Review and analyze now for company Central Plumbing & Sewers and provide the analysis in the discussed format for the following reviews: '''Moved into a new house in Alameda and needed to replace the sewer lateral. Paul was prompt in providing the quote, arrived on time for the job and go the work completed on time.
Passed the lateral test first time. Would highly recommend.
This man, Paul Croxton, is one of the nastiest, most hostile people I have ever dealt with. He replaced the sewer laterals in the small apt.
complex where I live in Alameda, and when I tried to ask simple questions, he made a point of making rude personal comments to me, because he has decided that he must never have to answer questions from tenants, evidently. I resorted to asking his employees questions, as several people did, but the language barrier was a problem, and he was angry at them for answering.
We were without sewer access for a couple of weeks, so it was reasonable to ask when we could run water, but no. When I first approached him, he gave me a hard stare as I walked up to him -- I'm an elderly woman, so this was a little weird.
It went downhill from there. It was literally five minutes of his time, but no, he had to be a jerk.
He also did a poor job of planning out the project, then gave us an exaggerated time line to finish, which he later said was a "joke" -- just to jerk us around, evidently. Many thanks to Paul and his crew for the sewer lateral work they did at First Presbyterian Church, Alameda.
Paul came highly recommended, he gave us the lowest quote, and invoiced us for the quoted price despite the job being more time-consuming than he had anticipated. Paul scheduled the work at a time that was most convenient for us, and his crew did a beautiful job repairing the concrete courtyard which had been dug up to access the pipes.
Thank you Central Plumbing! Pastor Cindy. 2-Days ago my sewer lateral failed causing sewage to overflow throughout my yard.
This line was previously repaired by Central Plumbing and only two years later it had burst An emergency plumber came out to address the problem and after they excavated the area they noted Central Plumbing connection was shotty which caused the line to burst. In addition, the Y clean-out which should have been brought up to grade was left uncapped on its side underground.
I spent more on the emergency repair than on the initial work itself. Anyone reading this you've been warned.
Paul was recommended by my property manager for the sewer lateral project. After signing the contract with Paul to begin work, we found out that the project is bigger than expected.
Paul is honest and agrees to the keep price of the contract. Before working, Paul communicated well with my property manager to make sure my tenants are notified and prepare for the temporary unavailability of water draining.
Paul even helped me found the source of a major pipe leak and fix it at half the price of his competitors. The project completed on time with minimum delay.
The only downside that I can think of is that I have difficultly communicating with his employees when Paul is not around because I don't speak Spanish. Overall 5/5, would recommend.
When buying our home in June 2022, we were given a quote for sewer lateral repairs from Central Plumbing and Sewers from the sellers. Paul was very responsive until a deposit was paid for work to be completed.
Multiple appointments were made for assessment and work, and there were multiple missed appointments without communication, ignoring emails, calls, and text messages repeatedly. Multiple reasons were given such as illness, car trouble, and his 50th birthday celebration.
It is now November 2022, and have been forced to find a different contractor in order to have work completed on time by city requirements (180 days from purchase date). Paul has continued to be poorly responsive, with failure to follow-through in return of deposit.
I would not recommend this service. Couldn't be happier with the work performed by Paul and his team.
His prices are reasonable and the work product is excellent. We hired him to replace our sewer lateral and he came through.
He was quick, efficient and professional. I would highly recommend him for any plumbing needs.
They left the yard in such a mess after working on our sewer line that we just hired a crew to fix it. I reached out to them and they promised to fix the mess they left.
We had been putting off having our sewer lateral compliance test completed because we never really understood the process. After calling around for a few quotes, we landed on Central Plumbing because of Paul's friendliness and responsiveness.
We needed a clean-out installed at the street in addition to having the test performed. After signing the initial contract, everything was scheduled and completed so quickly! I would highly recommend Paul and his crew for any plumbing work! Paul was recommended by my agent to complete my sewer lateral.
He showed up when he said he was going to for the estimate, and showed up on the agreed upon start date for the job. The sewer lateral required extra work that was unforeseen, but no big deal on the extra day on my end, and was probably a pain for him and his crew.
I paid what was agreed upon at the estimate, nothing more, nothing less. He also came back to complete the roadwork when the first pass seemed fine.
In my case, Paul completed the work, on time, and at the agreed upon price. You run into a lot of bull and unreliable people during the home buying process, but Paul was great.
Paul has been my plumber for years and I can't say enough good things about him. He is prompt, honest, and fair.
He takes time to explain things and doesn't leave until the job is complete. I've recommended him to many friends and they all have been happy with him.
