Plumbing reviews in San Francisco, California

Nobody wants to call a plumber but Hetherington are the plumbers you should call. We live in an old building, so plumbing repairs are expected. We've had Hetherington repair a number of issues. Dom Sr. and Dom Jr. recently repaired huge sections of plumbing in our unit. They were amazing. They were very careful about not damaging our place, the floors, and cleaned up each day over a 3-day period. They're extremely responsive and provide excellent, quality work. Highly recommended.

In short, stay away from this slimy business full of incompetent and insincere people.

So what was supposed to be a routine service changing the shower cartridge was a 3-day nightmare dealing with 3/4 workers with skill issues for a job they are supposed to be qualified for.

The first person upon arrival on 9/24 didn't even know what he was supposed to work on. Red flag. Then when we explained what needed to be done not only did he do bad job he damaged stuff behind the shower cartridge, put the covers back on upside down, jammed it and messed up restoring the water for the building to the point several other units were complaining about water pressure and black sludge.

We communicated another plumber needs to be sent out to rectify the situation and I simply felt bad for the second guy. He straight up said the first person really messed things up and he couldn't fix it because additional work would need to be done like demoing the tile to get behind, etc. So he came out for nothing and we set aside time to be present moving our schedules around to accommodate for nothing.

Then today 2 new guys come. The documented scheduled agreed time was 9am-1pm but we get a phone call at 9am saying they were on the way. One guy arrives at 1024am. Thats unacceptable and unprofessional but whatever I can be flexible.

It was so awkward the guy was asking me for my keys and if his partner could park in my parking spot when there was plenty of parking outside. Just an odd part of the experience. Then when I check the parking spot I see his partner sweeping water in the garage into a drain? Is that common when shutting off the water. Another oddity.

They don't communicate anything for us to assist with moving stuff and I notice they just start touching our personal hygiene items like I can do that thanks and I would have happily done it if someone mentioned it prior. Then after a little bit of work they decide to take lunch for 45 mins from 1215pm to about 1pm the time they were supposed to be done. Again no update or anything.

3 hours go by. This is for changing the shower cartridge and demoing a little bit of tile plus clean up. The install of the new tile was to be done by a different vendor.

I start pressing on when they are gonna be done and I get nothing but attitude and non answers. Anyone intelligent knows how these companies try to make money through billable hours. Management here must be terrible, the training sucks, the technicians have severe skill issues or all of the above because needing to send 4 people over 3 different days over 10 hours is straight garbage.

Stay away from this company and give your business elsewhere. This place is horrible.

We had a pressure assisted toilet that started not flushing over 6 months ago. It got to the point that any flush repair worked only about ten days max then stopped flushing after ten days after another trip by the handyman so that we had finally to flush 16 times, first the outside handle, then the inside cylinder, then the inside handle, then the outside handle again, the water line calcium backup, then the inside cylinder, then the inside handle, then the outside handle again, repeated again a few more times, til finally we called Hetherington Mechanical and Plumbing plumbers on California Street at 4th Avenue. They sent Junior who went thru the drill a couple times, consulted with the owner a few minutes, went & got a new Toto toilet (a gravity type), returned shortly and installed it. His efficiency, competence, wisdom about the best next step, and decisiveness (consulting the owners and knowing when to replace!) were amazing.

We definitely recommend this company and its employee, toilet engineer Junior.

Don't wait six months to call them for your plumbing issues.

They are hired by HOA’s mostly. You are required to use them for various items of plumbing work and heating work and therefore, they charge an arm and a leg. Recently they were supposed to fix the heating in one of our units. They left without fixing it. Didn’t do any follow up and didn’t return so when our guests arrived 3 weeks later there was no heat in the middle of winter. I wish I could give them no stars. They don’t deserve even one. Avoid them if you can. I have since learned that two other units in the same building have been without heat for a month because of Hetherington’s incompetence.

Raymond was fantastic and cleared multiple drains in no time. I would absolutely use him again! Thank you so much for the prompt service!

David Letteer was prompt and provided excellent service - communicated early the issue we were having and explained possible solutions. He resolved our issue for us in a very timely manner! Thanks again, David!

David from Roto Rooter was amazing, professional, informative, and great work!

Jesse was great. He worked and worked on our sink finally clearing the entire pipeline and everything now runs beautifully. He was pleasant and able to explain the issue for me.

Great service from the minute I made my appointment, to after the job was completed. Thank you to the Roto-Rooter team, especially David for his expertise, advice, and friendliness. In addition to fixing the drain issue, he kept the space as clean as he could and wore shoe covers in my home!

David did a great job. He was friendly and explained everything to me before he did it. I thought his price was too high but he did give me a discount and I was happy about that. I would definitely hire him again because of his expertise.

Ray was great. Quick and efficient.

Very professional technician - David was great to work with.

Ray Galarza, Jr. from Roto Rooter is a top-notch plumber. This is the second time we've used his services in San Francisco. Both times, he's been safe, easy to work with, fast, and highly effective. If you're looking for quality plumbing solutions in the Bay Area - and want the job done right the first time - do not hesitate to contact the Galarza-Roto Rooter team.

Leetter did an excellent job as always. Always on time.

This was my second time calling Roto-Rooter for an issue, and they have great customer service. I was able to easily book an appointment online, and was able to get one the same morning. David was really helpful and explained the issue in detail and answered all my questions. I highly recommend them!

David totally saved the day. I had a stopped up toilet and needed to be out of town. He unclogged it quickly but it gets even better. The flush mechanism was also not working so I asked for some advice. He diagnosed the problem immediately and then replaced some parts. The added cost was quite reasonable. He really knows his stuff and I was greatly relieved because I was only focused on the clog, thinking I'll deal with the rest when I am back in town. Now I can relax.

He arrived when he said he would, was friendly, and polite. He did his job well and quickly. He offered good advice. I would be happy to have him back! I like all the guys you send to our building. A pleasure working with you!

My technician was the best. He was knowledgeable and solved the problems.

David is very professional,understanding the problem and fix it. I’m digesting Roto-Rooter to fixing house issues

David was friendly and efficient. No notes!

I did not have the best experience with roto rooter. I called to schedule an appointment to get a quote on replacing my sewer line and was told it was free.

the technician came out and I reconfirmed that the quote would be free and he said no - he would need to run a camera and it would be 400-500 dollars per hour. he said if I wanted a free quote it would be "$75,000" - which he said off the top of his head without actually doing an assessment.

I then called the main line and asked again if the quote was free - and they said yes, but if they have to run a camera its not (how can one provide an estimate without running a camera?) and then when I mentioned that the free estimate that I got was "75,000 dollars" and that I didn't feel that this was the best experience, they said "ok thanks" and then hung up on me.

I cannot comment on whether or not the quality of their work is good or bad...but I did not feel I received great customer service.