect to be charged in excess of per hour for labor costs

We are very happy with his work and the quick response time He diagnosed the complicated drainage problem and took care of it efficiently and professionally

We stand behind our work and what was done and will not give any kind of refund.We communicated clearly what needed to be done, gave options before the work was started, and gave a price before the work started.The original call we received was that the flapper fell off the toilet, and the toilet
keeps running.We dispatched our technician to come give a free estimate.We gave options on just repairing the toilet, or repairing the toilet and replacing the shut off valve to the toilet, which was not working and was old and corrodedThe option of repairing the toilet and replacing the shut off valve to the toilet which is connected to a water pipe behind the toilet was chosenWe did not high pressure anybody into decision, and our technician was very polite and gave an honest diagnosis of the problem. The work that we said we were going to do was performed correctly, and with a written warrantyWe honored a $coupon that we deducted from the bill.We cannot comment on another company's priceWe can only comment on our own priceThe price given was a flat rate price and is 'locked in' for however long the job takesWe do not charge by the hour. We feel our prices are fair for the value receivedWe have to charge enough to pay our plumbers a decent wage so they can provide for their families , own a home, have company benefits, have good tools to perform their jobs with, uniforms to work in, have paid vacation days etc etcThe company also has to earn a fair profit to be able to grow in the future so we don't go out of businessWe also charge enough to hold money in reserves to honor our warranty repairs

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
Anyone that believes a plumbing company is fair to charge $an hour for simple labor is crazyAny plumbing company that does so and misleads the work needed to be done is criminal and Colepepper plumbing has done exactly thisIf businesses like this are allowed to practice their shady ways, we are All in trouble
Regards,
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