I'm a little surprised Jake's Plumbing has such positive reviews, based on my experience with them…read more My home warranty company assigned them for a job that involved multiple items, most very simple, but two a little more involved.
I'll start by saying a few nice things: Jake's is able to dispatch quickly, and the plumbers they send seem relatively capable, though there is some variation. And both the plumbers and the office staff seem nice.
More challengingly, it took a remarkable number of visits, over many, many months, to complete some fairly straightforward work. I'm lucky I have a job that fairly easily lets me be at home waiting for a contractor if needed; for someone for whom taking time away from work is a bigger deal, this would have been a brutal experience.
And there were a bunch of hiccups, like the wrong parts being ordered, plumbers showing up not prepared to do the job, and a plumber dismantling a shower valve down to the rough-in valve and declaring the job done (surreally, I had to argue with the office that the job was finished when the shower was functional again).
Most challengingly, two valves for a tub needed replacement, because they were leaking and too corroded to replace the cartridges, requiring access through tile. For almost a year, I tried to get a quote for the work, because the home warranty company wouldn't cover tile access. I asked the office repeatedly for a quote. I asked every plumber who came to my house to work on other, simpler parts of the job. And I never got a quote, and I finally just gave up.
The bottom line is that this office seems to struggle to handle even modestly complex jobs. For the simplest jobs, like a toilet that needs to be snaked or a simple leak under a sink, they can dispatch a reasonably capable, friendly plumber quickly. But the wheels seem to come off when things get even modestly complex, like parts having to be ordered.
And I say all that with some regret, because these seem like nice people, and I tried really hard to work with them.
