***UPDATE - within a few days Jazmin reached out. She was very apologetic and explained this is not…read moretheir standard of work. Because of her response, we have chosen to give them another chance and hope this was a fluke situation.***
We had over 6 different plumbing companies come inspect our pipes and give us options. Out of all of them, we picked ASI because of their inspection, their suggested fixes, and what they promised they could deliver. They were the only company that actually scoped our pipes, and the initial inspection was free, which was awesome. After the inspection, the ASI guy, Luis, gave us a well-crafted summary of the issue and what needed to happen. His inspection, analysis, education, and next steps sold us completely on a $20,000 job. He's a great salesman. Personable, professional, knows how to please a customer.
Unfortunately, what we were promised on day 1 is not what actually happened. We're not hard to please by any means, and I rarely find it worth complaining. But this experience was a huge exception. We were promised a 4-day timeline: day 1 was ripping out walls in our multi-level townhome, day 2 installing new pipes, day 3 city inspection, day 4 drywall. They also said they'd start within the next few days.
Day 1: The crew comes out, rips out the walls, AND installs the new piping (replacing iron with plastic), all in one day. We were shocked/impressed things were moving faster than expected. Then they left, and we found a bunch of problems: a leak in the garage & under our sink, the garage pipe never got replaced even though that wall was opened up, a valve we'd asked to be moved away from an electrical outlet was moved higher but still not away from it, and a whole section of the house we expected them to open up and repipe was never touched. On top of that, they turned off our water without bypassing our water conditioner, and shut off our water heater without turning it back on before they left. Drywall dust was everywhere. Luis told us the crew would lay down tarps, vacuum and clean up.
We had to call them same day to get someone out to fix the leaks and check the water conditioner unit. They sent guy #1 to fix it, but the leak continued, so they sent guy #2 to fix it again.. again all in the same day, running late into the night. Then we had to follow up with Luis the next day about the valve and the garage pipe.
Over the next 2-3 weeks (yes, a 4-day job turned into several weeks): Luis confirmed the valve should've been moved away from the outlet and the garage pipe should've been replaced. New guys came out and told us the valve couldn't be moved further because of wood posts, and that the walls we thought needed to come down actually didn't, since they could reach the pipes from another wall. (Fine, but why wasn't any of this explained to us up front? We're paying $20 grand.. we want to know we are getting what we paid for!) Then the guys tell us the garage pipe was not part of the work order. We had to physically pull out our contract and show them it was. The guy still insisted it didn't need replacing and left anyway. We had to schedule yet another visit, on another day, to actually get it done once they realized it was needed.
Once the pipes were finally replaced, we waited several more days for the city inspection. They blamed the delay on the city's scheduling, though who knows if that's true. After it passed, ASI told us their drywall team was slammed and usually booked out weeks. How does that square with the initial "4 day completion & starting right away"? We had to tell them I was about to give birth and that this needed to wrap up ASAP. They came back and said they'd "made it happen" by scheduling drywall for a Saturday.
Saturday comes, and they send ONE guy. He tells us he wasn't briefed on how much drywall needed to be done and can't finish in a day. He comes back a few days later to finish. Thank god.
Honestly, the worst part of this whole thing was the communication. We had a direct contact, Luis, but he stopped responding to calls pretty fast (understandable, since i'm sure theres not much he can do beyond selling a dream). So we were stuck calling the main line, getting whoever picked up that day, and hoping they passed the correct message to the construction crew (which was a different crew every time!). Most of the time the message wasn't relayed well, which is why we ended up with all the confusion/delays above.
Would not use them again. Just relieved it's finally done. Hopefully the work holds up. Time will tell. (I will say every staff member was extremely nice and pleasant to work with. I also did call to complain to a manager towards the end. They said I would receive a call back on but that never happened. So here is my complaint).
