Smithmyer Plumbing & Heating LLC

Faucet installed. Not the solution. Had no other suggestions

unknown

The toilet was leaking and he said he fixed it. Not long after that, it started leaking again. He used the drywall screws to anchor the toilet down, which isn't an acceptable way to fix the problem. I gave him $75 up front to for the work and then charged me extra afterward.

unknown

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I had a couple of plumbing issues come up at once and called this company.  Two plumbers came to the house.  The zone pump was replaced and the furnace works well.  The running toilet only needed a flapper in the bottom of tank and was replaced.  The problem with the new toilet was a sewer smell coming from the base where the toilet meets the tile floor. The new toilet was removed, a  shutoff valve was installed, and they replaced the wax seal. After their repair the toilet was loose to the point it would wobble and the sewer smell remained.  Plumbers were at my house for no more than 6 hours. Shortly after repairs I received a bill in the mail that I will never forget.  I am not the type of person to complain or whine about a bill.  I pay all my bills promptly and timely.  But, when I saw this bill, not only with a comma in the number, but a number 2 to the left of the comma, I was in disbelief.  I looked up part costs on the internet trying to analyze the ludicrous invoice. The invoice was vaguely itemized. The most expensive part was the zone pump which would have cost the plumber's approximately $125.  The hardware for the water shutoff had already been purchased by me.  A toilet wax seal goes for anywhere from $2-$10,  A flapper can be bought for $4-$11.  Using basic math they had no more than $150 in parts invested.  Let's even say my estimate is slightly off, which it isn't, I found the exact part numbers with costs listed online.  Even if the parts costed $300 doing the math  $2200 - $300 = $1900 profit for 6 hours.  I called the company spoke with a female that I believe is the owner's wife to talk about my bill.  I elaborated on the expense of their service and questioned my bill.  I informed her that Smithmyers may be the most expensive plumbers in the area and she clearly and plainly acknowledged they are in the top 3 most expensive plumber's in the Blair County/Altoona area.  With no satisfaction from them it was worth my time, perhaps $1,000 of my time to consult my lawyer.  With the help of my lawyer I was able to get around $600 off of my bill.  DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND STEER CLEAR OF SMITHMYER PLUMBING. They advertise they are a family owned company providing great service.  This couldn't be any further from the truth. 

Repairman was running late and called and said if he came he would be after hours and would have to charge us extra! I called and complained and the owner came and fixed sink and said at no extra charge.  But the bill was very high for such a small problem so I'm not so sure if the price wasn't jacked up.  The owner had to come back the next day, a Saturday, because of a leak but did at no charge and was very nice.

So I called Smithmyer's because there was a service tag on our Heating/AC unit in our new home.  They said our pipes were frozen from the unit working so hard.  They allowed the melted water to run all over our circuit board within the unit, rendering it useless.  They took no responsibility for what their technician allowed to happen and quoted us $850 to fix everything.  Due to this lack of responsibility, I called McAleer's and they came in and fixed EVERYTHING FOR $295.00!!!!  AVOID SMITHMYERS AND THEIR OVERPRICING!!!  I called them to fix my central air and they left my home after breaking my heat!

The "technicians" one of whom was the owners son proceeded to beat on the retaining nut for the element for two hours with hammers, chisels and even had to borrow my tools out of the grarge at one point to try to get it out.  At that point they said they can not work on Kenmore appliances, that they use a special seal and they can not get it loose.  They charged for a service call and left.  The element is so badly damaged that no other plumber wants to touch it (and I cant say i blame them) since they can no nonger test it and have no way to remove it since the nut is so badly damaged.  I called to complain aobut how they treated my Mother in Law and have now been told four different stories as to why they could not get the element removed.  They even refused to refund the service call money telling me I was lucky they did not charge for the two hours of time they spent there destroying the hot water heater.  The only fix offered was to have a new hot water heater installed for $900 dollars!!  At Lowes they cost $200, but they will only install their brand of hot water heaters which I am sure they buy wholesale for less than that and bank $700 for a simple job. I was told that the owner would be calling me and he never did I had to chase him down this morning to discuss this with him.  He told me he was going to call the local Sears repairman for advice on what to do!!  I dont know how he can even call himself a plumber after the way this job was handled.  NEVER AGAIN!!

The whole procedure took about an hour and went very well.

They have been our plumbers for about 30 years. They are pretty reliable but have some younger kids that are not as good as the parents were but the base kids are really good; I don't know if some of the newer ones are students or something. I will use them again in the future.

They are kind, considerate and very professional.

It is nice to have an honest plumber. I thought I was going to have to get a major rework done but he said I only had something caught in the pipe and he fixed it.  He didn’t charge me an arm and a leg. He said he was just going to charge me for the house call even though he had to bring in the snake and use it. I thought he would have charged me extra because they were here for about half an hour. I would definitely use him again. I have two little dogs that are yappy and I apologized that they were barking because they were excited. They said that was fine and started petting my dogs, which was nice.