Not sure if this is the right type of question to ask here, but I'm sure there are some plumbers here.
It's a long story so I'll just cut to the chase: I literally did not have hot water for 2 months because the plumbing company that installed my water heater was extremely annoying and unprofessional and strung me along this whole time. And they're not owning up to their mistake and instead just gaslighting me and blaming me. Holy crap I'm so pissed off.
What are legal means I can do to get back at them?
idk Black person what were the terms of your contract?
t. Construction lawyer
Alright buckle in:
We got a tankless water heater installed 2 years ago from a plumbing company. I should have already distrusted them because even that install was extremely annoying with us not having hot water for 3 days since it took them a while to install and their roofer screwed up.
Anyways, 2 months ago, I wake up on a Sunday and hot water is not pouring out at all. Tried all of our faucets, showers, etc same thing. Go to the water heater and it's showing an error code and leaking too. I Google the error code and it was hard to find but general consensus is, remove the cover and other parts, dry the water especially the water sensor area, let it sit for a while, and turn it on again.
Did just that, only ran for a couple hours but it leaked so much that I had to stop it. On Monday, call the company who installed because they said we have a 2 year warranty (and it had only been 1 year and 10 months at the time). Tell them I don't have hot water, it's leaking, please bring someone ASAP. They're just like yeah you got warranty but we're booked, you gotta wait till Friday. I'm annoyed and ask them for sooner, they say no, so fine whatever. To their credit, they call me the next day, and say okay we can send someone right now.
This is where I really start getting mad. I kid you not, this guy comes (who based on their website and putting 2 and 2 together, I am 99% sure is actually the lead plumber/owner) to take a look. I still have the cover and a couple parts removed to dry the sensor and show him where I think the leak is. Useless idiot just looks at it for 30 seconds, basically throws his hands up and says, sorry bro I'm not certified for tankless, but since it's leaking there's nothing we can do. You need to call the manufacturer.
did you read the warranty? they likely don't warranty the unit just their install
what is leaking inside the unit? have you even bothered calling the manufacturer?
yeah you're right, I wish I knew that before hand. But when they sold it, they implied it was labor and parts warranty and that we would be okay, especially with the manufacturer's warranty too.
ohhhhh don't worry, that will be coming soon. But there's for sure more I can do right? They could always just report the Google review of course.
And yeah if you read my follow up, they never sold me a refurbished unit, it was brand new. But man I really feel robbed in terms of customer service and sympathy and especially just the constant getting mad at me whenever I get mad
>. But there's for sure more I can do right?
Yes and no. The sad thing is you might be best off to just walk away from these idiots. Posting reviews doesn't do much because there will be reviews from happy customers who actually got good service. You could litigate and stress and this and that but in the long run they already have you pegged as "that angry moron who expects perfection".
The serial number thing, for example. Nobody will take the time to sort that out to your satisfaction. This is the kind of mess that only gets resolved from the higher-ups if you can get a top-notch TV person to lay out the facts on the air in a way that can impact business. Otherwise you're just one more guy who calls every day and they all know that.
Finally, thanks for typing all that out and sorry for the boiler-plate "tell us how you fricked up" post.
Well damn. I do appreciate they got the serial number thing sorted out (well it was really the supplier but they did have to call the supplier) but at every turn of the way this company always tried to shift blame onto me and take zero responsibility, when I literally did nothing wrong and always gave them the benefit of the doubt. Especially now, considering how they could have sent this tech 2 months ago and I at least would have hot water this whole time. It partly killed me on the insider having to tell my family to wait every day when they asked me about when hot water would be back. And thank God this was in the summer with this heatwave, I can't imagine how this would have been during the winter.
I appreciate the thanks, it was kinda therapeutic typing it all out lol.
Still gonna leave as many bad reviews as I can because I feel figuratively used and abused.
my parents had a similar experience with a company who installed a faulty hvac system. they tried to blame my parents for all kinds of shit like noisy power to them breaking it themselves. really only thing that worked was calling them nonstop for months. it turned out to faulty device shorting out the control boards they kept having to replace.
everyone goes through this kinda shit at some point in their lives just an expensive lesson to learn
Post the company google listing 😉
>when I literally did nothing wrong
you tried to fix it yourself when it was under warranty
I call the plumbing company back mad and say why the heck did you send someone who can't even work on this? They get even madder back at me for getting mad at them and literally don't want to talk and say I voided my warranty with them since I removed parts, so they can't help me. And since it's leaking, I just need to use my manufacturer's warranty and call them.
