Nichols Plumbing And Piping Company Incorporated

Nichols Plumbing was contracted by my home warranty company to perform warranty work on a water heater. They had 24-48 hours to schedule an appointment and I was told I could call and schedule the appointment myself. After calling three times during the day (morning, early afternoon, late afternoon) my warranty company finally got in touch with them and they scheduled an appointment for Thursday, April 17, 2014, between 8 and 12. They arrived before 10 am and managed to get the pilot light lit on my water heater; something I could not accomplish. The service technician mentioned that a part could be bad on the water heater but he wasn't going to fix it unless the pilot light went out again. I thought this was odd but I had to follow their "process". I asked why the pilot light went out or if it was normal. The water heater is not in a location where weather can affect staying lit. The pilot light was out when I woke the next morning. I called the warranty company again and asked them to send out Nichol's again. Nichol's said they weren't coming until Tuesday the 22nd. That was 4 more days without hot water. I was very upset but I had to just wait. On Monday, the 21st, Nichol's opted to cancel my appointment and move it to Wednesday; there was no reason given only that they would come sometime on Wednesday. I have no hot water, this was incredibly unacceptable. There is no reason to reschedule in my opinion, especially since they had time to fix it Friday or even Monday. I attempted to call Nichol's again and once more they weren't there to pick up the phone. They have an office manager so it seems odd that they are not there throughout the day. I called my home warranty company and advised them of the issue. Originally they said they had to let Nichol's finish the job but I explained to them that they simply showed up, lit the pilot and walked away. There was no troubleshooting done, which I now know is wrong. The home warranty company took the job from Nichol's on Monday the 21st and gave it to a company that was willing to come out the next day. The end result is that Nichol's Plumbing should have checked a few things on the water heater. If their technician waited a few more minutes, he would have watched the pilot light go out on his own. The pilot can be re-lit but it goes out every 4 minutes. The new company who is now completing the job noticed the gas valve was likely not working. They tested the thermal coupling and found that to be in good working order; something Nichol's should have also done. Finally, with a few minutes spent next to the water heater, they discovered a leak causing steam which resulted in no air getting to the water heater and thus, the pilot light was going out due to lack of oxygen. The sound of the leak is obvious now that it is pointed out. This is another oversight on the tech's part. For what they charged me and what they definitely charged the warranty company, they should have done some troubleshooting instead of telling me a part may be bad but unless it happens again, they weren't going to fix it. The end result is a new water heater was needed.