Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning and Electrical

Very professional. Have had it one year now and love it. Have used Abacus Plumbing for other services and will in the future.

The bathroom had a toilet that would always clog in the most unexpected times, for no reason.. We thought that there was a problem at its sewer line. We didn't know what to do.. We called Abacus and set up an appointment - we were given a day and a window of time. In the day of the appointment, we received a call informing us that the technician was on his way to our house. He arrived on time and he was friendly and courteous. He wore those fabric shoe protections (over his shoes) every time he stepped in the house. The technician tested the toilet - it was an old short one-piece beige model.. And then he tested the sewer line by throwing a 5 gallons bucket of water drain down the toilet. The sewer line handled the water very well, no 'backed ups' this time! The technician was sure that there was no problem with the sewer line and that the problem could be the old toilet.. ?No need to remove the floors to dig underground??, we asked. That was definitely better than we expected! The technician also pointed out that the toilet base was broken.. We asked if he could replace the fixture and he gave us two prices for the installation & material of two different toilet fixtures. We had been dealing with the clogged toilet problem for a while, and Abacus was in our house ready to resolve it for us - that was our lucky day! We accepted one of the estimates, and we gave the technician an ok to proceed. He didn?t have the model we choose on his truck. So he called the main office and another truck brought a brand new fixture to our house, which was installed in our bathroom in less than one hour. No problems since then!

I was an Abacus member for both plumbing and air conditioning. When I scheduled service on my A/C I stayed home for the 4 hour minimum time window they require to show up. One minute after the promised time they called my on my cell phone and said they were on the way and would be there shortly. When I inquired what that meant they said they were on the way. I canceled as Houston is a big city and on the way could be over an hour. I got home today and my air conditioning was not working. I called to get a someone out to fix my air conditioning and the man I was talking to me told me that it would be the 26th of May before they could fit me in. I replied I was a Abacus member and that I was told that they were supposed to come out the same day and he said it was not going to be possible. I then asked for my money back as I had paid for a service where they are supposed to treat you well and make an effort to help you. I did find out from the accounting department that 1/2 of the service technicians are in training and also 1/2 of the accounts are are also in training so they could not give me my money back. Eventually the first accounting person I talked to came back on line when the second accounting person put me on hold and said she was going to refund my yearly service fee. I am not sure if there is someone better, but i suggest trying as the service personnel are not very helpful and seem not to care.

The Abacus workmen were prompt and professional. It took the better part of two days to do the work, which entailed digging a very deep hole to find the the extremely old clay pipe, which was shattered. The workmen replaced the line efficiently. We felt the price for the sewer line was fair. However, a few months later we called Abacus for a routine "running toilet" and was charged $350 for a 15 minute job. We felt this was very high.

Called Abacus to unclog a lavatory in kids bathroom. The technician, Kevin, showed up right on time and just as the customer service call I received in advance of his visit promised. Showed him the problem and he gave me a good estimate and got right to work. I explained to him that I had initially tried to remedy the problem myself and had replaced all of the drain pipes beneath the lavatory. My experience has been that when you tell a technician this, they "roll their eyes" and treat you with some disdain for believing this was something a DIY-er could accomplish. Quite to the contrary with Kevin - he was professional throughout and was a pleasure to work with. Opted to join their "Club" since the age of our home is right at the point where all of our plumbing systems need a thorough inspection and PM. They'll doa top to bottom inspection and generate a checklist of problems or potential problems that we can address at their discounted rate. Very pleased with them and will definitely call them again.

The technician from Abacus arrived on time and was very professional. He was also personable, and answered all my questions I had for him. He was very patient and repeated himself for me, as I was taking very detailed notes. We ended up not buying the house which Abacus gave us an estimate for (the house had so many issues), so I can't speak as to how the work was actually done by Abacus.

They did not work very well. They charged me extra with their work. It was a bad experience. They were not friendly. It was just pure business. I was charged more than what they originally said.

Let me preface this review by saying I do not know how much I spent. The gentleman who performed the trap replacement under my sink did a fine job. Exemplary. He performed his task efficiently, wasting no time. He was punctual and cleaned up nicely. Then he went the extra mile and flushed my hot water heater for free. (He could have charged me for that.) He explained how I could do it myself.

Cancelled due to lack of professionalism. Charing serice charge in additional to repairs is outrageous!

Why did they say that it goes fine at the first appointment after tune up or did they do damage to the part. We never know. If fact, they have two different responses..but I cant prove.. so I moved on with other business and they said different thing. good thing I followed my instinct.

Called the company on a Friday due to a slow kitchen drain with gurgling noises. They were very professional and told me the cost of bringing out the service technician for different time frames. I finally agreed on a Saturday appointment since the problem was not an emergency. Service technician called and arrived promptly. Had trouble finding the outside clean-out connection to the sewer but finally found it under the shrubbery (there was going to another fixed charge - exceeding $300 just to find the clean out port) . Explained that to clean the drain problem he would have to do a rotor service of the main drain and that would be a fixed fee of about $350. I approved this and he proceeded to do a rotor tool cleaning of the main drain even though the reported problem was the kitchen drain. Found minimal pluggage during the cleaning and this cleaning did not help the problem - kitchen drain was still slow as before and gurgling. Informed me that he would then have to do a rotor service of the kitchen drain which would cost another fixed fee of about $350. He did this cleaning and the problem went away immediately. Said he found hair on his tool and that this and bacteria growth was probably the root cause (house is about 7 years old with no previous problems). He recommended an environmental additive to put in the drains that would stop the bacteria growth which I also purchased. Total cost of the service was about $750 for about two hours technician's time (after a Angie's credit for a new customer) of which I think the first $350 was wasted due to his poor trouble-shooting. The company did provide a video inspection of the pipes the Monday following this for no additional cost and found the drains to be fully clean. In essence, I think the "fixed" charges for services are extremely high but the quality of the completed job was good. I expect you can find the same quality of service at a lower price.

