Barker and Sons Plumbing & Rooter

The plumber never showed at the scheduled time. They did reschedule at a time convenient for them and not for the me. This property was in escrow and I had to coordinate with the buyers and sellers. Unfortunately, the service was already pre-paid. I requested a cancellation with the plumber but they refused a refund. I was stuck using their service and I will never do that again!!

Very well. Frank and Paul did very well, arrived on time, and very very friendly and efficient. They explained things very well.

The plumber rootered the toilet line and it was still clogged. So he went to get a special vacuum to remove the fluids and took the toilet off and rootered more. There was a serious blockage that he cleared. The plumber was on time, very professional and courteous. Great experience and will use again to replace water heater in the coming year.

Dominic was very friendly. He came in and assessed the job and provided a quote. We accepted and he finished the job in about an hour. Dominic is very professional

The serviceman was polite and seemed to know what he was doing. Since the pilot light to the water heater had gone out, he asked for $150 to relight it. I pointed out to him that the gas company would relight it for free and promptly made a next day appt. with the gas company. After I did that, he relented and relighted the pilot light and didn't charge me. I thought that his price for the piece of metal vent (which only took a few minutes to attach, not counting the time to move out the washer/dryer) was quite excessive ($350) as it is a simple, few minute process to attach and the vent piece certainly costs less than $50.00. Polite but way too expensive and rather deceptive (he was well aware that the gas company would relight the pilot for nothing but still tried to sell me that service).

Very friendly. Efficient and knowledgeable. Loved the service.

They did arrive for our first appointment within the time frame window, and were friendly and courteous. One toilet simply needed a flapper/stopper but according to the plumber, the second toilet interior rusting was a big problem and repairs were going to cost nearly as much as a new toilet and for that reason they didn't recommend repair. We agreed that that being the case we would replace the second toilet and the ADA model he showed us on his phone was going to be around $350. Once the measurements were taken he explained that we would not be able to get that elongated version because of our space but that they would offer the same price for a round model. He ordered the toilet and parts and we scheduled a time for the next morning to install the new toilet. Their arrival time was off by hours and then when they did finally arrive and begin installing they noticed the tank did not match the bowl. They plumber said the error was made by the person placing the order and it then took more time for him to drive to multiple locations and return with the correct tank. He then asked if his assistant could complete the installation and he left. The actual installation was completed quickly and with that we have no complaint. At their recommendation we contacted our water district to apply for a possible rebate. The application requests the model and price for the toilet alone. The Barker bill is not itemized and simply states $769.19 in the Standard Rate column with a $50 discount. We found the model number inside the toilet and checked for pricing at Lowes and Home Depot. Our round model, which is cheaper than an elongated version, was listed at $181 at both stores. There seems to be no conceivable, legitimate explanation for the high bill. Our non-fancy toilet seat, wax ring replacement, tank innards and tax could raise the cost to $275. This leaves labor costs at nearly $500! How can that possibly be justified? We have placed a call to the company and asked that we receive an itemized bill and full accounting for the charges and an opportunity to talk to a manager. Missy asked if we wished to talk to our particular plumber and we declined saying that we believed that this was an issue for management. UPDATE June 20, 2015. Follow-up to the review: Mike, a company manager, called back approximately 2 weeks after my inital request for a call. According to Mike, the charge of $769. for purchase and installation of our new toilet is accurate for our toilet. He stated that Lowe's and Home Depot have greater buying power (hence their price of $181 for our new Toto model) and therefore they can offer more competitive pricing than Barker and Sons. I suggested Barker might want to buy their toilets there but he then said their own are of a higher quality. This seems unlikely with a toilet as the model numbers are the same. He did suggest that the way our job was done did not meet their proscribed company procedures. We should not have been flashed a picture on a cell phone of a toilet or shown a figure scribbled on a piece of paper etc but should have been shown their actual price book and asked to sign off on the exact costs before the items were purchased. This did not happen.

The seal securing the toilet to the floor was leaking. Very slow leak was growing over past couple months. Plumber trouble shoot the leak to make sure it was a simple seal issue. The toilet was about ten years old and seal should have been good. However, the seal all around had deteriorated from pressure ... apparently from a backup in the toilet in another bathroom immediately on the other side of the wall. Toilets are back-to-back w/wall between. Pulling and reattaching the toilet with new seal fixed the issue. We were advised that we would probably need the main line from back of house the front pressure-cleared at some time. Snaking no longer completely clearing the line. Not something we were prepared to do at this time. House is 45 years told so the usable diameter of that space diminished by gunk stuck to sides over time. Very thorough. Explained our options. Very pleased with the service.

