I have a Sewer Line Repair and Water Line Replacement Service Contract with HomeServe. After my water line was replaced under that contract in July 2019, there was some major settling in the yard, almost to the point where I thought there would be a sinkhole under the sidewalk. I called HomeServe (who also were great and responsive) who sent out Kramer & Sons to check the area, scope the sewer line to see if that was the issue, and to check to see if a water line leak was the cause. Holly at Kramer and Sons called me back and got things scheduled. She was efficient, knowledgeable, personable and funny! The good kind of funny. :-) She let me know what would happen and when. My scheduled window was 7:30-8:30am. Hurrah for small windows! At 7:28am I got an email letting me know that someone from Kramer & Sons was on their way. There was a live tracker that estimated their arrival time of 7:52am. The tracker seemed a bit off, looking like they were stuck in Springfield (there was bad traffic there), but they made it here by 8:02am. Juan and Reggie showed up and got right to work. After coordinating with HomeServe, they ran a video camera through the sewer line and found that it was not straight -- it had shifted up in one section by 1-2", causing a backup in the line. Additionally they found that the water line replacement backfill had not been done properly and was causing the depressions in my yard and sidewalk. Juan did a great job of walking me through all the issues and they are reporting their findings back to HomeServe. I was thrilled with the work they did and how they did it. Since this work was done under a service contract, I'm not sure how much it would have cost me out of pocket. But their communication and workmanship gave me a lot of trust in Kramer and Sons to the point where I'd call them again for an out-of-pocket job. Several reviews say that their pricing is high. While I can understand that, getting a job done right and well has a lot of value. There's not only the cost of the people who are doing the work, but their knowledge and know-how, the cost of gas and the truck, truck insurance, business and liability insurance, etc. This story sums up my thinking. In the early years of this century (1900s), Charles Steinmetz, a pioneering electrical engineer, was brought to GE's facilities in Schenectady, New York. GE had encountered a performance problem with one of their huge electrical generators and had been absolutely unable to correct it. Steinmetz, a genius in his understanding of electromagnetic phenomena, was brought in as a consultant -- not a very common occurrence in those days, as it would be now. Steinmetz also found the problem difficult to diagnose, but for some days he closeted himself with the generator, its engineering drawings, paper and pencil. At the end of this period, he emerged, confident that he knew how to correct the problem. After he departed, GE's engineers found a large "X" marked with chalk on the side of the generator casing. There also was a note instructing them to cut the casing open at that location and remove so many turns of wire from the stator. The generator would then function properly. And indeed it did. Steinmetz was asked what his fee would be. Having no idea in the world what was appropriate, he replied with the absolutely unheard of answer that his fee was $1000. Stunned, the GE bureaucracy then required him to submit a formally itemized invoice. They soon received it. It included two items: 1. Marking chalk "X" on side of generator: $1. 2. Knowing where to mark chalk "X": $999. Kramer and Sons knows a lot of things about plumbing. You don't. Pay them for their years of experience and good business practices. While it may feel like a lot, even if they fix your problem in 5 minutes, it would take you years to know what to do, what parts to get, and how to repair it properly and meet code, as well as thousands more for the insurance to cover you if you screw it up.