During the 1st visit, installer (Mike Wenger, owner) became impatient waiting for water to drain out of the old heater and unscrewed the entire discharge valve. This caused approx 16 gallons water to flood my basement in a matter of seconds. Installer was apologetic and blamed it on and quot;Murphy's Lawand quot;. Upon purchasing 2nd heater through Lowe's, their install department called and told me Wenger would be the installer. I didn't recognize the name and not until during the 2nd visit did I realize it was the same company. During the 2nd visit, the owner's assistant (I forget his name), urged us to install a pressure-reducing valve. I agreed and, after turning off the main water supply and severing the line into our water softener, the installer observed resin beads escaping the input to the softener. He said he had never seen that happen and wasn't sure what to do. He proceeded and finished installing the valve, reconnecting the softener and turning the main water valve back on. This caused literally millions of resin beads to enter my house's water supply and immediately clogged every faucet, toilet, shower etc. Upon realizing his mistake, the installer bypassed the softener (which, in my house, entails turning 2 valves) but the damage was already done. In retrospect, the installer should have immediately bypassed the softener. I firmly believe this would have prevented the amount of damage (the resin beads do not float and very few would have entered our water supply so the damage would have both less and limited to the downstairs). The fact that the installer had never seen this before should have made him stop and either call for help or cease working on my house until he had all the facts. I now know this is a common problem with softeners (the exact same thing happened to a coworker and I've read several reports from others -- although everyone else was lucky to have someone onsite that knew to immediately bypass the faulty softener) and I trusted this company to be competent enough to know that. The installer did stay for several hours and attempted to get my house back to normal. He worked on every outlet individually and was able to get everything and quot;workingand quot; except the master shower and refrigerator's ice maker/water dispenser. He said his boss (Mike, the owner) would be out tomorrow and complete the clean-up. Mike came out the next day and got the shower working but was unable to get the refrigerator working. I had to call a second company to get the refrigerator back to normal and now, 2 weeks later, my septic tank is cloggged. I can't say with certainty the septic tank is related but considering the timing and the fact I had the septic tank pumped around 2 years ago (generally you can go 4 to 5 years between pumps) it is either on account of the resin beads or a very rare coincidence. Mike charged my wife (I wasn't home) $250 for the clean-up work. I called and explained that the softener should have immediately been bypassed and I wasn't comfortable paying for the extra, clean-up work (especially considering my house still wasn't back to normal). Mike became upset and begrudgingly refunded the charge, telling me it was my fault for not getting a pressure-reducing valve earlier. He called my wife a few minutes later and Mike told her and quot;I wish we'd never metand quot;. As of now, 2 weeks after their visit, I'm out over $500 dollars for what I believe is the fall-out from not immediately bypassing the softener. I'm not sure what long-term problems we will have as a result of this mistake, but I'm confident we haven't seen the last of problems attributable to this.
Description of Work
1st visit - Contracted through Lowe's to replace a leaking water heater. 2nd visit - Contracted through Lowe's again to replace a (different) leaking water heater (house has 2 heaters) and install a pressure-reducing valve.
Category
plumbing, water heater repair, appliance sales
Total money we received was LESS THAN $200 (I believe he stated $1,900)--I have the check number in my records. That was for the installation of the water heater (not even purchased through us) which is still serving faithfully, based on the fact that it was not mentioned in a negative light. The pressure-reducing valve was recommended because the line pressure was over 80 pounds--see any city with a published code, or the International Plumbing Code that serves as the basis for all Plumbing Codes and Plumbing License tests. He was charged a nominal price for the pressure-reducing valve (later refunded when he so vehemently objected that we took advantage of his wife in his absence), but unfortunately the high pressure (before we installed the valve) had evidently already damaged his water softener inside, causing resin beads to come out and clog aerators and other small passages in his plumbing system. I only wish he had let us help him before the damage was done. This would have had a much better outcome for all of us. We tried to save him from this type of damage, but we are now being ridiculed for trying to help for virtually nothing. At least he got the Pressure Reducing Valve for free to protect him from another disaster. And yes it is true, I wish I would never have to meet customers like this. And yes, I did tell his wife that I would have been much better off if I had not done their job at all--because I lost a great deal of money trying to help them, and then was reviled for trying. I NEVER WANT TO MEET ANYONE who wants to blame me for clogging and filling their septic tank with what? Water? Resin beads that are less than .02" in diameter? Let me tell you--Septic Tanks are subjected to MUCH, MUCH WORSE in my experience! Mike Wenger, Owner