State accuses Bonney Plumbing of overcharging customers

The Better Business Bureau rates Bonney Plumbing an A+, and the company is one of the biggest plumbing contractors in Northern California -- but KCRA 3s investigative team has found the business may be in danger of losing its license.

Watch report:State accuses Bonney Plumbing of overcharging, misleading customers

The state of California is accusing Bonney Plumbing of deliberately misleading and overcharging customers.

Two years ago Leonard Granger was looking for a plumber. He needed to replace the water heaters at two homes. So he turned to Bonney, partially he says because the company is among the biggest of its kind in the Sacramento area.

"I saw their ads on TV and I listened to it on the radio, Granger said. When they said, You can trust us from the very beginning -- we'll get the permits, we'll go all the way through the job and conform with the state code and county code, and so forth, I thought, Now that's the outfit I want to work with."

The company is certainly high profile. The red-and-blue vans have been a staple since Mark Bonney started the company in 1978. Bonney Plumbing now has more than 100 of those vans, and 150 employees. The business promotes itself with ads on TV. The new pro soccer stadium at Cal Expo is even called Bonney Field.

With that pedigree, Granger hired the company to install the water heaters at his farm in Vacaville and another property in Dixon.

Receipts show Granger paid more than $2,000 for one job and about $1,800 for the other. Granger said Bonneys employees told him Dixon city code and Solano County code both required expansion tanks to be installed with the water heater. He paid nearly $450 for both tanks.

"I'm not sure what that does, said Granger, pointing out the tanks to KCRA 3. He added that he paid at least $150 for permits and administrative fees on each job. "(Bonney Plumbing) did a wonderful job, Granger said. I have no complaints about the work.

But months later, that all changed when Granger called the city of Dixon and Solano County to find out why his scheduled inspections hadnt been completed.

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State accuses Bonney Plumbing of overcharging customers