Plumbing reviews in Lake Forest, California

To the Manager,
I am writing this to formally express my outrage regarding the service I received from your technician. I contacted your company based on your positive Yelp reviews, but my experience was nothing short of a scam.
1. Deceptive Diagnosis:
Initially, your plumber stated that he needed to open the wall to identify the source of the water noise. Based on this professional judgment, I agreed to sign for a $444 service fee. However, the technician never touched the wall. Instead, he simply looked at my water softener, turned the bypass valve—a 15-minute task—and claimed the problem was "solved."
2. Predatory Pricing & Exploitation:
Charging $444 for a 5-minute bypass is robbery. To make matters worse, he immediately sent me an outrageous quote of $18,104 for a replacement water softener system. It is evident that your technician took advantage of my limited English proficiency to overcharge me for a non-existent repair and push an overpriced product.
3. Demand for Action:
As a manager, I urge you to review this case immediately. I demand a partial refund reflecting a fair market rate for a 15-minute inspection, not the $444 I was misled into paying.
I am prepared to escalate this matter. If this is not resolved, I will be filing formal complaints and providing all evidence (including the $18k quote) to the CSLB (Contractors State License Board), the BBB (Better Business Bureau), and sharing this experience across all social media platforms.
I expect a response and a refund proposal within 24 hours.
Sincerely,

Aaron and is partner were very nice and professional. Only issues I have is the mess they left and the look of the cement work. Pictures attached.

My wife talked with Aaron about replacing a recirculation pump today and thought he would clean up all the dust. He did not leave a message that would be the case.

Please send someone clean up the mess. I'm not sure about the look of the cement work.

Iheb is a fantastic technician! He is extremely polite, straight forward, and thorough. I needed to replace my water heater. He calmly walked me through my options. There were a lot. After I made my selection, Iheb worked quickly to secure an appointment the next day to install the water heater. Since it was short notice, he had to do everything himself. He spent 10 tireless hours replacing the water heater by himself. Even needed to climb to my roof to properly install the exhaust vent. What stood out was he did all this with an infectious smile. It was a pleasant experience and I’m happy to have Iheb work on this project!

I am torn on this review. I called because we just moved into a home and I wanted to change the shower arm and address a slow draining bathtub. The technicians were knowledgeable, polite and friendly. They spent over an hour doing a whole house diagnostic before starting on my requested repair. They then offered packages to repair or address all the issues they found starting at $23,000. It gave car salesman vibes, and was off putting. The actual work they did took less than a half an hour. I did appreciate that they were honest that the tub drain was not actually blocked, and they showed me the easy fix to address that issue and removed the estimated charge for that repair. After they left I realized that they had damaged the wooden structure that enclosed our water heater tank and hadn’t told me. I really wish they had talked to me about it, just leaving without saying anything left a very bad impression.

Great service on HVAC and both plumbing sides - very glad I found John Stevenson, they just do high quality work and competitive pricing. Thanks to Logan for the latest service and diagnosis on my furnace - you rock and will continue putting my homes systems in their hands for sure.

The technicians were very nice and affable. They reallly presented themselves well and determined the problem with my a/c unit was a bad condenser fan motor. Fortunately it is still under warranty. So no cost for the motor. This is the good. Now for the bad.
The total charge to replace the motor was a whopping $1400 bucks. There are 14 screws to be removed to facilitate replacement and conservatively a total of 30- mins to an hour to complete the job. 1400 bucks??? Now you are probably saying, why not do it yourself? I would but the manufacturer will only issue a replacement to a licensed tech or a firm with an account with them. Fortunately, I found another provider that charges a much more reasonable price. The company being reviewed here is well represented by nice employees but their labor charge, in my opinion is exorbitant. 5 stars to Logan and the two companions but the company merits two, for their scheduling and response.

I had a small leak in my toilet and called this plumbing company.
They charged $89 just for the trip, and then told me it would cost $600 just to figure out the reason for the leak — not even to fix it!

The technician was actually really nice 😊, but the pricing? Absolutely outrageous.
Unless you’re ready to pay an arm and a leg just to hear the bad news, I’d strongly recommend looking elsewhere.

Anthony Chino and his team did a great job during yearly maintenance visit. they were pleasant, and and explained everything clearly and were organized and did a great job. Thank you

Fixing plumbing problems is never a sexy subject but I would like to say our experience with Luis and the entire John Steven’s team was outstanding. A new water heater, a fixed leak in the wall with minimal evasion, new faucets and parts to replace corroded ones. It was all good. Luis explained the work and answered all my questions. This made my wife and me feel that we made the right decision to hire this team. Thanks to the entire team. We will call again.

Another maintenance service from John Stevenson completed. Elijah and Nay were timely, professional, polite, and super knowledgeable. As always, I highly recommend JS if you want quality service and maintenance.

Logan was a pleasure to work with during a ‘not so pleasant’ situation. Didn’t plan on having to replace a furnace but his courteousness and professionalism made the process a little less painful

John Stevenson Plumbing's technicians have been courteous and professional each time we've had them (estimate, repair, purchase/install). Andrew searched and repaired the issue thoroughly. He was good to explain related issues, and even corrected the angle of the drain pipe to be better, when he could have just repaired the broken spot and been done. He also had to vacuum out 10-14 gallons of water from a drip pan in the rafters, going up and down a ladder to dump it, and did it all much quicker than I would have thought it would take! Very good service.

Tried calling and got a robot answering. Had some questions. Tech came to fix a/c but said he needed to evaluate furnace which is attic with Xmas decorations. No one said a furnace inspection would be needed. So my a/c was not fixed or looked at. Will not use ever again. No customer service. A human would be nice to talk to!!!!

⚠️ Beware of Upsell Tactics
Called for a broken shower head — instead I got three different “supervisors” pushing made-up problems, no pricing, no parts, and no fix. They never called back. Total waste of time and money.

The tech came out and tried to upsell me on a whole new system with even the basic repair that he didn’t recommend being almost $ 2k. When the tech left, the system stopped working. I got a second opinion, and the new tech said that someone had unplugged some of the connections in the unit, and it didn’t need to be replaced at all; the other vendor fixed it for $400. I would never ever recommend these people as they are dishonest and a complete ripoff!!!

Annual plumbing review AND follow up visit to check gas connection to the gas grill -- Nay was very thorough with his review and did a good job explaining what he'd be looking at and reviewing, and he did a good job explaining issues and making recommendations -
Brent and Anram came out to inspect the connection from the natural gas outlet to the gas grill - they were able to fix the connection with no charge -- they went above and beyond -- in addition to fixing the connection to the grill, they checked for leaks to the pipes and connections to the outdoor patio heaters

Elijah and Nay were incredible and awesome! They hydrojetted our kitchen pipeline that most likely had never been done before in the span of time that this townhome was built back in the mid 80s. Seeing the interior of the pipe before and after on the camera is like night and day, respectively. TY, guys!

Arrived on time after letting me know they’re on their way. Always helpful and efficient, both Alan and Hunter.

Tom and Logan were great. Efficient, friendly, professional. Found the problem, fixed it, done. And they liked our dogs. More importantly, our dogs liked them. Would hire them again.

Every time I use John Stevenson Plumbing it is such a positive experience. Elijah arrived to fix my plumbing issue. He was polite and provided answers to all my questions. The issue was solved quickly and I was able to get on with my day.

John Stevenson’s heating employees came out to my residence regarding thermostat issue very pleasant and professional

Unfortunately, the price that was acquired for the work I needed done was a little higher than what we could afford. But they did inform me on other issues and did answer my questions so I would recommend them for future work.