Being a realtor, I am very careful when it comes to recommending someone, since it reflects on me if it doesn't work out. I don't hesitate to give out Paul's name for any plumbing work.
Carol Bild Paul and his crew came over and did a beautiful job repairing a collapsed drain pipe beneath out slab. On time, fair prices and clean work.
I would highly recommend calling them. They really saved me in a pinch.
Five stars. Paul is great! We've been using him for work related projects and hopefully soon house related projects.
Since it is work related, I have to get 2 other bids in addition to his to present to our clients. He ALWAYS comes in lowest.
He's super quick, doesn't cut corners and always gets the job done right. My neighbor's general contractor hired Central for a Sewer lateral replacement.
I lived 9 months with a street hole in front of my house created by Central Plumbing. F grade work.
When I met him, he was defensive and argumentative just like a narcissist. Late one evening, I saw Central fill the last two inches of the sewer lateral hole with dirt and step on it to compact it and toss on the asphalt.
The asphalt started to sink daily as cars ran over it. The asphalt patch sunk about 1-1/2 inches when the middle thin part was displaced to the dirt.
Then the rains started and the dirt hole got deep enough for me to put in 3 inch cobble and 1-1/2 inch block in another hole. The next spring, after the City called Central, he came out to fix the hole and insinuated it was my fault for not calling him.
Neither the owner nor I knew who did the work. For my lateral replacement, I hired an excellent lateral plumber Challenger Rooter.
Paul and his entire crew were awesome to work with! They were courteous, on time, did a great job and came in lower than competitors. I would highly recommend Central Plumbing and will be using them again for other projects.
I give Paul and his crew 5++ stars. They have done sewer lateral repair work for my clients for a number of years now, but more recently for me.
I am happy to report that he has gone the extra mile to communicate details and execute on doing excellent work. Not sure about these other reviews, but I had a great experience with Paul and his crew.
He was attending to sewer lateral work. Although it had to be done in stages, it was not his fault, and actually his approach was the most reasonable way to do it, since we wanted to not go overboard with replacement until we knew exactly what was needed.
I found Paul attentive and careful in his approach. Here is my story of working with Paul Croxton in 2008 for my house in Berkeley.
I have removed one person's name which was the person who finally fixed what Paul and crew did wrong. Anyone can have a bad day.
Or maybe even a bad year. How do I remember so many details now, 8 years later? Because I wrote this all down at the time.
Take my advice regardless of who is doing your sewer lateral work: Understand how water drains from your house. Then understand how those drains should connect to the street, and make sure your contractor connects all of these properly.
If they miss it, and if the inspector misses it when checking their work (::COUGH!!::) then you'll probably have the giant hassle I had to go through. This is my experience: Approximately December of 2007, I experienced the first of the plumbing problems.
When the washing machine drained, it backed up, flooding the laundry area. I called Roto-Rooter, they came and snaked the pipe.
It cleared the blockage for the time-being. In May of 2008, the same plumbing problem reoccured.
This time I called Pacific Drain and Rooter Service. Nasir from Pacific Drain came to snake the pipe, but was not successful.
He suggested I contact Chris from Chris's Quality Sewer and Drain Service. So I did.
Chris came out and tried to snake the pipe. His snake got caught on whatever was clogging the pipe, and he could not get it out.
He had to cut part of my drain pipe underneath the house in order to salvage most of his snake. He was not happy...
At that point under the house, we could not tell if the "clog" was inside the foundation, or just on the other side of it, outside the foundation. Chris recommended I call XXX YYYY of ZZZZZZ Plumbing.
I called XXX and scheduled an appointment. Prior to his arrival, I dug out a large hole on the north side of my house to expose the area where the clog was.
I had to negotiate with my neighbors to let me leave large piles of dirt on their driveway. I dug much of it out, but not enough to identify what was going on.
XXX arrived, dug it out a bit more, and discovered the problem: the drain pipe which originates from the kitchen/washer area on the south side of the house, which runs along underneath the house, to drain at the north side of the house was not connected to anything! It was draining into the ground, and a large root had grown up into the pipe, causing my water backups. I knew the sewer lateral had been replaced prior to me purchasing the house, so I called my real estate agent to get information from them as to who did the work to replace the sewer lateral.
I found the information: In March of 2007, three months before I purchased the house, the previous owners had the sewer lateral replaced, which is the north side of the house. This work was done by Central Plumbing and Rooter.
Central Plumbing and Rooter failed to connect the kitchen/washer drain to the sewer lateral. I called Paul Croxton who runs Central Plumbing and Rooter, and explained the situation to him.
