The house we bought had a water heater that was leaking and about 20 years old, so I decided to replace it with a high-efficiency tankless heater. I had selected a model at Home Depot. I was referred to Gabe and spoke to him about the project. He said that the hard water in Spokane would cause problems with a tankless model. So we asked about adding a water softener and he said yes, pick one out a Rheem at Home Depot. So I did, and I brought both the water heater and the water softener to the house. I expected this to be installed in, at most, one full work day. Expected it to be done by 10/1, close of business. Gabe had been given the exact model of the water heater and the water softener and expressed no reservations.
Gabe sent a plumber and helper to the site. After the first day, the job was not done. I called Gabe. He told me that the parts needed to connect the water heater to the gas lines were not available at Home Depot, and would not be for seven weeks. He advised me to make Home Depot take it back (although I had seen that his plumber had already destroyed the packaging it came in) and now said I should "pay a little more" for a better heater. This sounded odd to me so I investigated. While it was true that the parts were not at the local Home Depot, they could be ordered online. At this point I had lost confidence in the expertise of the company we hired, but we ordered the parts and about five days later the plumber had them. So on 10/7 he said the job would be done by Friday 10/8 or Saturday 10/9. On Saturday 10/9 he said it would be done "early the following week. Then he said no later than Friday 10/15. On 10/15 at 2PM he said it would be done by 5:30 or so. Then at 6 PM Friday he says "Saturday.' On Sunday 10/17, the job was finished. Elapsed time: 17 days. Lucky the house was unoccupied at the time. Actual labor used: we'll never know because there was no detailed record kept of labor on site. Labor charged: $3000. It did work.
Maybe all that time was really expended, but it didn't have to be. If they had lined up the requirements and the parts at the start there would have been a lot less stop-and-start, fewer trips, and less wasted time that I had to pay for.
Oh and maybe the most revealing thing about how this company treats its customers: while the water to the house was shut off for more than two weeks due to the lack of parts and plumber delays, they felt free to use the toilet without being able to flush it. This happened TWO SEPARATE TIMES while we were showing the house for potential renters. Then they sent me an invoice with the tag line - and I'm not making this up - "AAA Drain Pros - #1 in the #2 Business" read more