ANJ Plumbing

Jose graciously repaired our loose toilet seat, and when he saw we were having trouble with our garage door, he stayed an extra hour and fixed it at no charge! His work is clean, he arrives on time and he is very reliable. Highly recommend!

BE AWARE:  This company DOES NOT have insurance as it states on it's website and here on Angie's List. Damage now and attempting to get repairs done. ANJ HAS NO INSURANCE!

We first had a problem on Saturday when the toilet in the downstairs bathroom was backing up.  I tried plunging and that didn't help.  On Sunday I went online and researched the problem and decided on purchasing a closet auger.  Utilizing this tool didn't find fix the problem either, so I decided to call ANJ, who I had used previously.  They had done a decent job on replacing a gate valve for the whole house water shutoff with a ball valve.
It was early to mid-afternoon on Sunday when I called, and Jose said he wouldn't be able to come out until the next morning, first thing, at 8AM.  I said that was fine, we'd just use the plumbing minimally until then.
A little after 8, someone showed up to snake the drain.  He was apparently subcontracted by Jose for rooting work.  I was not told that a sub would come out to do this.  He did his work promptly, utilizing the clean out in the rear of the house outside of the kitchen, since he said the clean out in the driveway was too small for his snake.  He ran into a problem where the snake wouldn't go further, and it was hitting something that probably wasn't a clog.  Pulling the snake out revealed one of the blades to be somewhat bent, and dinged up.  He said that he suspected a problem with perhaps the line being broken, but we wouldn't know more until Jose came out with the camera/locator to see where the problem was exactly.  I had expected Jose to be at my house by this point.  I thought I had been told he'd arrive by 9, but it was 9:30 or 10 when he arrived.  In the meantime, his sub had given me his own business card and asked me not to tell Jose, that I could call him direct for future simple plumbing work and save some money.  This was definitely shady.
When Jose arrived, they went to hook up the monitor for viewing the problem and when it was turned on and the camera was in the pipe, something shorted and fried the monitor.  Jose said the likely cause was that the ground wire from my electrical box was not fully secured to the copper pipe where it was attached.  He'd need to have another monitor brought in from his office, and he'd be back in less than an hour to finish this part of the job.  Before he left, he made sure the ground was tightly connected.
Two hours later, new equipment arrived.  They sent the locator through the line, and found the problem was indeed under the driveway where that smaller cleanout was installed.  He told me it was most likely that the connection there was no longer sound, and that they would need to dig up and replace it for a cost of $2500.  The job would take about 6 hours, so he wouldn't be able to get it done today, but would come out tomorrow first thing at 8AM to do the job.  It was around 12:30 by this time, so I could see why the work couldn't be started at that time on Monday, but was disappointed with all the lack of punctuality that led to this point.  I agreed to the work and put $1000 down with a check, with the balance due when the work was complete.  He told me they would also patch the hole in the driveway as part of the included cost, but my wife was concerned about the patch not matching the existing installation, and asked that it be left alone and that we would find someone to patch it on our own.
Everyone left the job site and Jose told me to use the plumbing in the house as little as possible.  My family members still needed to of course use the bathrooms, but he said this would be fine as long as we limited the use, since the downstairs toilet would slowly drain back down over an hour or two.  Several hours later, a family member used the upstairs toilet, and I heard a peculiar sound in the backyard.  Nobody had replaced the cap on the clean out at the rear of the house when they left, nor did anyone tell me about this.  I had human feces and toilet paper all over my back patio that needed to be cleaned up.
Two employees came promptly at 8AM the next day, but Jose was not at the job, nor did he follow-up with me on the work that was done.  The work was finished by around 11:30, so the guys made quick work of it, however, the work itself was sloppy and created far more mess than there should have been.  Since the hole was only about 2 feet from my garage door, I asked if I could close the garage before they started the work, in case there was a mess from cutting the hole.  (I had opened the door to provide an outlet to plug in their tools.)  They told me it wouldn't be necessary, the mess would all be contained.  However, after they were finished, I noticed there were concrete spatters on items in my garage and on my wife's van, 6 to 8 feet away.  I easily could have prevented the former by closing the garage door and still having the power cord run out underneath, and I would have moved my wife's van had I known it was too close.  Fortunately, the van cleaned up rather easily.  Cleaning the spatter off of the array of items on a shelf in my garage, my air compressor, my hand truck, etc. was a different story.
That wasn't entirely unprofessional of them, but I feel it should have been anticipated and could have been prevented.  What I considered unprofessional was the following.  First, they used several of my hand tools that were located at the front of the garage, without my permission.  This included my shovel, my sledgehammer and my push broom.  They had to clean off the shovel and broom before returning them, but they didn't do a good job of it.  The sledgehammer was not cleaned, and had concrete/mud material up and down the handle.  They put trash from their job in a small trash can in my garage which caused the whole garage to smell.  Empty energy drink cans and water bottles were left on the shelf in my garage rather than being properly disposed of or taken from the job site.  There was still a lot of mud, debris and concrete pieces around the area they had worked on after they hosed down and swept (I ended up going over it myself to clean it up better).  Muddy bootprints were in my garage from where they had walked to the door leading to the house to let me know they had to pick up a part in the middle of the job.
The final work was done quickly, but it would seem, somewhat hastily.  They kept the square cut hole small in the driveway, dug down about 3 to 4 feet to remove the old failed pipe (which was apparently some sort of heavy duty cardboard?), replaced it with new plastic and a larger clean out access.  From what I saw online, the price was not unreasonable, though it still felt a bit high to me.  For that price, however, I would have expected more professionalism in how the mess was contained and the cleanup afterward.  And I would have thought I'd see or hear from Jose again.