He said he would address the situation. A couple days later, one of his employees arrived to view the hole and the drain.
He said he would have to have to discuss it with Paul to get the job scheduled. He also said they would have to bust out some of the concrete in the drive way to make the connection between the drain and the sewer lateral.
In the meantime, my neighbors had to live with very large piles of dirt in their driveway for many days. After the employee of Central left, I called Paul to discuss scheduling the job.
Paul was very defensive with me, and we had a very unpleasant conversation. He became short-tempered and said he would rather have XXX of ZZZZZZ come do the work, and that he would pay XXX for the work.
Fine, I decided I would rather deal with XXX, as my dealings with Paul were unpleasant. XXX came out in the next day or so to do the work.
Working with XXX was a joy. He's very good-natured and humorous.
The work was done in a day, and he did not even have to bust out any concrete in the driveway! I recall XXX saying the job would cost about $900, and he would bill Paul at Central Plumbing and Rooter. A little later I spoke with Paul again from Central Plumbing and Rooter to ask him if he would reimburse me for the prior plumbing charges I incurred when I had to get the pipes snaked.
He said he would, so I sent him the receipts I could find. To my surprise, Paul sent me a check for those charges.
I've happily never had to hear from him again. I am a real estate broker in Berkeley.
Everyone here has to prove that their sewer laterals are in good shape when they sell their house. There are a lot of people in the yellow pages offering video inspection.
AVOID THEM, if you don't know them. They might not do it right, and they might be grumpy, besides.
Call Paul instead, he is the best! I highly recommend him for the initial video inspection, and then for the lateral replacement if you have to do the replacement.. Mickey Tenenbaum Berkeley How do you rate a company that makes an appointment to look at your water heater, doesn't show up on the date & time of the appointment, doesn't call to tell you they are running late, need to reschedule, etc & then when you the customer call to ask why they didn't show up & didn't call - you get no response.
Oh, did I mention that this interaction was with the owner of the company Paul!! Wow, must be very nice to be so selective as to who you feel like servicing. If your company is doing that well then why not just retire to some tropical island where you can be as unprofessional as you want.
I hope you don't have kids to put through school. My wife and I recently bought a house in Oakland.
We didn't want to be rushed to get the sewer lateral compliant before closing, so we filed the extension with the city. After livin there for about 3 months, we decided we should probably get it done before we got to close to the time limit on the extension.
The seller got a bid from another company, but we wanted to get 3 of our own before we went with any one company. After researching on Yelp a lot of plumbers who would do the sewer lateral work, we called 3 of them and had them come out.
The first one came in really high and they were going to replace the entire system even though the city had already replaced the line from the cleanout to the sewer. Then we had two more, Central being one of them, and both of them came in at about half that because they recognized that it had already been partially replaced.
Paul was easy to work with, upfront about costs, and since we had already paid for the extension/test, he took that out of the final number when we got the invoice. He said it would take 2 days and they were done by 5pm on the second day.
they cleaned up, and even replanted a plant they had taken out. Everything was as he said it would be, no hidden costs, no surprises, and nothing to be unhappy about in the end.
I would definitely use Paul and Central plumbing again for my plumbing needs. We had a slow sewer leak and Paul was able to get to us within an hour.
He quoted a fair price and stuck to it. Really good work and pretty good communication.
I would use them again for sure! Paul was put in a tough position when two of his employees called out sick on our original appointment date, fortunately he was able to aggressively hustle additional team members to ensure my closing date was not compromised and the Sewer Lateral Compliance was met. Thank you Paul & Team! -Dede I recently had an issue with my sewer lateral backing up.
I knew it had been replaced right before I bought my house around 7 years ago but I didn't know who had done the job. I found out from the city permit department that it was Central Plumbing.
I called Paul, told him of the problem and he checked it out within a few days. He said the job was still under warranty even though I hadn't originally contracted him and agreed to fix it asap.
To be honest I did not expect him to be so accommodating and thought it would be a struggle to get it his company to fix the problem. He recently came out and diagnosed the problem and had it fixed in a couple of hours.
I really appreciated him standing by his work and honoring his warranty. I would recommend him highly.
I had a sink hole in my yard that rodents were coming out of. Central Plumbing came out in the next week and replaced a cracked sewer pipe.
A few months later I found another sink hole in a different location. Paul said the best solution would be to replace the whole lateral with a trenchless pipe repair.
Paul's bid was reasonable and he was very knowledgeable about getting the permits and sewer lateral certificate. I had an emergency sewage breakage at my mother's house on Sunday.
