Fast Action Plumbing

I rarely write reviews unless I’m truly happy or unhappy. So here it is: It was 2 a.m. and my kitchen had a leak. Most places in the city weren’t responding, but Derek picked up right away. He calmly walked me through exactly what to do and made sure I stayed calm the entire time. I had a flight early that morning, and he helped me confirm there were no leaks before I left, all over the phone. Derek is fantastic. I’ll definitely be calling him again.

best plumber experience I’ve had. in and out in under 30 and politely took their shoes off at the front door. very polite and diligent. could not recommend more!

I’m so impressed with the service we received! Derek is always very responsive, professional, and accommodating. He clearly knows his trade and takes the time to explain what’s going on. I also really appreciated the helpful tips he shared. I would absolutely recommend him to anyone!!

Found Derek from Fast Action Service & Repair on craigslist. Emailed him picture of what I needed repaired. Good response, emailed me right away with price and scheduled service for following day. For the most part his work was fine, I felt he could have came a bit more prepared after knowing what the scope of work was. I had to run to hardware store for saw zaw blades for him. My problem was that the same day the work was done His new pipes starting leaking, He told me to put more pvc cement around them. That did not solve problem and after nomerous text messages and phone calls He did not repair pipes or even reply back to me, so much for warranty, didnt even work right correctly for 1 day.

derrick was so unprofessional and rude. he came in for a clogged toilet, which is embarrassing enough. then he proceeded to make very unprofessional remarks about the smell of the bathroom, and kept his shirt pulled over his nose the whole time. i was so embarrassed i didn't know what to say or do, i have never had a plumber behave that way before. i thought it was his job to handle things like that. to make matters worse, derrick then took the tank lid off the toilet and poked around for a little bit, then he said he had to run to his truck for a tool. i gave him the access code for our building and he NEVER RETURNED. i called multiple times and he would not pick up or respond to my text messages. i'm glad he did not charge me, but it was still the most shockingly unprofessional experience i have ever had. i called another plumber, who came in and fixed the toilet in less than 20 minutes.

TL;DR: Derek ghosted me and my wife in the middle of a plumbing emergency, on a Sunday, leaving us to scramble to find someone else with no warning. NOT RECOMMENDED. Without hyperbole, this is the least professional experience I've ever had with a tradesperson. I called Derek last week for a clogged sink that kept slowly rising. He responded immediately and was at my home in an hour. While he was draining the sink, however, I happened to walk into the room and noticed that the entire cabinet was filled with about 1/4 inch of water. He cleaned it up with no damage, but it was still very shocking that he allowed this to happen in the first place. That evening, he said he was unable to clear the clog and would have to come back the following morning with different tools. The next day, he showed up about an hour later than we scheduled. He tried to snake the pipe with the same 60 foot cable he'd used the night before. After futzing with it for a while, he then said he couldn't proceed without shutting the water for our whole building off (this proved later to be false). He then said that he had another job to get to and would come back later in the day. After he left, my wife and I got permission from our condo board to shut the water off, and tried MULTIPLE times to get in touch with Derek. We called and texted numerous, numerous times. He totally ghosted us - would not respond to our texts or phone calls. We even tried calling him from a different number, which he answered, but when he heard our voices, he hung up immediately. Keep in mind that the water in our kitchen sink was rising, so this was something of an emergency. Derek totally left me and my wife in the lurch, and we had to scramble to find someone else to come by. We also discovered that he left his broken 60 foot cable in the middle of the street in front of our house. (Our replacement plumber told us that a cable like that probably cost around $200. After Derek's piss-poor, reprehensible service, I have to cop to a little schadenfreude.) When we finally got another plumber to come do the work, he said there was no need at all to shut the water off and had the clog fixed within a half an hour. I have no idea what Derek was thinking. My only assumption is that in the middle of the job, he realized he was not a good enough plumber to handle the issue in front of him, and was too embarrassed to say anything. A note to Derek, if he reads this: I would not have left this negative review if you had behaved more professionally. Even filling my cabinet with water I would have forgiven if you had just been forthcoming. If you had just said you didn't think you could handle the job and maybe recommended another plumber to call, you'd have one less bad review on Yelp. I see other people on here with similar complaints. Do you really think this is a professional (not to mention ethical) way to run a business? Based on your behavior, you seem to have an issue with pride. Maybe that will prevent you from adhering to good advice but I'll posit some anyway: remember that your customers are people, each of whom deserve respect as well as good service. You gave us neither. EDITED TO ADD: After having this review up for a month, Derek decided to respond to me privately through Yelp. He denied nothing, but did have this to say: "I'm so sorry that you feel like I ghosted you. When I told you 3 times that I wasn't gay, you threatened me with a bad review. This is not right. I'm happy to do a job professionally but I can't handle your aggression." This response, aside from being categorically untrue, is steeped in homophobia. My initial review, not a word of which was untrue, must have wounded Derek's pride yet again and his poor, fragile masculinity must have been so injured by this that he decided to retaliate with the tactics of a not-very-bright third-grader. As if implying that I'm gay will wound me back. I happen to be heterosexual, but I'm also a socio-culturally evolved enough person to recognize that implying someone is gay as if it's pejorative is the action of a bigot. Initially, I was inclined to think that Derek was a somewhat inept plumber and maybe a bit too prideful. Now I'm inclined to believe he is an out-and-out terrible person.