We are not too happy with him. He came out dressed in white shirt and tie, and we needed somebody to go down the house and fix the problem we had. He was dressed up like he wasn't going to get dirty for nobody. He said that he would charge $100 because he would have to put on a suit under the house. He didn't know what to do, and so he called his boss, and his boss said he couldn't go under the house, because he could fall sick. I wouldn't recommend them to anybody. He didn't show any initiative.

Earlier this week, Sara from Barker and Sons came out to unclog a stubborn kitchen sink drain that I was unable to get unclogged. At that time, I had her give me an estimate for replacing a 30+ year old shower valve in the master bath. After talking it over with my wife, we decided to go through with it. I called back on Wednesday, and was able to get it scheduled for Friday (3/37/2015) at 1:00PM. I received a call from Missy at 9:00AM Friday morning informing me that Sara and Will could be there around 9:30AM, if I could have them come early. I agreed, so I took a quick shower and waited. I received a voicemail while in the shower that informed me that they would be about an hour later, as they had to go pickup parts for the job. Sara and Will showed up around 11:00AM, so they were there about 30 minutes after the scheduled time. That's fine, 30 minutes is nothing compared to other people you schedule for work around the house. They were quick efficient and clean. They kept the work area nice and clean and worked fast. Both my wife and I were impressed by the quality, speed, efficiency and cleanliness of the job.

They were supposed to be here at 9, but were a little late. They said what we paid for would not cover the drain cleaning we needed and refused to honor the $99 deal and said it would be $250.

Tech arrived and quickly evaluated the situation. He a quick estimate and how I can save some money on the work. He was quick and polite.

They are fast and they give thorough information. Trustworthy.

Service call to diagnose water heater. Dispatch said they should have parts to fix, technician said they can't get for that heater but if they could find one the labor and part would be over $500.00. Quoted $1800 for new heater. Much higher then we thought was a fair price.

Frank and Raul took the time and explained in detail what needed to be done. All my questions were answered. The job took two days and they were willing and able to work around my work schedule. They showed up on time both days. They were friendly and approachable. The cost seemed high. Hopefully, the quality of the work will make it worthwhile.

They were real prompt about getting back to me and they sent someone out the same day. He was local so he got here real quickly. He was good about showing me what he was going to do. It took about 10 minutes to unclog the stoppage. He used a camera to show me some other areas of the plumbing. He was here about an hour overall.

I called Barker and sons on the way back from Yosemite after receiving a call from my wife about the sewage backup. I needed quick service and called Barker & Sons because we had used them before with timely and excellent results. Missy answered the phone and arranged for Gabriel to contact me. He did the hydro jetting that same day, which restored functionality to the sewer system. He recommended the sleeve approach, because roots had clogged the sewer line for the second time in two years. This was done the next day and just required a water shutoff of three hours, during which we ran some errands and had lunch. Very minor disruption. Gabriel and his crew were very professional and highly skilled. Missy, who handled the coordination in the office, also handled everything in a very courteous and professional way. I would use the company again. I thought the cost might be a little high for this service, but it is probably not far out of line as far as I can tell after comparing various averages online. However, I needed fast, efficient service and was willing to pay for it even if it was a little high (and it may not have been). I don't have a good basis to do a direct apples to apples comparison.

Will did a great job. He was professional and conscientious.

Robert talked us through the whole process. The work was not cheap but, considering he was at our house for most of the day, I'm sure the price was fair.

Very well arrived on time. Work completed, quickly and neatly techs courteous, friendly and professional.

Robert and Joseph performed the service call. They were both professional and efficient. Great representatives of the company.

Frank "the tank" Vega handled himself very professionally and performed quality work while keeping me informed of everything. His expertise and knowledge of plumbing was very impressive. Great job!!!!

Talk about fast service! called Barkers at around 4pm and by 6:30 they were replacing my hot water heater. In fact, the whole job was done within 90 minutes, and for a good price to boot. Frank and Juan were very knowledgeable, friendly and capable. If and when I need plumbing help again in the future, I will call Barkers and ask for them in a heartbeat!

Showed up on time, had equipment, snaked toilet, great job.

Called them Frank and Juan assured when expected. After trying to unblock drain for several hours, they came back the next day, no luck. Had to dig up concrete in driveway, dig 4 feet down to repair drain pipe.