If you're thinking about hiring Christati Plumbing, think again.
I reached out via Yelp to Christati Plumbing because they (and I) are located in Valley Center. I always like to hire local/support small businesses when I can. Christian responded quickly, and we were able to set up an appointment for between 10am-12pm on 08/12/25. He told me that they would call me 30 minutes prior to arrival, and as promised, the technician called 30 minutes before arriving.
The technician spent a while trying to troubleshoot the issue (hot water turning cold/water pressure dropping). He checked both showers (where we experience the most issues), one of the bathroom sinks, and the kitchen sink. He determined that a sensor on the hot water heater had gone bad, but he stated that the water heater had a 5 year warranty - meaning the part would be replaced for free. He attempted to call the water heater company, but was on hold for a long time. Finally, he hung up with them and told me that they were going to call them back at a later time when they weren't so busy to order the replacement part, rather than wait around on the phone for an unknown amount of time. At that point he left.
On 08/24, after nearly 2 weeks of silence, I texted the technician on the phone number that he called me from to check on the status of the replacement part. No response. This morning, I called the technician on the phone number that he called me from. No answer. At that point, I decided to reach back out to Christian in the Yelp messages that we had scheduled the appointment on.
When I let Christian know that I had texted/called the technician directly, he was obviously very upset that I had broken the unwritten rule of directly contacting the last person that I had been dealing with. He told me that he that he was not aware that there was any communication between myself and his technician (there wasn't any - since he didn't reply to my text or answer/return my call). Rather than answer my question regarding the status of the replacement part, Christian decided to scold me for contacting the technician directly, and refused to accept any responsibility for the lack of communication these past couple of weeks. He offered to send out another technician multiple times, and I still don't understand why. If the first technician was able to determine the issue and they were supposed to order the replacement part, why would I need another technician to come out and tell me the same thing? That makes me feel like he didn't trust the first technician's diagnosis. I tried numerous times to get an answer out of him regarding the replacement part, but he was clearly having a hard time understanding the question. After he repetitively offered the same solution, I asked him for a yes/no answer if they ordered the part and what good sending a new technician would do. I figured that if he was unable to answer those simple questions, he clearly had no interest in resolving my problem - and I was right. Christian wasn't able to mentally process my questions, so at that point I decided to find another, more capable plumbing company (Mauzy). Not only were they able to come out the same day, did a much lengthier investigation, and determined that the issue had nothing to do with the water heater whatsoever.
I see that Christani Plumbing has a lot of 5 star reviews, and I really have to wonder if these ratings were paid for or made by friends and family. If you look closely at the 1 star reviews, you'll see situations similar to mine, except for one instance where he rectified the situation. In this circumstance, the updated review states "Apparently there was a break down in communication between the technician who we initially dealt with and Chris". It sounds like there was also a breakdown in communication between the technician that I dealt with and Christian, but this time his resolution was to argue and not take responsibility.
Edit: As you can see from Christian's reply below, he still refuses to accept responsibility for his/his company's poor communication and customer service - despite the photographic evidence. He has called my wife and myself liars for leaving honest reviews of our experience with his company, and somehow thinks that reporting our reviews to Yelp is going to get them removed. Please use Christian's continued unprofessionalism as further reasoning to choose literally any other plumbing company. If you do choose Christati Plumbing, prepare to be disappointed. read more