Peter Levi Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, Drains

It went very well; the thorough HVAC system checkup revealed some questionable component that were best suggested to be replace with new ones. I am not confident that my HVAC system is set for more that good performance going forward. I appreciated the non-pressured advice and suggestions in coming to my decisions. Thank you, Joaquin Ortiz.

Service plumber arrived on site, on time and was ready to begin. He was friendly and professional. He was fully aware of the problem and what needed to be done. He acquired the necessary parts and changed them accordingly as proficient as possible. Our bathroom sink drain issue was completely resolved and ready. Thank you Eric for a great job!

Punctual and professional. Wonderful company to deal with!

it went well.

I called them and we had an appointment on a Saturday between 9:30 and 11:00 but they told us he would be here at 9:00 so we waited and waited and it was ten minutes to 11:00 and I called them and asked where they were and she asked for my number and said a rep. would call right away but nobody ever called so we gave up at noon. I called them back  on Monday and the manager said he'd do it for free and come out next the Saturday and they never showed up and didn't call.

He did a fantastic job he answered all my questions and told me if I have any questions that I could always call him.

I cut my losses and paid the $49.00 dispatch fee and found a reasonable plumber who finished the job to my satisfaction.

This is the short version, believe it or not. I went with Peter Levi before joining Angies List, on the recommendation of the city builiding official. That seemed like a reasonable thing at the time, but never again. (Plus the official has since retired.)
Levi quoted me a high but not exorbitant price to replace two toilets and the water heater at my house. The toilets went in fine and to Levi's credit, I haven't had any issues with them.
The water heater was a different matter. Again, to Levi's credit, it heats water and doesn't leak. But the quality of the installation was marginal, and the attitude of the workers, all the way up to Mr. Levi himself, was lousy.
 
Here's a quote from the supervisor's email to me: "The plumber who will be doing your job is named John Brabo. He has been with us for over 5 years and does a really great job." Not.
One of my criteria was saving energy, and part of the high cost of the water heater was due to its energy efficiency. But John left big gaps in the code-required hot water pipe insulation - so the water heater ended up losing a lot of heat to the air in the closet and under the stairs, which are both exposed to the outside. Plus the piping looked like a pretzel - nothing like what a pro would do. 
I had John and another Levi plumber come back a couple times to take care of things like the one section of insulation he did install that was too close to the exhaust stack and melted onto the top of the water heater. Plus the unsupported gas line that the inspector found hanging in the air.
 
By the way, Levi's people were conveniently not available when the inspector came to review the job. But the plumbers had no problem going off on me when I pointed out the problems that the inspector had identified. I didn't bother to tell them that the inspector's boss had referred me to Levi in the first place. I think one of them would have swung at me.
One more item - it's common now to add something called an expansion tank to water heaters, to protect them from pressure in the water system. I didn't think much about the one that Levi included in the project, but I did notice that there was a time lag in getting hot water upstairs with the new water heater, something that didn't happen before. It took several years to figure this out, but John had installed the expansion tank on the wrong pipe, and it was acting like a big radiator, cooling down the hot water on its way to the bathroom. By that time the installation warrantee had lapsed, and Levi offered to come out at a slightly reduced hourly rate to make it right.
But I had no interest in letting any of their people into my house again. I hired another plumber to replumb the expansion tank.

sening

The water heater repair was $400 and they wanted to charge us the $300 for the bathroom leak, but we told them it was ridiculous because the guy was only here for 5 minutes. They ended up crediting us some money back so they handled that really well. Less than 2 days later the water heater broke. They did not send out the same guy. They guy they sent out was really great, he walked us through every minute and dime he spent. He told us not to worry and that we were getting our money's worth. We've used them many times over the last 7 years. Once it was Christmas Eve and the hot water heater was having problems and they came out and repaired it for free. Then there was another time that I needd a $6,000 repair and I didn't have time to get estimates, but I trusted their work. The work has been quality, I think in the future with them I will ask them upfront for an assessment and not pay them until they start doing the work.

When reinstalling the toilet, they seated it and it leaked on and under my floors. I called to have them fix it but they blamed it on my toilet and talked me into spending $700 to put in a new one. They seated this one wrong too so it continued to leak. It was finally fixed on their third visit when a new tech came out - he was obviously was the only on there who knew what he was doing. The floor was ruined and had to be replaced but they took no responsibility at all so it was at my expense.

See above for a complete description.

HE IS VERY EXPENSIVE, BUT DOES GOOD WORK. COMES OUT WHEN I CALL, AND GETS THE WORK DONE. DOESN'T MAKE A MESS. HE INSTALLED NEW TOILET AND SINK, DID GOOD WORK.