Strand Brothers Service Experts

Last fall I used a Groupon type coupon to try out the services of Christian Brothers Plumbing. A fellow named Randy showed up and I was very impressed with him. One thing he mentioned was that my water heater was old and out of code. So when the company sent me a coupon for $50 off services, I decided to have the work done. The company has changed names to Church Services and was advertising that fact. I had called the week before to schedule the appointment, specifically asking that Randy do the work. The scheduler was very nice, professional and accommodating. Rand showed up on time and spent the next 7 hours doing the work along with a helper who brought out the new water heater and some parts that were needed. Randy went twice to a hardware store to get other parts that were needed for my particular job. The whole time he always was polite, answered all my questions with all the information I needed to make decisions, was honest, professional and friendly. I totally trusted him all the way through the job. He went out of his way to accommodate a special instillation request. Once the job was completed, he spent time telling me again what all he did to bring it up to code and how the water heater settings could be changed and how to light it again if needed. Church Services Plumbing will get my future business as long as Randy is employed as one of their plumbers. I highly recommend this company and Randy the plumber.

I purchased the unit through a Costco deal. I guess the price was fine...I trust Costco to recommend services. The salesman was fine, the two fellows who actually installed the unit were fantastic and the two young men who took care of the attic installation were nice and did a good job. The gentleman who brought the City of Austin inspector was very nice and so was the inspector. The problem came when the first followup to the installation was preformed. The fellow who showed up was unbelievably arrogant and rude. I had asked him about how the thermostat worked since I had had trouble understanding how to set it. When I complained to the company through a message on this site, no one ever replied. I thought I'd do a private message to the company rather than complaining publicly since the rest of the job went well. The second service check up was done be a very nice, polite and professional fellow. I probably won't use the company again since I don't intend to be replacing my HVAC anytime soon and I don't believe in spending around a hundred dollars a year for checking up on a new unit for at least 6 years. I'd also worry about running into that rude service tech again.

Very professional, did a good job cleaning both units.

They arrived on time and finished early with no mess. Perfect execution.

It's hard to be sure. Our system seems fine, but then it was fine before they came out. I can't verify what work they did, and it was never explained to me so overall I'd have to say it went okay, I guess but I wouldn't necessarily recommend them.

Everything went well, and I was treated fine. I wasn't wowed but they did a good job.

I purchased a big deal. They came when they were supposed to do. They did a reasonable job. The work actually required a lot of skill. They spent the whole two hours doing the job. They were prompt. The guy was professional. The price was reasonable and did a good job.

Everything was done on time and in good order.

Had them out for seasonal maintenance, had a small leak & system froze up. They performed the maintenance & filled up the freon. Quick response time.

The plumber was friendly and punctual, but he acted nervous. He told me it would take him 7 hours to do this job, and quoted me a price of ~$1500!! He apologized profusely and acted embarrassed by the price. He said that's their standard fee for that service, which is probably typically used by people after installing new granite. I was floored. Iwas prepared to spend $500, but that's crazy. A few months later, my husband did it in about 3 hours, for free. They can keep the $50 I donated to them, because I can't afford their services!

had to keep reminding them abou8t work that was quoted

I would definitely do business with this company again, and have a couple of times. They are responsive, punctual and did the service repair we needed. Moreover, their manager was super helpful and responsive when we ran into a problem with our condo association contesting a repair problem we felt they should have covered. I believe the manager was named Joel, and he went to great lengths to describe in writing the extent of the repair so we could show it to the association. That locked in our business forever. We purchased a maintenance contract from them to defray the cost of the visit and this is where I wish it could be different. In fairness, it could well be that all companies handle their maintenance contracts this way. We bought it I believe in May of last year, not knowing at the time that we would move in August. When it was time to perform a service using the contract we were told we couldn't use it at a different address and we couldn't allow the new owners to use it either. So basically, no one got to use it at all. It's annoying when I keep receiving the reminders to call them to use it but I know it's just an autoreply function sending the reminder!

The woman answering the phone failed to change the phone number I gave her and I missed a Friday call having to wait the weekend before service was done late Monday afternoon. When plumber arrived only a setting change was needed. It took him 5 minutes and he said the least he could charge for any service was $100. He had a chart to be followed.

Very professional, on time and prepared to do all the work

The air conditioner needed a coil replaced (I found this out last year when I bought a Christian brothers deal for an air conditioner check and 2 units of freon). The coil was replaced and cost less than I expected it to. The technician explained that I had lost 3 units of freon since last year so a new coil was needed. The technician checked the unit outside and the drain pipe as well. He made sure that the unit was operating and cooling effectively before he left. I could feel the difference in the air temperature after the work was done. I had called the plumber for two reasons: one of my showers had as much water coming out of the bath spout as was coming out of the shower head. I also had previously had a leak from the pipe that feeds the ice maker of a refrigerator. At the time, the pipe was sautered shut and capped since I did not need to use that pipe. The plumber explained that with a house as old as mine (35+ years), the seals were made of brass which became impossible to tighten, but he worked hard anyway to make sure that the water flow was less, even going to Home Depot to find a different seal. It works much better now and the water flow is much less. I had also asked about my "squirter" in my kitchen sink. I wouldn't stop squirting when I used it, so of course I couldn't use it. While he was at Home Depot, he checked and saw that they had replacement parts for the squirter. He told me how to take the top part off so that I could take it with me and get the right one. He also drained my water heater and showed me how to do it. I feel I got more than my money's worth.

