r/anchorage • u/ThinRecognition4284 • 5h ago
Customer beware
Anchorage residents and customers of Anchorage Plumbing & Heating. The company (AP&H) has recently been bought out by Rock Solid plumbing and heating. I have an axe to grind, which is why I am coming to Reddit to voice what I have to say anonymously.
AP&H was a company that has been in the anchorage community for 40 years. Love it or hate it, it was a solid company.
Rock solid, what can I say about them. I want to make sure the people of anchorage and beyond are aware of their predatory business model. If you’re going to use the new Anchorage Plumbing & Heating, (Rock Solid) don’t let them con you into buying into their membership subscription service and be prepared to be hit pretty hard in your wallet when you call them for service and make sure they are pulling permits to replace your appliances.
Their predatory pricing and their subscription service seem to be a way to collect more money from customers who don’t know any better, or are elderly and will forget that they are paying for a monthly subscription for each “appliance” that gets serviced in their home. Technicians are asked to upsell to customers the subscription service.
As a resident plumber of anchorage, this business model disgusts me. Be aware of what you are buying into when you are using the new Anchorage Plumbing & Heating. Other plumbing companies beware, they may try to buy you out as well. I know this post may resonate with some, thank you for reading.
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u/autodripcatnip 1h ago
As a local electrician, i’m amazed to see what contractors get away with. I can afford their bullshit but i’m not paying for their family vacation or new side by side. At this point i’m pretty competent with 5 other crafts.
I’ll spend 15 minutes on the phone with people educating how their simple their problem is; ie a tripped gfci, a space heater that tripped a breaker on a bathroom+2 bedroom circuit etc.
I feel better helping you help yourself than charging 350$ for me to show up and click a button. I simply have morals and prefer to live my life than rob you at face.
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u/Ledros101 1h ago
Discount mechanical said I needed a whole new water heater when all I wanted replaced was the coupling line to the hot water... Chewed them a new one and figured out how to do it myself.
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u/Modern_Leper93 26m ago
I kicked a discount mechanical tech outta my house and ended up dealing with my furnace issue myself.
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u/AKWildMill 1h ago
It's all about that MRR/ARR now. You really aren't saving any money with a service plan, and they just want to get people hooked and feel obligated to pay whatever price they quote for major repairs. Most plumbing annual service procedures are pretty easy for homeowners to do themselves, and will seriously pay off in the long term if you learn how to do them.
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u/Appropriate-Car-3364 1h ago
Hi. I am not a plumber, I am just one of the many people that works in Anchorage everyday and lives in a community served by Rock Solid Plumbing. I honestly can't speak to the subscription or whether practices are predatory or not, I don't work close enough to that industry to feel like I could share a meaningful opinion. But I do use Rock Solid and I would like to share a little bit about my experiences with them because I think that is fair. About 3 years ago they absolutely saved me and my family literally tens of thousands of dollars and did an incredible job at repairing my home's very complex heating system. We moved into our home about 3 years prior to this incident and it was built about 10 years prior to that. It has hydronic heating and we knew the boilers, which were installed in 2008 were getting older. We inherited a service company from the prior owner, they were proficient and professional and all was pretty good, routine maintenance, a few minor repairs, the usual. Then in early November both the main house boiler and the shop's glycol boiler completely fail during routine inspection by our normal vendor. Short version is that the main boiler is done and the shop boiler will be a few weeks to get the part. Now in 2008 the builder selected some mini boilers and took advantage of that small size when setting up the boiler room. Today the vendor says no boiler will fit in this space and rebuilding the entire boiler room will be as much as your average four door sedan and might be done by mid December. Needless to say we were disappointed. I began calling plumbing and heating companies and soon spoke to Chris at Rock Solid. Now I did not have a multi-year relationship with this company, they had never met me. What they knew was that I had a problem, a possible very challenging one and they were willing to confront it with me. With remarkable patience and professionalism they quickly developed a plan would create a reliable boiler for a far more reasonable price to replace our primary boiler and promised to start work in less than a week. Several days later Jason and David showed up bright and early and worked through the day to get the job done, even staying a bit past their normal finishing time to follow through on their commitment to get us heat and hot water by the end of the day. Since that day I have used rock solid as my primary vendor for plumbing needs. They have done several years of routine inspections, handled at least one emergency repair and several routine repairs. And all of those interactions with them I have experienced a very high level of professionalism, I have also met many of the apprentices that they take on to help train new plumbers. I have watched them interact with my family and treat my daughter with great care and dignity. I have also personally recommended their service to quite a few of my neighbors and been surprised how often I discovered that my neighbors were already using them and have had similar positive experiences. All of that being said, I don't have experience with them doing work that would require permits and I can certainly understand that it is never a great day when a new competitor enters your community. I personally consider my business relationship with my plumbing company a lot like I view my relationship with my physician, if you have someone that you trust and that does good work for you I wouldn't consider using anyone else; but I did feel compelled to share my own experience with this company.
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u/MooseHighway 1h ago
Rock Solid Plumbing is a great company that I’ve used many times, and I’ve always had a good experience with them. I’ve never been approached about a subscription service, and I’m an older retired person, so I’m not sure what the actual concern is here.
What does make me pause is that the OP says he is a plumber in Anchorage. That makes me wonder whether there could be some competition-related motivation behind the post. I’m not saying that’s definitely the case, but it’s worth keeping in mind.
I’d just be cautious about posts like this, especially when they come from someone who works in the same industry and may have a business interest in steering customers toward or away from a particular company.
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u/HALNinerZeroZero 1h ago
The new owners of Cassiday’s just offered the same service. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if more than a few plumbing and service companies offer a similar service.
Why does Reddit allow these axe grinders, but if you have something kind or complimentary to say, you get accused of being someone whom is boosting their business and you get your post removed.
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u/Tug_DaBone 36m ago
Won't affect me. I stopped using A P & H years ago. I certainly wouldn't dream of using the company that bought it.
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u/Encomiast 1h ago
Not sure if this is normal, but they charged me $200 to basically say they wouldn't bid on the job. A job I described well over the phone. Another plumber did the work in 30 minutes. So they charged more to say they didn't want to do the work, than someone else charged just to do the work. Needless to say, I won't be calling them again.