I hired Anacapa Plumbing for a residential plumbing project at my property, and unfortunately my…read moreexperience was very disappointing in the areas of management, scheduling, communication, and billing.
To start, the work was scheduled to begin on a Monday between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. I already was not thrilled with such a large arrival window, but I accepted it. What was not acceptable was that no one showed up and no one called. I rearranged my morning and ended up being late to my own job for no reason.
There were also repeated communication failures during the project. At one point, I was told the water would be shut off on a Monday, so I had my renters make plans to be away so they would not be inconvenienced by having no water. Monday came and went, and the water was never shut off. Apparently their plans had changed, but no one communicated that to us.
When they finally did shut the water off, it was handled in a way that created a completely unnecessary burden. On one occasion, the guest house was without water all day and overnight. On a different day, the main house was also without water all day and overnight. In my opinion, this was avoidable. I had already run the main line to both houses. They only needed to run piping from those lines to the water heaters. That work should have been staged so everything else was prepped first, with the final tie-ins done once the glue had cured, keeping the water interruption to maybe an hour or two. Instead, two families were significantly inconvenienced, and the attitude I got was that this was standard and no big deal.
Another issue was professionalism on site. One of the workers was loudly yelling and swearing in the crawlspace, including repeated profanity. This was not a vacant construction site. This is a home where people live. I was grateful my wife and kids were not around to hear it.
After the plumbing work was completed, I finished enclosing the relocated washer and dryer area by framing, insulating, and drywalling the space. When I finally hooked up the machines and ran a load of laundry, the room flooded because water backed up and poured out of the in-wall washing machine drain. I called Anacapa Plumbing, and since this happened just a couple of days after they finished the job, I expected a prompt and professional response. I was told someone would come that afternoon. No one came. Then I was told they would send someone the next day. A plumber eventually came while I was at work, stayed about an hour, and left without any communication. Hours later, I still had no idea whether the problem had been fixed or whether it was safe to use the washing machine. I had to call and leave a message to find out. Later I was told it was okay to use, followed by a $270 bill for that visit.
The billing was another major issue. The original estimate was around $15,000. The final bill came in at about $20,000, plus the additional $270. That is roughly a 25% increase with no meaningful communication, warning, or explanation during the job. In fairness, I did add a small amount to the scope by having them run about 25 feet of hot and cold PEX with two shutoff valves, but I do not believe that justifies an extra $5,000.
For context, I am a General Contractor and have been for 18 years. I often try out subcontractors on my own properties before using them on residential client projects. Anacapa Plumbing was one of several companies recommended to me locally. Based on this experience, I would not use them again, and I would not recommend them to others.
P.S. Thorn was nice and a good worker.
