Since writing this review, the owner of Devco called me personally and listened to my complaint including everything I list in this review including the snarky billing incident. He seemed genuinely sorry that I was treated in an unprofessional manner and promised to rectify the situation. His demeanor was sincere and professional. He sent out two workers who dug up and located the leak, It turned out to be a coupling 6" downstream from the valve they installed and it is my opinion that while they were bending the PVC pipe around to fit the original valve the torque caused the seal on the coupling to fail. I believe this is what caused the leak. They replaced the leaking coupling, and back-filled the hole. Both workers were very friendly and professional. I am waiting to see if I am billed for the work. I will amend the review accordingly.
Original Review: My experience with Devco continues to be very frustrating, disappointing, expensive, and is still unresolved. I have a leak in my domestic water line. I say "have" because the line continues to leak at a valve that Devco installed. The last time they inspected the leak was over two weeks ago and since then we have not heard a word from anyone at Devco. We have been billed sometimes nearly triple our standard water rate since last September. On to my story: Because of the numerous storms last winter, Devco was unable to bring their back hoe to the job site which was on my neighbors property. Devco had excavated and exposed my domestic water line and left it exposed to 10 degree temps for a week until I went out during a snow storm and shoveled dirt into the open pits to keep my pipes from freezing. In addition to this, the person in charge of scheduling the equipment told me it would be available when in fact it was not. This occurred on at least two occasions. I can honestly say that on not one single occasion was the job supervisor on time. He was nearly always 30-45 minutes late and when I called their dispatcher, she was indifferent to my request that I be kept in the loop when they were going to be late. So, we are nearly 1 year into this mess and my line still leaks. One other thing: When I did not pay my bill right away ( we were out of the country for 1 month this past summer and did not receive the bill until we returned) we received a snarky email from Devco basically saying that they wanted partial or complete payment immediately because they had "no history with us" and were unsure of whether or not we would pay".(We have lived in Hood River for 30 years and my wife owns a business downtown). We did in fact pay and reminded Devco that we still had a leak. The billing person said they " would honor their guarantee and fix the leak that is due to their mistake" however we have not heard a thing from anyone at Devco since the confirmed that there was a leak and told us that "they would have to schedule the backhoe". Now to be fair I have to say that the Hispanic worker that did all the digging and ran the backhoe was always on time, and was a pleasure to work with. Devco gave us a discount on our bill due to the scheduling mess-ups. Also the dispatcher wrote a letter to Crystal Springs Water explaining that it took 8 months to fix the leak due to mitigating circumstances. Trouble is: Ice fountain is our water company not Crystal Springs. Good intentions poor execution. Sound familiar?
Bottom Line: I should have listened to an associate in Hood River, and a friend who lives in the Dalles who both had bad experiences with Devco. I would never hire them again nor would I suggest anyone else hire them. They are extremely expensive, disorganized, and in my opinion unprofessional. Oh I might add that their billing department is far too lacking in basic courtesy for such a small close knit community. Rude might work in the big city but not in the Gorge. read more
