B J Genz Plumbing LLC

unknown

BJ Genz no longer in business.

The work date is a guess because it was a while ago. I have been in Hawaii all my life.  At one time, BJ Genz was considered a good company.   I made a mistake of hiring them after that time was over.  They sent a "plumber" to my home, who was probably not a licensed plumber.  He was probably an apprentice.  My experience is, don't let an apprentice plumber work on your home unless the licensed plumber is working with him and supervising.  A lot of these large companies have apprentices that they send out, and you don't want it.   He was supposed to fix the faucets on the bathroom sink.  He put one of them on the wrong way, so it always felt like you were turning it on when you were turning it off.  He also cracked the sink with his wrench.  He never said anything about it.  I heard a crack and discovered it later.  Still later I realized that one of the faucets was on the wrong way.  What kills me is, he was friendly and polite.     I was dealing with severe health problems at the time and didn't follow up, but everyday I get to look at the sink and remember BJ Genz.  I did eventually have the faucet put on the right way after it caused some problems, as something like that is wont to do.   If BJ Genz wants to pay to have my sink replaced they are welcome to, but it would be done by someone else.  This is my recommendation: Get a licensed plumber to actually do the work.  Check with the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, and the BBB for complaints, and ask for three references.  You can get the name of the owner of the company from the BBB and check the DCCA database for complaints against the person as well as the company name.  If you have the time and the skills you can even check court records for lawsuits.  Ask people you know for recommendations for plumbers, especially people with well-kept homes.  Ask your building manager but still check the person out yourself.  I got a questionable recommendation from my manager, although in the past I've gotten good ones.  Good plumbers tend to be busy, and some licensed, accredited plumbers don't even have listed phone numbers now.  Watch out for big companies with big ads.  They aren't all bad, but this is a word of mouth town.  Ask around. I've researched it, and what it is, is, it takes five years night and day to train to be a licensed plumber.  They work in the field as "apprentices" during the day and hopefully, take classes at night.  That is a huge commitment.  Not that many people are making it through to be licensed, competent plumbers.  So there's a lot of apprentices out there, and that could mean anything from someone who is on the verge of being licensed to someone on their first month on the job.  I'm told that a lot of them are untrained people right out of the military.  Even though the company is "licensed" because the owner has a license, all or most of the people who do the work may not be.  We really need a shorter licensing program for plumbing repair.  Another issue is elderly plumbers may have some problems from the toxic exposures they get with the lead, and solder and the chemicals.  If the person is elderly, they may be fine but watch to see if they are still doing o.k.    Just my opinion.

Nothing happened because this company did not answer my phone call nor did they return my call after leaving a message.

I later learned that WingTite Co. manufatures a drain for exactly this problem. WingTite's drain can be installed without removing existing shower(cost $80).. Genz claimed ignorance of this product, yet Wingtite is large well-known plumbing supplier easy to find on internet. Furthermore, internet how-to sites suggest drilling a few small holes in shower base around drain, injecting caulk or exppanding space filler (cost $4.00) as first solution to leaking drain. Genz never mentioned this solution. I feel taken in by Genz.