Think twice about hiring Bratcher: after reading many great online reviews and doing a ton of due diligence, we selected Bratcher to replace our aging geothermal unit and a reserve hot water heater tank. At first everything seemed great...a responsive, knowledgeable salesperson, all needed items in stock, and a quick installation timeline. However, when the installation began, things quickly went downhill. I learned from one of the installers (luckily) that the plan was to install four separate thermostats throughout our home to accommodate the four heating and cooling zones, and that there was not a central way to control them (a feature that we had with our old system). Instead, we would have to run all over the house, upstairs and down, to individually adjust each unit. I indicated that this was not going to be acceptable. The installer talked to the salesman, who contacted me. He offered a solution that would, naturally, cost an additional $800, which I agreed to in order to get the job done right (the additional amount eventually listed on the bill was $900, not $800, another Bratcher oversight / mistake). The rest of the installation proceeded seemingly normally. (And a quick aside to offer lots of praise for BJ and the other installers, they worked hard and solved numerous issues along the way).
Later that night numerous problems developed: low water pressure, hot water quickly running our during showers (never had happened before), and the worst...the heat did not work as the temperature dropped to around freezing. We could only run the emergency heat to warm the house...all electric and very expensive to do for over 48 hours. I contacted the salesman to let him know. He indicated he would come to the house to check on things, and never arrived. He did come out the following Monday with a technician and they made some changes that finally produced heat. I learned later that week that he had abruptly resigned from the company.
In the two weeks sense, BJ came back out to the house to check things out (nice guy, helpful as always). We chose to hire a plumbing company that we trust more than Bratcher (at additional expense) to further check things out. Between the two companies most issues have been resolved, but we still have greatly diminished hot water while showering. But I have no confidence that Bratcher can get it resolved.
A manager at Bratcher has been in periodic contact with me over the past few weeks. Although he seems friendly enough, there has never been a "hey, we're sorry this happened to you", or an offer to perhaps reduce the bill a little for our inconvenience due to the issues that they caused, like no heat for a weekend, etc. (and this is a $27,000+ project). I now really regret that we chose Bratcher, and that we will be tied to them going forward for maintenance and warranty service as needed. So think twice, maybe three times, before choosing this company. read more
