I bought a new electric water heater through Home Depot Water Heater Replacement. Kevin L. Sparks…read moreand his son were the plumbers sent out by Same Day Water Heater (the subcontractor) to remove the old unit and install the new one. They showed up on time on a Wednesday morning and installed the new unit, as requested, and within a couple of hours, I was happy to have a new, working hot water heater.
If that was all that happened, I'd have given them a 5-star review. However, somehow, in the process of bleeding the lines, they broke my patio faucet so that it no longer works. I think when they turned it off after bleeding that line, they overtightened the handle, because when I tried to turn it on shortly after they left, it was so tight I could barely get it to turn, and then when I was able to turn it a bit, nothing happened: no water came out of that faucet. Normally, the moment I begin to turn that handle to the left, the spigot opens and water begins rushing into the hose, but this time, that wasn't happening, so I continued to turn the handle to the left, but that did nothing: still no water. The handle unscrewed from the faucet, though, and came off in my hand. So I screwed it back on and tightened the center screw to hold it in place, but I still couldn't get any water to flow from the faucet.
As soon as I discovered this, I called Mr. Sparks to tell him about it. This was around 4PM on Wednesday. He said not to worry, because he and his son would come back the next day (Thursday) to fix it.
On Thursday, he neither showed up nor did he bother to text or call to cancel, so in the late afternoon I called him and asked if he was coming. He told me that he'd been instructed by Same Day Water Heaters to return on Friday, not Thursday. I would have been fine with that if he'd bothered to let me know, but he hadn't.
So on Friday, I again spent the day at home, and again, he didn't show up, but at about 1:30, Same Day Water Heaters called to say they were so sorry, but they'd have to reschedule because "the plumber's truck has broken down". While I was on the phone with them to reschedule, caller ID showed that Mr. Sparks was also trying to reach me. I didn't answer because I was talking to Same Day Water Heaters, but as soon as I finished that call, I called Mr. Sparks back. This was within 10 minutes of his call to me. I apologized for not picking up and explained that I'd been on the phone with Same Day, who'd told me he'd had trouble with his truck and couldn't make it. He said he had no idea what they were talking about, because he was in his truck and had been on his way to me to do the repair but because I hadn't answered, he was on his way to another job. However, he assured me he would come out "tomorrow morning at 8AM." I said that would be fine and thanked him, but my thanks were premature, because once again on Saturday he neither showed up, nor called, nor texted. I tried calling him but he didn't answer, so I left a voicemail saying I was disappointed that he wasn't doing what he'd said he'd do.
They did a good job of installing the hot water heater but that doesn't change the fact that in bleeding the lines, which was a part of the process, they broke my patio faucet, causing some mechanical failure inside the valve body so that it no longer works. Kevin Sparks promised to come out and fix this, first on Thursday, then on Friday, then on Saturday, but each time he not only didn't show up, but he didn't even bother to call or text to let me know he wouldn't make it. I'm a senior on a fixed income, so I'm trying to get Same Day Water Heaters to send another plumber out to fix what Mr. Sparks broke, but regarding Mr. Sparks, I wouldn't recommend him to anyone.