Ernie's Plumbing and Sewer Service - Martinez, California

Justamom84

The women i care for was charged 1,300$ to replace a outside double
Headed spigot. No detailed receipts. They do not disclose how much your materials are. I wouldn't think a standard double headed spigot would cost 1,300$ to replace during the week before 4pm . The senior/disabled women I care for said she will not be using them again. I truly feel horrible that a company would take advantage of anyone but more over the elderly and disabled. Every reputable company I have worked with ALWAYS gives a detailed receipt of work , services and materials used. Unfortunately not this one .

Michell C.

I called with a broken shower head. I was not told there is a $250 charge just for coming out. The website says “Free Estimates.” I would not have had them come out. George replaced the shower head and gave me the Senior discount. Then told me it would be $255! He apologized for having to charge me so much and informed me of the $250 just to show up. I called Ernie’s and was told that I was told of the $250 fee. He said they record their calls and I said “Wonderful! Listen to the call.” He refused. The call got “ disconnected” when I called back no one answered. I feel totally taken advantage of. New shower head cost me $255. Took less than 30 minutes. 😫

Danny N.

Unprofessional as it gets, this company won’t do a good job, and will most likely damage your plumbing and charge you to fix it. Don’t trust them to do any work! Management is a disaster and tries to dodge and avoid you if you raise any concerns with their work. Literally getting ready to enter litigation with this company.

Minerva C.

My husband and I lived in our home in Martinez for 30 years, my husband did all the work here, we seldom had to call anyone, he passed away 7 months ago. I had a slow running shower, I tried drain cleaner, nothing worked, if my husband was here , he would have had it cleared in 15 minutes, so I called Ernie's. The techs arrived the next day, one of them looked very grumpy he's name was George. All he said to me was where's the drain, I first showed him where it was dripping in the garage then took him to my shower. First thing out of his mouth was your floor is crooked, you need a new foundation, I told him it was an old home, we're used to it, I laughed, he just stared at me. Then he says your pipe is rusty, I have to do this from the garage, he huffed by me on the way downstairs. I could hear him swearing obscenities, talking about the plumbers tape my husband had used and how much of it he saw, then I heard these 3 large bangs, that's when I started debating if I should tell him to leave, he then showed up at my back door saying I have to show you something, where I had one leak had turned into 6!, water was dripping from everywhere!, he then told me he had ruined his snake I guess that was the huge bangs I had heard. I was furious, listening to the swearing, he's attitude, he's complaining I took it as a personal attack on my husbands memory and I started yelling at him, I told him how I felt, and told him to get out of my house!. I called the owner who immediately sent two other guys to finish the job. I have never been treated like this he was horrible. The techs completed the job after an additional $500.00 charge for a pipe, for a total of $3,500.00, they replaced some pipes and my sewer pipe, I have since heard that this was pretty high. One more thing, I needed to have sub floor work done, because the toilet had rotted the floor at the back, I also had a new toilet installed, when they were preparing to install the toilet, they said Ernie's had used the wrong sewer pipe, it was too short, he went down to Ace, purchased the correct size which he showed me, and installed the toilet, he told me the shorter pipe would've cause problems down the road, I will never go back to them.

Kathy A.

I thought I should weigh in why we will always use Ernie's Plumbing.

My husband passed away after a five year illness that slowly got worse over time. We had two children that were 3 and 5 when he got sick and they were 8 and 10 when my husband passed.

My husband was a well known person and we expected a lot of people at the service. All of these people were invited to our home after the service.

One day before the service, sewage backed up through every pipe that had an opening. So the tubs, toilets, sinks, the washing machine all backed up with large quantities of sewage.

I contacted Ernie's for help. We had used them before and we always had good service with attention to detail. They came in the middle of the afternoon to figure out why we had sewage everywhere.

The man that we bought our house from did all of his own repairs and installations. We had had other issues that had to be fixed because the work done by the previous owner that didn't know what he was doing.

The plumber that came from Ernie's checked to see why we had sewage backing up. What he found was that when the previous owner had installed the large sewage line that ran the length of the house, he used two pieces of pipe. The plumber told me that a single pipe should be used. The previous owner glued the ends together and put little blocks of wood under the pipe to keep it straight. The wooden blocks had given way and the pipe pieces came apart which caused raw sewage to form a pool under our house and caused the backup.

I was frantic. I was expecting over 100 people to come to our home after the service and we had no working bathrooms and there was sewage backed up everywhere it could.

It was getting late in the day when this happened and Ernie's sent a plumber over immediately once I explained the circumstances. After investigating the problem, the plumber told me that the only way to fix it was to replace the sewage pipe with a new one that was all one piece. The price he quoted me was reasonable and I wasn't charged for the emergency.

More plumbers showed up with the pipe. It was after 5:00 p.m. when they started the installation of the new pipe. They were here all night installing the new pipe. By morning it was in place and everything was working perfectly.

We cleaned and disinfected every outlet that the sewage came up from. By midmorning everything was clean and functioning.

This is why I will never use any other plumbers. The ones I've dealt with with Ernie's have all been highly trained professionals that knew what they were doing.

Karen H.

I had backed up plumbing on a Sunday morning. I called dispatch and George was at my house within 45 minutes. He was kind, respectful, knowledgeable and very efficient. He wa gone within 45 minutes; I felt the price was fair given that it was a Sunday morning. I'll use them again.

Wanderlust2Be

Poor customer service and severely over charged me for services. They do not provide a quote in writing nor give you an itemized invoice. Note that if you agree to a quote they make you pay that quote amount even if it doesn't take them as long as anticipated or parts are at a lower cost than expected.

Matt T.

Had to call Ernie's for an "after hours (5pm)" emergency after my shower faucet broke. The woman that took my call - named Andy - said she could send someone out between 7 - 9. I agreed and then realized that I wasn't aware of the charge for service. The technician that came out named Chris was excellent. He did a good job. Chris informed me that the emergency rate was $298 an hour! RIDICULOUS! I never would've used them at $300 an hour. I called Andy back to see what she could for me and she was AWFUL. She said "It's not up to me to let you know how much it costs - you didn't ask me". Not really the answer or the response that I was hoping for. To me this is VERY shady business practice and just horrible business practice in general. I was encouraged to call the office the next day to speak with Josh, the Manager. While initially apologetic about my bad experience he promised that he would talk to Andy about her professionalism. Well that's great, but does nothing for the price gauging. I told Josh that I was happy to pay but was hopeful that I could pay the regular- non emergency rates. I was told no. Oh by the way, they mark up whatever product you need by 65%. My guy literally drove 2 miles to HD, bought a cartridge, then drove back and charged me 65% more! Josh also informed me that if they gave money back every time someone complained, that they'd be broke. I find that really hard to believe after they just blatantly raked me over the coals. I'm certain that I am not the first that used Ernie's to feel this way. SHADY< SHADY< SHADY, money grubbers that only care about crushing your soul and your bank account. GO ELSEWHERE, you can do better, receive friendlier service, and save money. Unlike Ernie's, that is a winning combination.