I have an older house and sewers are high maintenance. Each time they have come when I've had drains backing up and need to be snaked out. Both time they are here when they say they will be and get the job done quickly and neatly. They are clean, professional and easy to deal with.  I will use them again  and believe they would be good for larger or more complex work as well

Jose is quick to respond and very thorough and honest with his work and opinion. He shows and explains everything that is needed to be done and the steps along the way. Highly recommend.

The owner came out and was terrific!  He descaled and serviced the tankless heater, explained exactly what he was doing and why and made some recommendations about  use.  He also went out--twice--to find the right size filter to place in the attached water filtering system because he didn't have the correct one in stock.  He was very knowledgeable, and I trusted him much more than the last group that did the servicing.  He pointed out they said they changed the filter last time (and charged me for it), but the filter was so bad, it couldn't have been changed just a year ago.

On 7/27/12 I had found a plumber through Angie's List and set up an appointment to have a shower drain snaked and cleaned. That plumber showed up four hours later - with no equipment on his truck to do the needful - to my great surprise.
Angie's List promptly issued a refund - which was very professional of them.
They sent me several other plumber referrals - but all of those estimates were more than double the price that AnJ charged me - although I did not know that at the time. Those other companies were larger - and I only spoke to an operator - not to the owner. I am surprised that Angie's List did not include AnJ in the list of referrals they sent me.
I had heard of AnJ from another online email newsletter. I did not know he was also on Angie's List.
I spoke to Jose Gonzalez directly - and set up a time for him to come over. He was about an hour late - understandable for an owner who deals with every job personally. He even had shoe covers - it is amazing how many plumbers do not bring shoe covers! He got the drain cleaned in less than ten minutes. I will definitely use him in future.
He does not accept checks or credit cards - only cash payments - but since his prices are so low - that is not a huge issue.

The experience was as best as anyone can ask. When Jose shows up he is friendly and helpful. He cleans up after himself and always makes sure the work is complete and fixes the problem as opposed to just puts a band-aid on it. He is always fair with his prices and have never shown up late or not called if something was other than expected.

The bottom-line is that ANJ (Jose Gonzalez) KNOWS plumbing! He showed up on time and in a short period of time was able to give me an estimate for numerous items around the house. He held true to his estimate and completed the work a half-day ahead of schedule. He was professional, clean (used booties to walk around in the house and rags all over to clean up), and thorough in everything that he did. I've got a slightly older home and have had plumbing problems over the years due to old pipes, corrosion, and trees. Jose has fixed years of stress and frustration. I tend to feel a bit of reservation when it comes to bringing skilled services such as plumbers into fix my home due to past horror stories, but I feel as if I finally found a GREAT one and have absolutely no reservation recommending him out to others. Smart Plumber! Professional Service! Phenomenal Value!