Bonfe

The plumber Brian was great. Customer service reps were kind and polite. This is the reason for two stars. Ultimately, cannot recommend due to unreliable service due to poor communication and follow through. Would otherwise give one star if not for the very pleasant staff. They replaced a toilet. Overpriced even for quality. Bonfe has demonstrated repeated poor communication and unreliability over the past five days. I am a patient and kind person, but unresponsiveness and unreliability make any future Bonfe business a solid no. Find someone local who actually needs your business and is small enough to value their reputation. My five day frustration goes like this: Called on Saturday to schedule appt to get toilet replaced. Scheduled for 7am to 8pm window on Sunday (odd all day window, but OK I guess). Appt confirmed via text that Saturday night. Sunday, no text, no call. No communication of any kind all day. Called them about 7:30pm asking when they were coming as I was waiting all day and it was almost 8pm. Was told my appointment was cancelled but was not given any reason why. Further, I was never notified by any method that my appointment was cancelled. Was not pleased that I sat around all day on a Sunday waiting for a plumber that never came. Reluctantly rescheduled for Tuesday (Monday was a holiday). Was not given a window but told they would try and get me first thing. Received a text confirmation Monday evening that I had appt on Tuesday. Didn't get first thing Tuesday, but did get a call shortly before 9am stating plumber should arrive in the next 30 minutes. Plumber did arrive about an hour later. Plumber was great. Replaced toilet efficiently. Prices pretty steep, but OK to pay it to get it done. Old toilet was left outside of building and I was assured by plumber that someone would come by to pick it up that day. I am in a multiunit building and trash cannot remain outside overnight. Contacted by my management company that toilet was still outside at almost 8pm. Called customer service and honestly it didn't sound like it was anywhere on their radar that someone had to come and pick up the old toilet. They said they had to contact the tech and see what was going on and that they would get back to me. I reiterated that the old toilet cannot be left outside overnight. Called them back after 45 minutes as hadn't received any update yet. Different representative stated that they would have to have dispatch contact me to give me a time and did everything but directly tell me that it wouldn't be picked up that evening. Previous rep called my back after about an hour from when I spoke with her. Told me that it would get picked up the next day. Dispatch would call me to say when they would be on the way. In the meantime, I had to drag the old, dirty toilet into my unit at 9pm. Sent an email to their customer service address that same evening. Summarizing the above and stated that I was providing them the opportunity to convince me that I should not leave a negative review and/or should do business with them again. Received a response from one of the people I spoke to earlier that evening acknowledging that they remembered speaking with me and was asked if I wanted a follow up by a manager. I replied I did. Received a call Wednesday morning that someone should be out shortly to pick up the old toilet. Told them where the person should park and they would have to call me to come in to get it. 90ish minutes later they arrived to pick up the old toilet. The picked it up and were on their way promptly. Very polite. I have received zero communication since they picked up the toilet. It is unfortunate and unacceptable that I have not received any further acknowledgement or communication of any kind. I feel it is completely reasonable that a company would have their manager follow up PROMPTLY (within one business day) with a customer where they have repeatedly dropped the ball. I expect and deserve better. Every customer does.

Fine except it was crazy expensive. They came over as part of their free electrical checkup as part of their home services program I paid on monthly fee for. I was put on the spot to replace one outlet and they charged $488 just to replace one outlet for a GFCI one. It was no more than 20 minutes of work. I quit my membership in their home services program immediately after this was done.

The tech was on time, professional, and friendly. He replaced an inexpensive thermocouple in my water heater that wouldn't stay lit. It took him about 15 min. and the charge was $830. Do the math and figure out what that equivalent hourly rate would be (over $3000/hr.). I felt I was in a bit of a "box" and agreed to the charges prior to him starting the work (my bad!). That is an absolutely ridiculous and exorbitant charge for the amount of work. It didn't cost me that much to have my furnace blower and motor replaced last year with a different company. It took that technician two trips and a much longer time to repair. I certainly wouldn't recommend Bonfe for anything. They have figured out how to take advantage of you.

