SALT Plumbing Air & Electric

Glenn G.

We recently had to have an old Elm tree removed in our front lawn and in the process the electrical wires to the lanterns in our front gate were disrupted.
We needed to rerun about 10 feet of wire from our house to the connection. I started to do the work myself, but called Salt to get it repaired. The office staff were friendly and efficient and they sent a technician the next day. Will was pleasant , but instead of working on the problem wanted to do a ""survey"" of the house, which I understand is part of their initial $99 fee. We have an older house and he found multiple areas needing attention. Then he spent at least half an hour talking to his supervisor and came back with an astounding $6000 estimate for what seemed a simple fix. This would equate to 30 hours of work at $200 per hour. I immediately told him we were not interested. I can't imagine what the other repairs he suggested would have run!

This company's business model is great for them, but not the consumer. I will never make the mistake of using them again.

Israel G.

To all Austin and surrounding area homeowners please don't ever call on SALT Plumbing, Air & Electric. The review is a bit long, but worth reading. My wife and I are homeowners in Pflugerville and I'm a retired SFC from the US ARMY. We encountered the worst customer service ever from SALT, which all started on Thursday 05/23/2024. One of their SALT technicians would come out that day, and all that we wanted was a second quote for an electrical job that needed to be done at our home, but instead my wife was inundated with other non-related services that they provided (1st STRIKE AGAINST THEM), and then somehow the technician coursed my wife into signing a monthly maintenance agreement with SALT. SALT calls this agreement a ""contract"". That very same day I called my wife from work to tell her to cancel the plan with SALT, which she did, but it was never canceled on 05/23/2024 (2nd STRIKE AGAINST THEM).
The next day on Friday 05/24/2024, I emailed SALT to confirm that our maintenance plan had been cancelled, but no one ever responded to my email (3rd STRIKE AGAINST THEM).
After the long Memorial Day weekend on Tuesday 05/28/2024 out of nowhere I receive a text from SALT indicating a SALT technician would be coming out to service our home, which we never scheduled another service call with them (4th STRIKE AGAINST THEM). As soon as I received their text, I immediately called SALT to let them know we never scheduled another service with them, and then I asked if our maintenance plan had been cancelled, and the lady proceeded to tell me it hadn't been cancelled (5th STRIKE AGAINST THEM). After further phone communication with SALT, the lady connected me to one of the SALT managers. The SALT manager finally cancelled the maintenance plan and made the effective date Tuesday 05/28/2024, and I asked him why if my wife called on Thursday 05/23/2024 to cancel it, but SALT never did it (6th STRIKE AGAINST THEM).
The SALT manager also indicated to us that we would not be receiving a refund on the maintenance plan charge even though we cancelled the plan on the same day it was initiated (7th STRIKE AGAINST THEM).
As I was typing this review, I received another text from SALT and again it indicated that a SALT technician would be coming out to service our home on 05/30/2024, but we never scheduled it and plus the service address was incorrect (ALL OUT OF STRIKES). We've attached a copy of the text from SALT with the incorrect address and also, we never agreed to this service call.

In closing, I would NEVER, and I repeat NEVER recommend SALT to anyone in our surrounding areas or anywhere for that matter and as a retired ARMY veteran I would simply say this company is FUBAR!!! If you know - you know, and I'll leave with that.

Eric C.

This place is a SCAM!!! Do not waste your time. They have a call center and speak from a script. Complete SCAM!!!

Aneil ..

This company wildly overcharges.

We had a bid from them that came to about $15K for installing a wire to power a new induction stove. They claimed it was an incredibly complex project, and identified many other pieces of work (in addition to the $15K) that we should probably do. And this wasn't including the drywall work, for which we were on our own.

We almost went with them, but I put my foot down and we got other bids. The total for the new bid? $2500, including the dry wall work, from someone with 4.5 stars here on Yelp.

On their initial call they promote a subscription with the idea you get free service calls (for assessment) and only get charged when work is done. And the price of the subscription is taken out of your first work with them, so it's basically ""free"".

This Costco-style membership model tricks people into using the firm uncritically. The next time you call an electrician you'll call them because of the sunk cost of the subscription. Guaranteed you won't pay for the initial consult - because you're a member. But then you get hit with polite talk and a wildly inflated bill.

The goal here is not to please customers, but to find the suckers who don't do their homework. You've been warned. However, I don't think these bad Yelp reviews even matter. I suspect their model is to target through Google with ads. They're filtering for wealthy and uninformed home owners who don't bother to get competitive bids. They may cycle through a lot of customers, but the ones they get are very high margin.

Look out for this scam in other types of home services.

Eric And Paula T.

I called SALT to quote and replace my duct work and a damaged plenum. The techs sent out and performed other work that they suggested which was a filter upgrade, UV light installation, and gas line repair. They charged me ~$6,000 for this work. When I asked about the ducts they said that was a different service team and would need to call them out instead. The plenum they built was shoddy and multiple holes were visible. I called them to remedy it. A tech was sent out and he patched one hole. He then tried to charge me a service call fee despite the claim that their work is covered by a 2 year warranty. I called the administrative desk a few times. No follow up. No offer to rebuild the plenum. Ultimately, I had to pay another company to completely rebuild what they built. The new tech with Trinity Air told me it was some of the worst work he had ever seen. He was even kind enough to write out a statement in support. To this day, I have been unable to get any resolution from SALT. If you have been screwed over by SALTs triple rates and shoddy work, please message me as I will be seeking legal remedy and would like to help anyone else screwed over by this company.

