Little Walts Plumbing, Inc

I called them because my sump pump had failed and my basement was flooded.  The receipt I had clearly stated, "DO NOT RETURN SUMP PUMP TO THE STORE, PLEASE CONTACT 1-877-974-3443 FOR SUPPORT..." this number is for the manufacturer, Rigid.  In addition, the sump pump should only ever be removed by the manufacturer once it is installed per the lifetime guarantee.  However, Walt stated that I would need to call him if it failed.

When he came out, he completely disregarded the manufacturer's instructions, and the instructions he gave me at the time he installed the sump pump, by removing the sump pump and taking it with him "to make sure he got the right one from Home Depot."  So, he not only removed the sump pump, but was supposedly returning it to the store.  He came back that evening with another sump pump, with no box, and put it in.  The "new" sump pump had no serial number.

When I called my insurance company about damages from the flooding, I had around $10,000 in damages, they said the flood insurance would not cover a sump pump failure, they said to contact Walt about it.  Walt said I needed to contact Home Depot about the lifetime guarantee on the unit.

I got in touch with Home Depot, on May 22, 2012, speaking to Robert Kovalback.  He said to take stock of all damage related to the failure of the pump, and he asked, "Where is the sump pump?"  I told him we did not have it.  Because of this, he said they could not do anything about it and went on to note that they did not have record of Walt Smith purchasing any sump pumps from them or returning any sump pumps to them, but they did reach out to the Rigid legal team for me.

Garrett Kaplan from Rigid asked us a number of qualifying questions, and we had no answers because we had no documentation about where the sump pump was purchased and had no information on the serial number or even the whereabouts of the failed unit.  Because the unit was no longer installed at my home, Mr. Kaplan stated, "There is no way to determine if the problem was due to failed equipment or improper installation."

Not only was I charged $450.00 for the sump pump which should have cost around $179, but I had to pay $1592.00 to have Pro-Tech come in and bring equipment to dry everything out, and another $1500 to have another company put everything on lifts to get them up off the floor should this ever happen again.  This is in addition to all of the valuables and decorations that we lost.  There is also outstanding work that needs to be done such as retiling a room in my basement and redoing some of the drywall work.  I am unable, at this time, to receive payment for damages related to the "alleged" failed sump pump, because Mr. Walt Smith did not follow instructions regarding failure of the unit and had not supplied adequate documentation on the unit itself.

Stay away from this company.