Caution advised!!! Read this whole review of interested in what you might get yourself into. I have never written an online review before, but felt the need to warn others of this company. A job with them started with a corroded bathtub drain causing backup into the tub. After the problem was identified, the tub drain was replaced. As per the technicians, several other connections to a bathroom sink were not up to code. After extensive and expensive replacement of all these components (thousands of dollars)----I was told a St. Paul city inspection was NOT needed. Red flags already raised?? During this job, a hole was punched into a bedroom closet wall. Immediately after the job, a sewer gas smell emanated from the closet, and the toilet made a gurgling sound when flushed. Turns out a vent connection was all of a sudden loose (likely accidentally caused during repairs). The rest of the closet wall had to be removed and thousands more spent on replacing old venting. Again---I was told a city inspection was not needed. I had to spend $1500 to repair the wall. I had to take it upon myself to call the city. An inspection was ABSOLUTEY necessary. Turns out---Bonfe NEVER EVEN FILED a permit TWICE for these two separate jobs. They were double fined by the city, but can you imagine the problems this could have caused during a future sale of the house? How many other people have not had a proper permit filed or inspection performed? All I got was runaround from this company. They stated their permit coordinator was “too busy.” Her only job….messed up twice. It isn’t like St. Paul is a smaller municipality infrequently dealt with. Several technicians told me no inspection was necessary. So either they truly did not know (even a dumb homeowner like me knows better), are too lazy to care, or are completely negligent. They did not place nail guards over exposed vent pipes. Again, I had to coordinate them placing these----and they tried to charge me a $89 service fee!! No way that was happening. How does a dumb homeowner know these were code and several certified plumbing technicians didn’t??? They damaged the bathroom ceiling and tile accidently cutting into it from above. NO offer to reduce job cost or repairing this damage was made. Stuff happens---I get that----but at least make an offer to discount what it will cost me to repair. When getting the runaround, I asked several times to speak with the owner and was denied. I was told “he does not speak to customers.” That’s how a small local business runs? This isn’t a Fortune 500 company….. They charge SIGNIFICANTLY more than competitors. I was thinking this came with better workmanship and treatment of customers. All I got was apologies. I am a super reasonable and patient person, but even I could not believe how everything went down. None of this is embellished or exaggerated, just documented as it occurred. So------again-----caution advised.

It went very well. The plumber that we had Joe McGuire was very professional, knowledgeable, new exactly what he was doing and what had to be done to fix the problem. We would highly recommend him for your plumbing needs.

The first time they sent a technician and it failed, they sent a plumber and it was good. I signed up for a membership with them to get a free checkup but everything that needs to be done it was expensive. I am cancelling my membership with them the after year is up.

The plumber cut the copper pipe and capped it, not at all what was expected. Charged $297.00 for 10 minutes work. The price quoted was out of line for the work done.

A couple month ago they came out and replace the pipes on my shower because there was a leak. We paid about $900. Yesterday they came back to replace the same thing only on a different bathroom, they charged us $1500. I thought that was really too much but my wife insist on having them fix it. Next time, I'll try someone else t

They showed up to a look at the faucet and said he needed to get the parts to fix it. My wife paid then $450 down. When he came back he put the parts in and she paid the balance of $488. I let her handle it. I didn’t know the cost until after the job was done. This company is ripping people off. I had gotten two other quotes that said it would be between $150 and $450. How can they charge over $900? That more than twice as much as anybody else. We live in a senior condo. They are ripping off seniors

Well you know how it is, when you're married and your husband decided he was going to fix things you just go ahead and let him do it. So he fixed the handles, well he thought he fixed it,:-) anyway I end up calling Bonfe and let them look at the issue, they fixed the problem and was able to keep my secret from my husband. Bonfe was fantastic!

We've used them for about five or six years.