My handyman called in a 24 hour plumbing service and they "rootered" the interior pipes but said the exterior pipes were collapsed. Their estimate for the exterior work was staggering.
I called up Paul at Central Plumbing because he replaced the lateral sewage at my house several years ago and did an excellent job. When I called Paul on Wednesday, he accessed the situation that day and had a crew out there today, Thursday.
The job was thorough, professional, and they cleaned up so well that it's not easy to tell where they dug. They installed two new access points and they were significantly less expensive than the 24 hour service.
Paul and his crew did a great job replacing our sewer lateral. He is an honest and through.
He tested another line and happily confirmed it was not a problem reducing the work that needs to be done. And when it was all done everything was cleaner than when he started.
He is now my go to plumber. Oh yeah he also had a price that was as good as or better than anyone else I talked to.
We love Paul Croxton of Central Plumbing. I work in real estate and we use Paul for almost of all of our plumbing needs, especially for the all important sewer lateral video inspections in the city of Berkeley.
No matter what your sewer and plumbing needs are, call Paul. Terrific work with a great attitude at an affordable price.
Who could ask for more? Paul obliterated the competition on price for replacing my sewer lateral. His crew arrived on time and worked until the job was completely finished and the permit was finaled.
And, despite the fact that the job involved new concrete, mountains of mud, and other assorted filth being unearthed, they left the property in better shape that they found it. My wife and I recently bought a house in Oakland.
We didn't want to be rushed to get the sewer lateral compliant before closing, so we filed the extension with the city. After livin there for about 3 months, we decided we should probably get it done before we got to close to the time limit on the extension.
I live in El Cerrito and my real estate person recommended Central plumbing (alameda) it was the cheapest price so we went ahead. While the sewer line is fine, my street is not.
They never came back to fix the area where they dug up the street! I called the city and yes, they did get a permit. But they never were given a "final" by the city.
It took more than a year but they finally came back and made the patch more flat. it's better but not great.
I also did not like their crew. I had complaints from my neighbors regarding their set up of traffic flow/control.
I would not recommend them as I have to live on this street and it looks bad. Had some issues with my kitchen sink not draining.
Paul came by same day and fixed issue within 30 min. Reasonably priced and professional.
Very satisfied. Paul made the sewer lateral compliance process easy.
While other sewer companies said we needed to replace the whole line ($!!) Paul did his homework and realized part of it had already been replaced. He suggested testing it as-is and guess what? It passed! He was easy to work with.
I recommend him for sewer lateral work. Paul Croxton just flipped out on my back door porch, aggressively yelling at me and my 20 month old daughter, demanding payment after check is already being processed by 203k loan officer.
After asking him to please change his tone and explain I'm on his side he grew more aggressive and accusatory, which at this point I felt very threatened and unsafe therefore closing the door. He then started banging the glass of the door and yelling at us.
The police finally arrived after he left which incident has been reported and he not to come in contact with my family ever again without police intervention. To top everything off his work is still unfinished and he hit and run our neighbors car who also filed a police report.
Very scary to say the least. We had an ancient terracotta sewer lateral that snaked around the house and was mostly under concrete.
It was a constant problem and had to be replaced. We contacted Paul and he gave us a detailed bid and time schedule.
He and his crew attacked the sewer and had it replaced on time and with no disruption. The work was excellent and reasonably priced.
The garden was only minimally disturbed which was a great surprise considering the extent of the work. We highly recommend Central Plumbing, a great local business.
Paul and his crew did a wonderful job on our sewer lateral work. You can hardly tell they were there at all.
Would highly recommend. Central Plumbing was highly recommeded to me by my broker who had recommended several other contractors for various jobs.
I cannot attest to the quality of service for Central Plumbing. When I contacted them for a repair, I received a call from Mike Brand of Premier Plumbing of Newark, CA (license 841132) who represented himself as the plumbing leg of Central Plumbing.
He was contracted to fix a kitchen leak for us which resulted in what he claimed was a broken faucet. Mike's service was awful - completely unprofessional - cursing the entire time he did the job and burning the back of my kitchen cabinets with his soldering.
I had left the house for work and left a friend to wait for the repair to be completed. Mike left the premises without contacting us to let us know there was a problem with the faucet.
He simply left a note stating the cold water did not work and we would need to completely change our brand new aucet and pay additional money for labor to install it. When called to remedy the situation, he simply left my old pipes which he had saved to show me on the front porch.
Once I finally spoke with him, we could not come to an agreeable resolution. I spoke with Paul Croxton of Central Plumbing and he said he sends Mike out to his overflow jobs but that it is not the same company so he could not do anything.