I called the office to have them call the renters to schedule the appointment. I gave them specific details and requirements of what I wanted. I was having 2 units checked and wanted it reported it back to me. The appointment was scheduled and the man came out . I talked to the renter and found out that only one system was checked. I called back Christian Brothers and after several minutes it was found out what led to them having only one unit checked. It was their mistake. I asked them to come back and check the 2nd unit. By this time it was September. He came out and found a problem with the 2nd unit. He made it work but told me I had to decide on how I wanted to fix it. He gave me the cost to fix it. I called Christian Brothers back and asked them to give me an estimate on a new unit. I never heard from them again. I got estimates from 3 other companies and went with another company.

I don't remember exactly because it took place not too long after my husband died, and that time is pretty much a blur. I remember that he was professional, did the work, but that is all I can recall.

The repair was completed satisfactorally.

Job had been butchered by the plumber used by remodeling firm. Original plumber did not have correct bathroom vanity drain setup which needed an additional fitting for A/C drain hose. Original plumber fabricated something that leaked immediately. I called Christianson and they came next day. Completely redid drain plumbing and has worked perfectly. I have used Christianson since the early 1980's and have always been totally satisfied with their work and professionalism.

They came out on time did the work for a reasonable price. He took the time to explain why he put in a different kind of valve in the bathroom. I appreciated that. I will definitely use them again.

It was as straightforward as they come. They came on-time and performed a tune-up and inspection of our A/C unit and they were prompt, courteous, and efficient. No complaints whatsoever.

Good experience, the plumber was on-time, professional and thorough. He gave suggestions and recommendations regarding new building code and energy and water cost savings.

I have joined Angie's list because I am now going to get this fixed (I had to save some money), and I want to make sure that I have some information about the company that comes to fix this now. It says that Angie's list puts more weight on jobs with a completion date, but I can't find where to enter the date. A leak in a pipe outside was the reason that I called them. At that time I had them also perform an accumulation of tasks around the house as well. The guy showed up on time, did the work quickly, I was at fault for not standing over him to check the work each minute but...He cut copper pipe and replaced it with pvc, he did not sue a cut off toggle for the pipe he fixed as directed to do, the handle on the toilet stopped working a month after he replaced it -(he did not replace the inner workings of the toilet, I had bought him the new handle and he just put that in-((that is what I wanted him to do, but it needed to work)...same problem when he got there...He replace the tub stopper with a push stopper instead of replacing the system-that was fine and it works well and was a better fix than what I wanted. With the price bid, the biggest item was to remove floor tile in shower (pry it/pop it up) and 2 six inch tiles all around the bottom (12 foot circumference) and replace the pan. I would then get someone to come and replace the tiles. Instead I was told later he actually filled the shower with water, let it sit there for a couple of hours and told me it was leaking. I knew it was leaking because it was a new shower that I had not been able to use for 8 months since I first had the leak, because it was leaking onto a wood floor, and I didn't want to have to replace the whole wood floor. When it had leaked onto the hard wood floor--at that time, I had a plumber come and cut the wall to make sure it wasn't a pipe in the wall...it was diagnosed as a leak in the pan---very easy to see where the corner of the shower leaked onto the floor in the adjacent room, and you could see exactly where it came out. When I questioned them about why I was charged that much for the work and the pan wasn't replaced he said that would be more expensive. I told him it was ridiculous for him to say that filling the shower with water and telling me I had a leak was what I asked him to do since I told him someone had already come out to determine that, showed him the cut in the wall, and the point of the leak on the wood floor. He said that was what it cost to determine there was a leak (that I already told him existed). By thi time I was not getting anywhere. I sent a letter to the office about my problem and the guy came out with his boss; which ended up a discussion between myself and the two of them about how uninformed I was about the cost and labor to replace a pan. I continued to say that it was more ridiculous that they would defend their position by charging me an exhorbant amount for filling the shower when i told them there was a leak and the bid sheet had quoted a price that was reasonable for what I wanted them to do (reasonable = what I knew would be a lot more than I wanted to pay, but within the realm of the industry cost)..I continued to be firm about how ridiculous it would be for me to ask them to come and fill a shower with water to see if there was a leak in the pan when I had showed them that it had already been determined by another plumber that there was a leak in the pan. After some time, even with their banter back and forth about how little I understood what the price of replacing a shower pan would be and me not letting it go, the boss said that since a shower pan should be filled with water and left for 24 hours, (STILL INSISTING THAT WAS WHAT I ASKED THEM TO DO!!!!!!!!!!!!! ABSURD)-=they would take off $600.00 which made it hard to determine what I had paid for what, Because they did not leave a copy of the final break down of the bill I only had the bid sheet with a price that reflected the cost of replacing the pan-even with $600 back, no pan replaced, that means the bottom line was that I paid rip-off prices for the other work. THEN...........I REALIZED THERE WAS NO MISTAKE IN MY SUSPICION THEY WERE DISHONEST when it took 3 phonecalls and a letter to get back the refund they had said they would return-the $600.00 for putting 4 inches of water in a shower for 2 hours and telling me that my shower leaked, something I had told them when they entered the door. It still makes me mad that I was that ripped off for that much money-it happend some time ago, but I just joined to fix this problem. I joined Angie's list because I need to have that job done-it has taken me months to save up the money to do it, and I have to find someone that is honest. When writing this today, I am still shocked that a company can do this and I just had to walk away because I was helpless to really have the situation put right. I understood that fully when the portion of the money they charged me to run water in a shower took so long and so much energy on my part to get back. I was also disappointed that it was a company whose advertisements I'd been hearing for 30 years. Disgraceful.

Was fast but extremely expensive for 12 minutes worth of work.

Overall it was a very good experience. Everyone I dealt with from the scheduling of the appointment to the technician was professional and friendly. Glen (the tech) was very nice, punctual and explained everything about the repair very clearly. He went out of his way to help us save money including finding out our compressor coil was still in warranty. I highly recommend this company and Glen.