Our main water valve stopped working on a Sunday night at 7 PM. I went down the list of Angie's List plumbers and Abacus was one of only three who were responsive and could send someone ASAP. The tech arrived within 45 minutes of our call and fixed the problem quickly. The service call fee for emergency hours was $150 and the cost to replace the valve was around $500. Not sure how that price compares to other companies but we were desperate and they were responsive.

I ended up not using them because I have a shared sewage line with a neighbor, and the city of Houston fixed the issue. However, they were really good at checking up on me and rescheduling our appointments as necessary. They were very understanding.

In our two-story, 40 year-old house, we had galvanized steel pipes that had been leaking often--3 times in the last few months, more times in the last 5 years. Paul, a master plumber from Abacus, was in charge, gave the estimate, and told us to get other companies' bids. Abacus lowered their estimate after that was done. He also supervised and worked on the entire job--whereas other companies would have one person doing the estimate and you would not know who was going to do the job. They replaced all pipes--verticals and horizontal--with PEX, changed all valves on water heater, put insulation around the pipes, etc. They were very neat, trying to reduce the number of holes in the walls and, whenever possible, hiding them inside cabinets. Although some dust and mess is inevitable, they were very professional and cleaned up a lot after each hole. It took about 5 days, although some days were not complete days. We highly recommend them if you have to change all your pipes.

After Service Tech left my house I went to Lowes and bought the needed parts for the repair - $20.00, and also bought a new toilet while I was there. So for around $242.00 I repaired my leaky toilet flange and installed my new toilet. Toilet works perfectly with NO leaks! Abacus is way overpriced for the work that they perform. $450.00 for labor to repair a leaky toilet flange is taking advantage of a customer. Will not do business with them again due to their pricing policy.

It;s done and it looks good, we'll see if it lasts.

I fired them as soon as he started trying to sell me so many additional services at unbelievable prices. We have a perfectly good toilet. Just wanted to adjust the flush (it flushed fine until the toilet was moved for tile work) and to reset the toilet to stop a slight leak after the recent tile work. He wanted to install new flushing mechanism (the current one is 1 year old) and quoted me $400. For replacing the PVC pipe under a bathroom sink that has a small crack, he wanted to charge $250. To pull and reset the toilet, the charge was $350 unless it needed a new rubber gasket, then like $100 for that. on and on,.... We called them for repairs that should have been 10 minutes and $100 and his total price was close to $2000. I like the company's ads (Emigrant, build company from scratch, blah, blah) but I'll never call them again.

I have a toilet that clogs from time to time, and three or four plumbers have looked at it over several years. - I replaced the actual fixture once when another plumbing company recommended it. When I called Abacus, they pulled out their book, that has high prices per job, not pricing by the hour, and recommended ANOTHER new toilet (they said the one I got, that I bought because of a Consumer Reports review, was poor quality) After a visit or two, and a stong-arm push for buying their service plan, they found a break in the sewer line running under my garage. That's where the $8,000+ came in, because I had them replace the line. When the toilet clogged again a couple of months later, Abacus came out again and said there was nothing more they could do, unless perhaps I'd like to purchase a new toilet. Pushy sales tactics, high prices, didn't fix the problem....what's to like? The toilet still clogs from time to time, a snake or a roto-rooter doesn't help for some reason, but if I wait a few weeks, the clog just goes away until another day. Luckily I have another bathroom, and I have just learned to live with it.

Job went quickly. Tech called about 40 minutes prior to arrival. He immediately assessed the situation and explained repair to me. He had all parts in the truck. He explained all fees up front: service call fee, parts, labor, tax. He then explained the Abacus Club, which would require an annual membership fee, would reduce the service fee for this job, reduce repair fee, and provide future membership bonuses such as annual home plumbing systems inspection, members coupons, extended warranty on work, priority scheduling an all jobs. This option would cost me about $40 more than the cost of the repair without the Club membership purchase. I opted for the Abacus Club package for the system check (main sewer and water heater service especially) alone. The repair took about 30 minutes. Tech showed me the work, explained what he did, removed old broken pipe and left no debris. He was very professional, polite, and efficient. The repair has been perfect, and I have not yet used any of my new Club member benefits.

Repairs went well and probably a little under the time line estimated.

First time using this company. Very prompt, efficient, and knowledgeable. I would use them again. Hopefully we won't have to.

Very professional, prompt and helpful.

When I first called to set up an appointment I told them that I was purchasing the home and wanted the whole house thoroughly inspected so I could use any problems found for negotiating the price. I'm not sure why but the plumber they sent out was told that I wanted an estimate for a whole house repiping. When I told him that was not what I was asking for he seemed pretty irritated. At that point I felt that he just wanted to do whatever would get him out of there as quickly as possible. He looked around for just a few minutes and pointed out a couple of items. Then he gave me an estimate for those items...and a whole house repiping. I really didn't feel that he was very thorough. I would have gladly paid more for the service (price was not even mentioned to me beforehand) for a more thorough inspection. I just got a vibe of "this is a waste of my time" from the guy. I have no real idea if he was thorough since I know nothing about plumbing but that vibe would make me go with someone else next time.

Plumber was very nice, did a good job. Continuously attempted to up sell their "club". Price was rather high for ease of job.

After putting up with the smell and mess over the weekend, I called Mike (see separate review) and he came to the rescue within an hour. My perception is that Abacus had little interest in solving my problem.