JBL Drain Specialist

Did not repair my problem, did not come back to fix it, and invented excuses to justify his (lack of) workmanship when the person who referred him to me called asking what happened.

This Richard Shaw or Richie Shaw is a scammer stay away! even in eBay his username jbld-68 scammed a bunch of people. Paid $1000 and never sent me the item. He's Using this whole business thing as front to scam people! This guy is never afraid of Karma. I don't even know how he's getting away with it!

JBL went well above all of our expectations. Will most certainly recommend

Stay away! Richie Shaw is extremely unprofessional. I have been waiting for him to complete the job for over 4 months now. He collected all the money and promised to finish the job - in fact, he swore on his kids that he would! - and does not return my phone calls or texts.

jim Savino opted not to leave a text review of JBL Drain Specialist

Okay, I don't know what happened, but this season JBL drain is like a different company. Richie has repeatedly not shown up or had some other reason to not follow through.

Communication is now NON-EXISTENT. I mean dozens of calls in not returned at all. At first (a month ago) I worried that something must be wrong in COVID territory. However, there is simply no excuse for not communicating with folks.

I have repeatedly asked for a fixed time that we could get work done. Without pressuring for anything during lock down. The complete lack of response is deeply concerning. Makes me think they are out-of-business or that life problems may have cropped up. Either way, I can no longer endorse.

(---old review below--- IT WAS 5 STARS)

Jbl Drains and Richie Shaw took on a big job at my house, excavating the front to put drains at the footer level, tying in multiple drains installing driveway drains and controlling all runoff. This included putting in an additional sump pump and dealing with preexisting landscaping and steps the needed to be replaced.

They were professional throughout and did an exceptional job. Occassionally phone contact was a bit difficult but I figure that is what happens when folks are giving 100% and delivering exceptional honest service at a fair price.

Kudos to JBL Drains and a whole hearted recommendation.

Richie is so knowledgeable and very professional, he gets the job done. He makes himself available whenever we need him. Very clean and great customer sevice. Definitely recommend him and JBL to everyone.

I went with this company for a French drain installment in our basement after reading the reviews listed on Fb.
I will write our story in full below but wanted to list briefly our major complaints:
1. Overcharged us by 2.1K
2. Completed the drain, but not the additional features promised in the quote.
3. Sloppy concrete work.
4. Took our shop vac at the end and have yet to return or replace it
5. Numerous no shows after project to return money, shop vac, and complete the job.
At the start of the project I was pleased with JBL's communication and work. Both in the initial written quote and upon commencing the job, Richie said he would install moisture alarms on the drain so that we would know if there was a problem in the future. Richie also stated verbally that as part of the work he would even check our gutters/downspouts and pitch our front downspout underground; I verified this with him twice which downspouts were to be pitched underground. He also offered to service our furnace for us as part of the job which I of course was happy about.
At the time of job "completion," neither the moisture alarm installation, nor the extra service for the downspout or the furnace had been done.
After the job was completed we immediately noticed water seeping up from the drain in four different locations. When we brought it up to JBL, they quickly sent the work crew back to fix the grading of the pipe, which resolved the issue, but this fix required them to remove and re-pour much of the concrete that they had used to cover the drain. All of the concrete was poured at least a little sloppily, but this second job was especially poor with one corner being about an inch higher than the surrounding floor though it's hard to tell exactly how high becuase we can only measure the lower edges which slope away from the wall. In addition, we found a patch of cement spilled outside on the ground.
The French drain did function well after that point, and so far we have had no further flooding. Unfortunately, we discovered on the day after the work was complete that the shopvac we own had disappeared with the tools and supplies that JBL's work crew had used. In addition, our credit card had been overcharged by $2,142 (corresponding to the "15% discount" described on the initial quote for being local customers and hiring them to complete all three recommended portions of the job). When we texted Richie and told him about these things, he was very reassuring and said that he would return both to us right away. He set an appointment to come walk through the work that had been done and answer any questions we had, promising to bring the shopvac and a check for the overcharged amount.
Over the next three weeks, we set NINE different appointments with Richie, and he did not show up to any of them. The last three of the arranged times were for us to meet him at his place of business so that he wouldn't have to come to our home. (According to Richie, two appointments were missed due to a family medical issue, one for a family sporting event, and one for another plumbing job. The others went unexplained.)
We sent multiple texts and voicemail messages, but he only responded about half the time, and never before the window of time had passed for an appointment. Each time he assured us that he would be there the next time, using phrases like "100%" "set in stone" and "I give my word." Obviously this was a big inconvenience to us. We were discouraged to discover that despite positive ratings on Google and Facebook, 8 out of 22 Yelp reviewers had a similar experience of no-show appointments or repeated rescheduling.
We were thankfully ultimately able to end up disputing the overcharge with our credit card company to resolve the money but the other issues have yet to be resolved. I would not recommend hiring JBL given our negative experience.

Dianne Reynolds opted not to leave a text review of JBL Drain Specialist

We contacted JBL Specialist after being told that our sewer line needed to be replaced due to tree roots cracking the main sewer pipe. As no one was able to get their cameras into the line to confirm that the line was actually cracked, we contacted Richie of JBL. Richie responded quickly and was able to clear the line of roots and get the camera into the line. He found that the pipe was not cracked and did not need replacement. Richie was a life saver and we can not thank him enough for his time, concern, honesty and determination to clear our line! We highly recommend this company!!!