We have used these guys on and off for close to 30 years. They have always done good work for us…read more They are licensed, bonded and insured, and you can expect that their work will be planned to meet the Building Code and that it will pass inspection by the building inspector. They are based in our hometown and now service virtually all of Long Island and Manhattan with a couple-hundred employees, having grown their business basically-entirely on word-of-mouth, so I find these negative reviews kind of shocking.
However, I also know that there has been a trend in this country in recent years for people to avoid expensive licensed plumbers and instead to hire unlicensed and unqualified handymen to do plumbing work; this is aided by the fact that any moron can glue together pieces of plastic pipe in an arrangement that would appear to the untrained eye to do the trick; unfortunately, very often this work ends up needing to be ripped out when it doesn't function as intended (siphoning traps in fixtures, not draining well, clogging, etc.) because it doesn't meet the building code, which is designed to make sure that things function as intended. Very often, handy-hacks are much less expensive than real plumbers, and very often they end up being expensive because their work isn't good. But sometimes, their work is adequate, and then people get that price point in their head as being reasonable. I can get a guy to try to snake a drain for $49. Sometimes, his work will be good. Sometimes, he will put the snake right through the bend in the pipe, causing all heck to break loose. Will he have insurance and a bond to make the damage he causes right? Probably not, which is why he is less expensive.
I think some of the negative reviews here are based on the feeling that folks got ripped off pricewise. I can say that Maccarone is not inexpensive. But in our experience, they come promptly, they know what they are doing, and they get it fixed right the first time. And their prices are comparable to other licensed, bonded plumbers on Long Island. I will give you three examples. First, this week a sink drain was backing up and leaking from around the trap where the tailpiece of the drain connects to the trap. I needed it done that night, for reasons that are unimportant. I called Maccarone at about 5pm. They explained that they would be happy to come, but that it would be much cheaper to do the work during normal business hours. I needed it and accepted the extra cost. The very nice guy came about 90 minutes later. He meticulously snaked the drain and disassembled the trap and tailpiece. I had pointed out that the trap looked crooked, and he agreed. He showed me how the tailpiece hadn't been cut to size when someone else installed it, so he cut it to the right size and reinstalled everything nice and tight. Leak solved. He also fixed the pop-up drain thingy, which had never worked. He put a piece of paper towel under the drain and tested it for drips. He went downstairs and examined the pipes from below to insure that the leak had stopped and that he hadn't damaged anything while snaking. He wore booties so not to damage our floors in the wet messy weather. He ran the drain a long time to make sure no leaks anywhere. While I went to cut him a significant check, he cleaned up the work area and even wiped down the sink and fixture. Great guy, super-pleasant experience, job done right the first time.
Two years ago, our shower faucets didn't work right. A contractor had said they were not repairable and needed to be replaced, with retiling the wall, etc. Maccarone sent a guy, Jim Brown, who loves to work on old houses and is super-knowledgeable. Long story short, he knew immediately what model of 1950s-era faucets these were, got the replacement internal parts, and made them work like new, accessing the guts of the faucets just by taking off the handles. He gave us all sorts of caveats about what could go wrong when you try to disassemble a faucet this old, not to discourage but just to inform, and also gave us a price on putting in a new single-handle, which he could do without ripping out the tile. We were well-informed, and the price was fair given the amount of work involved and the fact that nobody else wanted to fix them (and probably couldn't even identify the make and model), and the fact that they have run flawlessly for like two years now. I referred Jim to some folks who needed a bunch of repair work done on their Aunt's old house, and they raved about how knowledgeable, nice, and good he was.
Finally, Maccarone came last year within an hour when a pipe froze in the garage, and thawed it out before it burst. Again, it wasn't cheap, but it was knowledgeable, expert service.
