So this summer I had the unpleasant experience of calling the company back since it appears they did allegedly unpermitted work and the only reason I know this is because I had a basement remodel under permit and the inspector said it was not a permitted install or they had no record. So this summer, I called and spoke to Jenny who I asked if they could give me copies of the permits since this is delaying the job on my house. She told me that the 'owner' was in Mexico and nothing could be done until he returned. I called many other times after that but my voicemails went unreturned. Man, don't you hate being ignored? It's like the easiest way to ensure a small situation gets worse is to just ignore it. Some communication to say, hey, it's possible we didn't get a permit but if you can get maybe pay the inspection fee and have them sign off on it, we can reimburse you? Yeah, that would have been fine, but they chose to instead do the following:
Today I decided to give them a last chance after having another boiler tech in my home Yesterday. The house was frigid during the coldest months of winter thus far. NO heat in the farthest part of the house which is where the bedrooms are. I called Bob Larsen plumbing (been amazing so far) and for $320 they showed me that they never installed the circulation pump properly. It wasn't even wired properly for the system to give it power and the controller was changed from the default of "circulation pump installed" to "no circulation pump" meaning for the last year and half my system has not circulated hot water through my house as it should when the boiler was on. Just by the hot water 'rising' up the pipes alone. The machine would heat and power off, heat and power off. No wonder my gas bills have been $150! It seems like the tech from this company disabled it since I was complaining about how hot the house was getting but i'll never know SINCE NOBODY CALLED ME BACK. All I really was trying to do was make sure the system worked right since this was my first experience in a home with a boiler.
Well, before calling I did talk to the state of Washington. They seem to think they did not have a license for the scope of services they performed. This makes sense as to why they may not have put in a permit: they may not be licensed to perform the work they installed. I'll never know because Jenny hung up on me while asking them how they wanted to handle the situation. Her justification for me not getting calls back was that "i was not their customer". What she means is I did not 'pay' for the services. Well, when their money was in escrow, the "owner" of My PHD sure seemed willing to talk with me at great length and even told me they hadn't been paid yet until the sale completes. She offered to send him a message and if he felt like calling me back, he would. I did threaten to involve the city or state in an effort to get them to do the right thing and that's when she brought up this review including words like 'slander'. Except Slander is when events were untrue. All I state here is factual and happened.
Bob Larsen also alleges that the way the system was installed will put more stress on the boiler (for a reason I don't remember) and my boiler won't last as long. I have no way of knowing if this is true or if Bob Larsen was just trying to gain my trust but I did watch him do everything and know that the circulation pump was not right. Once it was connected, RIGHT AWAY you could hear the system circulating through and some air coming out of the bleeder valve after being pushed through the return. the circulation pump was vibrating, silently which is it's expected function.
So, for Jenny, You say that I'm not your customer yet your people have been in my home? It should carry some sort of guarantee of defect for a time, regardless of if I paid for it or not or you expect me to hire someone else to fix a new install? What a joke. You were paid a permit fee, shown on the invoice, and you did not submit a permit. If you did, I would have copies of it and be able to send the city on it's way. Believe it or not, I AM your customer because you carry a responsibility for the work you do. Hanging up on my just shows that your business does not know how to (or care to) deal with even minor issues and prefers to just ignore me. The cheapest remedy would have been to work with me. Communication is free.
So for anyone doing business with these guys: if you are homeowner and plan on selling your home or have additional permitted work done in the future, make sure they get permits and have it inspected. See the actual permit and sign off from the inspector. You could find yourself in a situation where the buyer of your home comes to put a claim against you because when they called the boiler company they told them to kick rocks, ignored their calls and just felt like they didn't have to deal with the issue so now you have a claim because they could not do the right thing. read more
