535 Plumbing (formerly or also known as Creative Plumbing) has a strongly bifurcated review profile: the vast majority of recent reviews (2024–2025) are glowing, praising punctuality, friendliness, communication, and job completion, while older reviews (2008–2020) contain serious complaints about overbilling, unprofessional conduct, missed appointments, incomplete work, and poor workmanship. Profe...
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535 Plumbing (formerly or also known as Creative Plumbing) has a strongly bifurcated review profile: the vast majority of recent reviews (2024–2025) are glowing, praising punctuality, friendliness, communication, and job completion, while older reviews (2008–2020) contain serious complaints about overbilling, unprofessional conduct, missed appointments, incomplete work, and poor workmanship. Professionalism scores well in recent years but is dragged down by multiple older reviews citing rudeness, a plumber urinating with the door open, workers disclosing confidential information to tenants, and no-shows. Pricing is a notable weak point, with multiple explicit complaints about overcharging, billing for time not worked, and rates described as three times the going rate, though a few reviewers found pricing reasonable. Project completion is generally strong in recent reviews but undermined by older accounts of abandoned jobs, unresolved problems after multiple visits, and a water heater installation that resulted in a closet wall being left open. Experience is similarly mixed, with recent technicians praised for skill and problem-solving, while older reviews describe plumbers who appeared inexperienced, made errors, and repeatedly retrieved wrong parts.
Flags & Warnings
• RECENCY BIAS WARNING: The review set spans from 2008 to 2025. Reviews from 2015 and earlier account for roughly 15 reviews and contain the most severe complaints. Recent 2025 reviews are overwhelmingly positive. The WW Score reflects a blended picture but the older negative reviews meaningfully suppress scores.
• POSSIBLE BUSINESS TRANSITION: The company appears to have operated under the name 'Creative Plumbing' in older reviews and '535 Plumbing' in recent reviews. It is unclear whether this is the same legal entity, a rebrand, or a change in ownership. If ownership changed, older reviews may not reflect current operations and should be weighted accordingly.
• FAKE REVIEW SUSPICION — MODERATE: The 2025 reviews are heavily concentrated in a short window (June 2–9, 2025) with many reviews posted on the same dates, all 5-star, with similar praise structures. While they do contain specific technician names and job details (which reduces suspicion), the clustering pattern warrants caution.
• SEVERE HISTORICAL INCIDENT: One review (2015) describes a plumber urinating with the door open in front of a customer's wife and then leaving without completing the repair. The office was contacted and never followed up. This is a serious professionalism and conduct failure.
• BILLING COMPLAINTS: Multiple older reviews cite overbilling — one customer claims they were charged over $900 for a job worth $300, another was billed for 2.5 hours when the plumber was present for under 1.5 hours. These are explicit and specific complaints that reduce the pricing score significantly.
• INCOMPLETE JOB — NOTED: One review describes a water heater replacement where the wrong-sized unit was ordered by the office, resulting in a closet wall being left open permanently. The plumber received praise but the outcome was a failed project completion.
• ONE REVIEW FLAGGED AS UNUSABLE: The review with text 'unknown' and a 5-star rating (2015) contains no usable data and was excluded from dimension scoring.
• UNRESOLVED CALLBACK FAILURE: One 1-star review (2020) describes weeks of ignored phone calls regarding a solar hot water system the company originally installed, with the contact 'Todd' repeatedly failing to respond. This is a direct project completion and professionalism failure.
Reliability Statement
This WW Score carries HIGH data confidence due to the large number of reviews, but should be interpreted cautiously given the significant gap between recent glowing reviews and older severe complaints, a possible business rebrand, and clustering of 5-star reviews in a narrow recent window that may reflect review solicitation practices.
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