Harris Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electrical — Local services in Mannington Township

I've never been so disappointed in a company I thought was accurately reviewed by real consumers on Google. After a terrible experience with Harris, I now see Google reviews with questionable authenticity (several of these "consumers" reviewed BOTH the Salem and Woodbury Harris locations in a short timeframe). As a longtime secondary education teacher, I can spot unauthentic written work: the reviews ALWAYS give five stars, ALWAYS call out a technician by name accompanied by a vague anecdotal (but remarkably similar) comment. Go to Yelp to see the truth about this business (currently they have 69 reviews with a 1.9 star rating). I implore anyone who's had the misfortune of hiring Harris to educate themselves on New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Act. In my case, their written contract alone violates numerous requirements designed to protect consumers from this type of business, such as requiring a toll-free number for the Division of Consumer Affairs; a telephone number for the contractor’s insurance company and general commercial liability policy number; start and stop dates; requiring written signatures from both the homeowner and contractor for any work or changes to the contract costing $500 or more; a sufficient description of work to be done including supplies/materials to be used, the total purchase price including all fees and finance charges, the dates within which the work is to begin and be completed, copies of warranties offered by the contractor; and specific language on cancellation of the contract including a provision stating the consumer’s three-day right to cancel (N.J. Admin. Code § 13:45A–16.2). Additionally, contrary to NJ's Consumer Fraud Act, I received a misleading representation of the contract price. Legally, this is considered a “bait and switch” tactic. I was posed a "worst case scenario" estimate, with the technician assuring us that the plumbing backup may be resolved without the more extensive repairs on the estimate becoming necessary. Indeed, the full set of tasks were NEVER completed, yet Harris attempted to bill us the full amount. When I reached out to Harris to resolve this and a host of other issues stemming from their service, I received profuse apologies from their office staff and dispatch, who couldn't help me nor transfer me to someone who could. Instead, they promised a manager would get back to me--this never happened. When I never heard back, I figured perhaps management felt my initial down payment sufficed given the nightmarish series of events I described in my phone calls. More than a full year later, Harris did call to leave a threatening voicemail alleging theft of services and small claims court if I did not pay the FULL amount--INCLUDING the work they never actually completed. For the next few weeks, I wasted even more time and energy trying to speak to a reasonable person to resolve this (Paul, you were great--thank you for trying to help us!), ultimately getting a nasty email from the owner himself, alleging ME to be the one "playing games" and demanding full payment or face court. Needless to say, we ended up in small claims court despite my genuine best efforts to work this out fairly (and did not pay the amount they claimed to be owed, but finally negotiated a compromised cost as I had been trying to do all along). I usually do not write such detailed reviews but I felt compelled to share my experience in the hope of preventing or helping others who may otherwise unknowingly stumble into a similar predicament with this company. I think of our older neighbors, family, those on tight incomes, those unable to readily self-advocate, and how easily they would have been defrauded by this company. Looking back, my biggest mistake was trusting what I perceived to be a reputable company and electronically signing off on documents presented to me on the technician's iPad based on his verbal descriptions. I anticipate the owner may make another nasty, unprofessional response to try to invalidate my honest review, but the bottom line is, please take a lesson from...

Didn’t have any issues with plumber, but would not use this company again not sure why I had to have holes ripped in my ceiling prior to checking if I still had a leak and where the leak was coming from which was not the pipes, got holes ripped in my ceiling for no reason because my pipes weren’t leaking but for some odd reason I was told can’t know whether pipes are leaking unless we cut out the roof to see, they charge a flat rate to cut the roof but also charge another fee if indeed the leak is in the pipes so I get why anyone would say yes we have to for sure cut the roof to see where the leak is, we could have turned water on and if pipes were leaking we could have waited to see if the leak will pass through roof or not then cut to see where source is, but we cut the roof before we even checked if the leak was still happening, anyways pipes were never leaking on top of that they have a policy where if they cut your roof you have to fix the roof yourself so I had my roof cut for no reason no pipes were leaking. Basically paid to have my roof cut and had to pay to have my roof insert back so yea my experience wasn’t really great but since I keep being asked for a review here it is, i would have felt more comfortable if more was done in my opinion rather than just cutting roof first could’ve probably realized th e leak wasn’t the pipes it was just the cauk in bathtub needing reseal but that wasn’t even checked by plumber in the first place other than that customer service is great, scheduling is easy and they come out right away there’s your review since I’m getting texts to leave a review...

This two star review reflects the office (communication, professionalism, and billing) not the actual plumbers of the company. We have used Harris in Salem multiple times and have generally been happy with the work we have had done on the house.

The problems are with the office. Many times they have sent confirmation texts of incorrect start dates and/or workers. When we call to confirm the actual work date, the office many times gives the incorrect date but when speaking to the plumber, the correct date is confirmed. Not a huge deal, but it does take time to confirm something and there needs to be better communication about when and who is doing a job.

Next, billing...We never had a problem until recently. I admit I made a mistake on my check. However, the company did not reach out to me as they stated they did (I have no missed calls, emails, or voicemails)...we reached out to them. In our home we split bills like this with two accounts. They tried to double charge the one account, and then it had to be reversed (it was rejected by the bank) instead of contacting me about the check with the other account. We got it sorted out but it was very stressful and it left a bad feeling of something being "off"- especially the attempt to double charge the one account.

The customer/s should not be the ones to have to reach out about incorrect confirmation dates or about billing, that is the job of the office to ensure correct dates and payments. This could have been solved easily with better communication. It's a shame because they do have some...