PLEASE READ AND DO NOT HIRE --- Derek scammed me out of 2,000 dollars, damages he made to my place are going to cost 2,700 to repair, he will not return any of my calls/messages, and will not return the keys to my apartment he was borrowing to complete the work. Let me start off by saying that I truly never write bad reviews, however, I cannot express how much damage Derek did. I read the many positive reviews on Google for this company, and was excited to give Derek my business, despite more negative reviews on Yelp (please go check Yelp before deciding to go with this company.) I needed three jobs done: fixing of a tub drain, pipework to install a washer/dryer, and rerouting of a radiator. The job was going to cost 3,500 dollars in total. From the beginning Derek was hard to communicate with (very spotty responding to texts, wouldn't give me exact days/times for work, etc...) but I figured if the work is done well, the bad communication doesn't matter. However, it became quickly clear that the work that he needed to do was over his skill level, and this is where the problems began. Derek did the radiator work incorrectly, which he admitted to himself, so we were trying to get him to come back over and fix it, but he stopped replying all together. He also did the piping incorrectly for the washer/dryer, and will not return the keys to my apartment that I lent to him to do work more easily. Please know that this headache went on for roughly two months. If I did get ahold of him, he would make endless excuses about why he was ignoring me (all of which I don't believe.) He told me I needed to close up the wall he had opened to finish the work, so I paid 500 dollars for that to be closed, only for it to now need to be re-opened to correct his errors. Once it was apparent that Derek refused to respond to any text, calls, or messages, I had to involve other plumbers from different companies to finish his work. I got quotes from three different companies, all of whom told me that the work was done completely wrong and it would need to be redone entirely. I know this is a long review, and I normally pass these reviews off as disgruntled or aggressive customers when I am looking for services myself. Please do yourself a favor and DO NOT hire him. If you need a small job that can be done all in one shot, I assume he is likely fine for that, but please know that if you need anything even remotely challenging done, he will stop replying to you entirely and run away with your keys, and half of the payment. Thank you for reading if you made it all the way down here. Also, I don't know why my account says San Fran, since I had to make an account just to write this review, but I do live in Chicago.

Fast Action Plumbing // Derek is my go to plumber. I first found Fast Action Plumbing through a simple google search and gave them a call a year or so ago. This is not the first plumber I've called but is likely to be only one i'll call from now on (I had worked with at least 3 other plumbers before I had called him for various other things). I've paid Fast Action for two house visits / fixes and they have come to my house four times. The first time I called was to replace my ejector pump and to clear out the sump well. Derek did a great job and the install went well without a single issue. He then came back the next day to fix the flanges in my toilets because he noticed they were leaking when he was on site. The second time I called, was to replace my kitchen faucet. I called around 7pm and Fast Action was at my home by 9pm, this was not an emergency and I wasnt charged for an emergency visit). I had not bought my new faucet yet and so Derek offered to pick it up from home depot on his way in (that is: I would buy it online and he would just pick it up (meaning he was not trying to mark up the cost of the part in any way whosoever). I ended up going to home depot myself just because i wanted to see the faucet before deciding which I wanted. When Derek arrived, he completed the replacement in less than 30 minutes and the faucet was installed perfectly. Unfortunately we also also discovered that my disposer was leaking and needed to be replaced (it was 15+ years old and was only expected to last 10 years). I was weary of spending more money and so I decided to do the install my self. I went ahead and did that, and of course screwed it up. I called Derek again and asked him to come out and fix my mistakes. He came out the next day and sorted out any issues I had and comped me the visit fee for his second time out. Derek is fast, affordable, trustworthy, and (most importantly) I believe he takes a great deal of pride in his work. He prices up front and does not waver from that. Derek takes pride in his work and does everything in his ability to make sure what ever he touches is golden by time he is done, regardless of it is in scope or not. My brothers who have also contracted Derek have said the same, we all have had fantastic experiences with Derek and are happy customers. We would not work with anyone else.