While not legally liable, Mike did represent himself as the plumbing leg of the company. My warning is simply - if you want to contract Central Plumbing, make sure you are getting their services and not Premier Plumbing.
I hired another plumber to fix the faucet - He was able to take out the water line and clear the blocking. He claimed the other plumber (Mike) had oversoldered the pipes during his repair and the loose extra sodder clogged the cold water line.
In less than 15 minutes, this new plumber was able to fix a faucet that Mike claimed needed to be completely replaced. I'm sorry that you're not happy with my review.
It's accurate. Just because it happened before I used yelp does not mean the review is inaccurate or doesn't count.
In regards to your comment about only being able to see "filtered reviews" after posting a review, that's not true. Anyone can look at filtered reviews; try it.
All you have to do is click on "filtered reviews" near the bottom of the screen and type in the words that they ask to prove you're a real person. And so I did not edit my post as you suggested (although what's wrong with editing your own review anyway?).
However, trying to stay on a bright note in the world, I will admit that it's possible your company is better now than it was then in terms of customer service and it's quality of work, but your response discrediting the review instead of being open to criticism and positive change leaves me doubtful. Having said this, hope springs eternal.
I will change the rating from 1 star to 2 stars on that hope and the time that has lapsed since the original experience. Good luck.
Can't complain. I needed my sewer line replaced.
Paul got back to me promptly, gave me the lowest bid, did the job on time and on price, and was very pleasant to deal with. What more can you ask for? Excellent service.
Paul and his crew did our sewer lateral job in a timely, friendly manner, and addressed follow-up issues quickly. Thanks! Paul is my son-in-law.
I have watched this young man work so hard to support his wife and 5 kids. He comes home tired and still takes time to play with his kids, laugh with his lovely wife, and joke around with any friend or neighbor who stops by.
He is considerate of his employees and pays a living wage with benefits. He is the best father, the best employer, and the hardest worker I have ever seen.
He's human and surely has a bad day now and then, but I've known him since he and my daughter were in high school, and I have never seen him give anything less than his best. I would highly recommend Paul Croxton and Central Plumbing.
We just moved to a new house in Oakland, and we had to comply the new ordinance on sewer lateral. We had to obtain private sewer lateral inspection from EBMUD.
Our sewer line was leaking and we had to get it repaired. We referred many plumbers to get an estimate for the project.
Many plumbers, they did not have any ideas what they were dealing with and quoted expensive fee. Paul Croxton and his team knew what exactly had to be done.
They took care of all the hassles from repair to getting certificate from EBMUD. Their fee is very reasonably priced.
Paul is a pleasant, straight forward and responsible guy. I highly recommend anyone having sewer lateral problem without any reservation.
Buyer beware, be very leary of using this business. Owner made threats to me (a senior citizen) if I didn't pay my bill in 48 hours.
Lacks customer service skills and very shrewd. Competent, friendly, and cost effective.
Paul came in with the lowest bid for my sewer lateral replacement , and completed the work quickly and cleanly. When he discovered other pipes that needed to be replaced, he quickly came up with another low bid and carried out the work efficiently.
Moreover, Paul was respectful of our schedule and very responsive. I recommend him highly for sewer lateral replacement.
I have used Paul and his crew at both of my properties for sewer replacment and to fix some minor plumbing problems. They have been great, price was fair and they even gave me a discount on the plumbing items cause they were there doing sewer work.
I highly recommend there services. I am coming from a business point of view, this company does not pay their bills.
They are quite dishonest. Their word means nothing, its only noise coming out of their mouth...They DO NOT pay their bills...Customers, beware......
I've never written a Yelp! review before, but after my bad experience with Paul Croxton and Central Plumbing, I'm motivated to warn others away. This company was recommended to us by our realtor for sewer lateral repair/replacement.
They came out, inspected the job, and told us it would take two days. When they had neither showed up nor called halfway through the first day, I called and left a message on the answering machine.
They finally showed up at about 2pm. Long story short, a 2-day job ended up taking 7 days.
We were left without laundry over a weekend. They damaged the bathtub drain, which leaked onto the heating ducts in the basement, and were slow to respond to phone calls for help.
They destroyed a mature fruit tree in the back yard which, with proper advance notice (which I specifically asked for), could have been saved and replanted by our gardener. They were routinely late, giving lame excuses ("Something came up"), resulting in loud work being done during the dinner/kid's bedtime hours rather than during the day when the house was empty.
Although the job did eventually get done, they were not respectful of our time or our property. I strongly advise you to find another contractor for your sewer lateral or plumbing work.'''.
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