Craig A.

I will never call this company for anything. I recently moved into a brand new home and scheduled SALT to come out for a simple and quick installation. I needed a socket installed 4 feet above an existing socket for a wall mounted flat screen TV. I was quoted $700. To add insult to injury, I asked to have his manager call me after his departure. It wasn't long before I received a call from the manager who told me the price of materials had skyrocketed and that 4 foot long electrical wiring and box were right on current price point. Obviously, SALT didn't want the job. I wish someone could have told me, ""Sorry, we are too busy"" upon my initial call. I would have appreciated the honesty instead of wasting my time.

Craig M.

LOOK AT THIS COMPANIES RESPONSES TO REVIEWS. YOU'LL SEE THEY ARE PAT ANSWERS THAT DONT ADDRESS THE COMPLAINTS. AS LONG AS THEY GET THEIR MONEY THEY DONT CARE ABOUT YOU.

Terrible. Made my working electrical not work anymore.

They quoted me $12000 to rewire a back room. This is $9000 over the national average. I said no, just make it safe and functional.

They changed a fuse box and charged me $4000. The next day the lights didn't work.

They came back out and charged me another $900. The lights still didn't work.

I talked to a manager, and they came out again, and I don't know what they did, but the lights still don't work.

Also, they honestly can not figure out why I'm not satisfied. Well, I paid you $5000 for lights that were working and now they don't.

At the beginning of the call with them, they have the girl read a script talking about how great they are and how they stand behind their work. NOT TRUE.

It would be funny if I wasn't out $5000 and sitting in the dark.

Marshall L.

Had an electrical issue in my son's room. Needless to say I was nervous and needed it fixed. Had Salt come check it out. The tech did an inspection and afterwards I had to sign to approve the diag that totaled $517. Turns out it was just my breaker box hitting the arc fault button and tripping the breaker. Ended up paying the full amount. I called a few times to see if they could help me out. I finally got a call back but missed it and now it's just phone tag. I'm sure I won't get anything back but it's just the principle that no one reached out to say let's meet half way on the price. I'd like to be a return customer but not if I'm going to be gouged on the price every time. I would recommend the technician a million times over but the company as a whole turned me off on ever returning.

R H.

We hired them to install a gas-powered generator in our yard. The installation went OK, but when it was done I smelled gas where they had added a connecting pipe to the main gas line to the house. I called about it and Sarah, head of plumbing, who said they would check. The technician who showed up while I was at work, called and said he didn't find a gas leak. I don't know whether he actually ran a test or just decided he could not smell gas. However, I was certain there was a leak because I could smell the gas. So I called Texas Gas. They came out, sprayed soap water at the joint and saw soap bubbles, diagnostic of a leak. They sent me a photo and said it was from the connection to the generator. They immediately shut off gas to the house and said they would come back only after I had repaired it. So I called Salt Electric again, sent them photos of the leak and their diagnosis from Texas Gas. They said they would send out a tech. They give you a 4-hour window in which the tech arrives, and I was told he would call 30-40 minutes ahead of arrival so I could get back home from work in time. After 2 hours within the window, I drove back home because I wanted to make sure to be there. Brian arrived without calling (!), seemed mad about something, and asked how could he test a leak if they had shut off gas (he should have tested it the first time when the gas was on!). He said all he could do now was to tighten the nut where the leak was, and confirmed that it was loose!! He also kept shaking his head in disapproval of something about the connection that was not right, but said it was too complicated to explain to me. He left, Texas Gas came out again, found the leak had stopped, and reconnected the gas. In the meantime, I was without heat and hot water for 48 hrs. I called Salt Electric to tell them that I was not only unhappy with their handling of the situation, but also anxious about what Brian had said about the connection. The receptionist who answered 'how can I be the light of your life' promised to get my message to Sarah who would call me back. No one called. Next day I called again and asked to speak to Sarah. She came on the line and said she never received the photo I had sent, that Brian was the 'master plumber' who had come out both times and installed the connection in the first place. She then conferred with Brian who apparently did not remember being unhappy about anything. Sarah then began spinning the situation to say she was happy (!!) that everything had worked out (!!), never admitting any fault. I told her that she may be happy but I was not. And that was that! Any decent business would have offered some compensation for their misdiagnosis the first time and the resultant discomfort it caused me for 48 hrs. I will definitely not use them in the future. Unfortunately, we may be stuck with them for maintenance of the generator they installed. I dread the service I will get when things go wrong.

Kevin E.

SALT Plumbing Air & Electric is very overpriced.

We had SALT put the septic alarm on a separate circuit from the septic pump to ensure a tripped breaker doesn't take both offline. They technician indicated a considerable level of effort to split the circuit and gave us a quote from based n their ""Standard Pricing Sheet"". The actual work took far less time than originally indicated, and after subtracting out the trip charge and retail cost of materials, the labor calculated at $604/hr. per person, an indefensible amount.

Before posting a review, we wanted to address our pricing concerns directly with SALT. Over a 2-week period, we called 4 times and the manager was not available so the receptionist took a message. On the 3rd and 4th calls, the receptionists was very apologetic and said she didn't know why the manager was not returning the calls.

The manager finally called, and after discussing the itemized pricing, he stated we were only complaining his technicians are more efficient than other companies. We pointed out that $604/hr is not a slight efficiency premium but considerably more than most lawyers charge. Another electrician felt we were overcharged by 3 or 4 times the going rate for the work performed.