DO. NOT. USE. I only have one word to describe this guy: SKETCH. We initially contacted Derrick, because we were having issues with our water heater - it was not working. The first appointment that we had with him he cancelled on us last minute and rescheduled for the following day. He arrived and without assessing anything immediately suggested we replace our water heater (this was our own dumb fault for listening to him). He left to get "new" water heater, came back, replaced it and left. The new water heater worked for about 20 minutes. We reached out to him the following morning and he said he would be back that evening to fix. He was here for about 20 minutes and then said he had to step outside to make a phone call. 30 minutes later we received a phone call that he had left and would be back the following day to fix. ZERO explanation and he didn't even bother to turn off the water he left running in our bathroom. He came back the following morning to try and "fix" an issue with the sensor. Mind you, it is a supposed to be a brand new water heater. Worked for 20 minutes and then stopped again. He came back that afternoon and now said it was an issue with our vents. Why weren't the vents checked in the very beginning!? So now, we purchased a brand new water heater when all along it was actually just a clogged vent...? We had hot water for 2 days and then it quite working again. We have reached out to Derrick NUMEROUS times to try to get him back over here, so he can resolve this issue for us but he has COMPLETELY ghosted us. He stopped answering our phone calls and texts. We paid $1700 for a water heater that DOES NOT WORK. The other one star reviews are 100% accurate in their descriptions of how poorly Derrick's skills as a plumber are and how unprofessional he actually is. If you notice, there are only 1 star and 5 star reviews on his page. All 5 star reviews are typically grouped around the same date. I will be contacting the Better Business Bureau and will do everything possible to make sure this does not happen to anyone else.

Was looking through multiple reviews on a paid review service because I was in a bind. My flooring contractor had disconnected the dishwasher and found that the main valve leaked when he tried to shut it off. He couldn't disconnect the dishwasher without damaging the newly installed flooring and he couldn't complete the job with the dishwasher in plane. Called Derek in emergency situation on a Sunday afternoon. Surprisingly he responded immediately and was able to take a job for Monday morning. I thought we had clearly discussed he was going to replace a valve that led to my dishwasher, as it was leaking. I was having my hardwood floors installed. Instead he showed up and according to the contractor he was there for about five minutes . He tightened a nut on the valve and left after watching a few minutes to make sure that there was apparently "no leak". Derek failed to communicate that there was significant deviation from what we had discussed on the telephone. Next day came to find that the hardwood floor in front of the sink had a puddle of water on it that had sat there for most of the evening. For the next week Derek avoided my phone calls. He did text once to state he was out of town for an emergency. But upon his return he still didn't return phone calls. Instead I had to hire another plumber who actually thought the best repair was to replace the valve (as I had originally discussed with Derek. But the damage to the newly installed (1 day old) hardwood floor was done and I had to replace a 10 ft.² area of hardwood floor in front of the sink. Derek's lack of communication upon "completing the job" was poor, his avoidance of my calls was worse. But I found most concerning his poor lack of plumbing judgement. Not a professional. Not a plumber anyone should hire.

I called Fast Action Plumbing because I was having problems with my kitchen sink, and Derek's response was exceptional. Not only was he able to come out early the very next morning, but based on my description of the problem, he offered a very fair and competitive projection of costs that left me confident I would not be surprised or taken advantage of during the visit. After I set up the appointment, I had a family emergency that required my attention, and I thought I was going to have to cancel. Thankfully my girlfriend and neighbor were able to coordinate to make sure he got in and could address the problem, and as I received updates, I heard that he was prompt in his arrival, quick in his repairs, and patient in explaining what he was doing. As great as this was to hear, the whole reason I felt I had to get onto Yelp to review his work is because when I returned home after a long and draining day, I found that my kitchen sink had been scrubbed clean into an immaculate condition. (Before he arrived, the sink had been clogging and pulling up God knows what from the garbage disposal, which basically had left it a nasty mess that I could not clean until it was repaired.) I still cannot believe he took this extra measure to clean my sink! And before I forget to mention, he also charged me LESS than what he estimated on the phone for the repairs, reinforcing my first impression of his fairness.This is all to say Derek's professionalism exceeds what I have found in other service companies. I strongly recommend giving this company a try if you are having any plumbing issues.

Derek was so great! He did a bunch of intensive plumbing work to reroute a gas line and adapt a drain + water line for a new laundry room, replaced my main pipe, and a bunch of other tasks that were small but reasonably life-changing. His quote was well under what another plumber had estimated, and the job came up under the estimated price once he started the job and found more efficient ways to get some things finished. One thing that I really appreciated was that Derek never tried to sell me on things that weren't necessary and that I didn't ask for, but was also really open to providing options when I expressed interest in doing things in a more intensive way that would be a better investment and taking care of things that might not be urgent but a good idea. He was super efficient and really nice and fun and did a really great job. I ended up calling him back to do a bunch of small fixes and tweaks once the main job was done, and now my house feels better in every way! He is also a fun and nice person that I enjoyed having around in my space. Wore a mask and was all-around considerate. Would highly recommend Derek for major tasks or small fixes, you will not regret it!

I could not be more pleased with the service I got from Derek at Fast Action! Recently I came home to a water pipe that burst in my basement and I had water everywhere... Being new to Chicago and not having a regular plumber I could call I wasn't really sure what to do. So I searched Yelp to try and find one, and after calling multiple companies either without an answer or getting an outrageous quote I found Derek at Fast Action and man am I sure I met him!! Derek answered right away and I told him what had happened. He told me not to worry that he would come out right away and take a look at it for free and then offer me an idea of how long and how much it would cost to fix and replace everything. He was very thorough with everything and I felt real comfortable talking to him about what it would take to do the job...He really made me feel like I could trust him! After his estimate I felt he was the man for the job! Derek got right to work and had everything fixed and cleaned within a few hours. I hope I never have to call him again but if I do I know he will get the job done! I highly recommend Derek and Fast Action Plumbing for all your plumbing and service needs!

Derek came to the rescue when we needed our new bathroom sinks hooked up before we had our home wedding. He even squeezed in connecting our tub drain! But when we used the tub for the first time we got a text from our downstairs neighbor that there was a water spot on their ceiling below the tub was. Derek blamed the plumber who had done the drain pips (fair enough, maybe it was their fault?), but no-called no-showed several times and eventually told me to go back to the first plumber. I had our GC and a third plumber come out and it turns out Derek did a bad job on sealing the drain, not the plumber who laid the drain pipes. I have pictures to prove it, obvious mistakes and attempts to hack it. It didn't take the new plumber long to do it right, such a shame Derek wouldn't come out and fix his mistake, and even worse that he strung us along for over a month before officially "quitting." He could have at least gave me my money back, now I will have to take him to small claims court to prove a point. NOTE: My first 1-star review ever! I try to only leave reviews when I want to complement a small business. Buyer beware with this one...

We had a leaky faucet and called Fast Action. Derek arrived to assess the issue and then left to buy parts. He returned several hours later after stating he had to go to several plumbing supply houses to find the required part. Not certain why he didn't call ahead, but he billed us for the time he spent shopping for the part. I was disappointed that the faucet handles were reinstalled unaligned and one was loose. However, I figured that was a minor problem that I could fix myself. When I went to do so, I discovered why one handle was loose. The screw that holds the handle to the valve stem was missing and the faucet handle and handle base were essentially glued to the sink and valve stem by a huge wad of silicone sealant. When I called to complain Derek asked how he could make it right, so I asked him to come out and fix the issue and he agreed. He never showed up for the appointment. I call again and he very politely rescheduled. He never showed up for that appoinment. To make matters more difficult, I can never leave a voice message because his mail box has been full since I initially contacted him a couple of weeks ago.