I think okay, fine maybe I wasn't supposed to do dry it myself okay. I call the manufacturer and guess what? ON THEIR SYSTEM MY WATER HEATER IS NOT EVEN REGISTERED AT MY ADDRESS AND ITS HAD PARTS REPLACED. It's literally across the country on their system so they're like sorry bruh, we can't even replace it for you.
I call back the plumbing company and almost lose it - they first get mad at for calling back angry and say they're not gonna talk unless I calm down. I literally then calmly explain that I bought a new water heater from you and I'm being told it had parts replace, and you're getting mad at me. Fix this right
Cue literally 2 months of going back and forth to get this resolved. I still don't fully get what happened but apparently they actually did buy it brand new from their supplier but their supplier screwed up the serial number they used which caused this whole mess. I had to call my plumbing company at least 3 times a week. Some weeks they're out of the office and I just have to wait until the next for them to come back. And what really irritates me is they did the absolute bare minimum to resolve this. I would get a "hey we really care, let me call you back in a couple hours or a day with an update". I think I got a callback maybe twice after hearing that DOZENS of times. And they 1000% would only call the supplier company for an update when I called about this, even after I complained almost every call, I paid $7000 for this, I'm still literally taking cold showers, please hurry this up.
leaving them a bad review online is actually a good start, plenty of people use search engines to find plumbers
make sure you specifically point out the likely scam where they sold you a refurbished unit as brand new
I realized talking angrily is gonna get me nowhere with these people so I always talked respectfully but yes I did pester them with calls, which clearly annoyed them. Anyways, literally yesterday I get a call saying, hey we finally got this warranty issue resolved for you, but the manufacturer says they're not gonna do a full replacement yet, we need to send a tech out first.
Okay find, they send a tech out. This guy is new with the company, but knows how to service these tanks. He does a hard reset, talks with tech support, really helped us out. And turns out, it's working again?! I am skeptical that it will leak, but dear God, I hope it won't. So he just says, okay it's fixed, just monitor it, but we think it'll be fine.
After he leaves, I'm just like, why couldn't they have sent a tech 2 months ago and I at least could have had hot water this whole time? Yeah I've been really annoyed for these 2 months, but just figured okay light is at the end of the tunnel, once we get the manufacturer's warranty, I'll get a new one it'll be good.
I call them back and they already sound annoyed lol. I ask them okay, so are we assuming everything is fixed then. Just an annoyed "yes". Me: "THEN WHY THE HECK DID YOU NOT SEND THIS GUY 2 MONTHS AGO???".
Them: "WE DIDN'T HAVE A TECH 2 MONTHS AGO WE JUST HIRED THIS GUY. DID WE NOT CALL THE SUPPLIER EVERYDAY AND GET THIS RESOLVED FOR YOU???"
Me: "IF YOU KNEW YOU COULDN'T FIX THIS WHY DID YOU NOT TELL ME TO GO TO A DIFFERENT COMPANY THEN. WHY WAS I WAITING THIS WHOLE TIME???"
Them: "we're not gonna get anything out of arguing here. If you got everything resolved from us, then we should just go our separate ways:
I literally was not planning on leaving a bad review or doing anything up until the above. But after that above exchange, especially considering they strung me along and don't have any sympathy nor do they want to own up to their mistake, holy crap I am so pissed off.
Please, I can't just let this go unnoticed
ok. waiting for you to explain to me the monetary damages you incurred that we can pursue. having to take cold showers is not a compensable injury
>monetary damages
Why does there need to be monetary damages? If I buy a refrigerator, and it doesn't work, and they won't warranty it despite being within warranty period, isn't that a valid reason for a lawsuit?
idk because in this case, the fault was on the supplier not my plumber. and from searching online, I guess you need to quantify damages? you can always file a lawsuit, but whether its thrown or not is another question
>a tankless water heater
You fell for green scamming.
>It's a long story so I'll just cut to the chase:
nah, lets hear the long story. try to cover over the parts where you fricked up; we'll deduce them anyway
why the heck do you assume I did something wrong bro AND THAT I HAVE THE GALL TO ACTUALLY COVER UP THE TRUTH
I'll post the long story, give me a little bit, and you can decide
How, after 2 months of not having hot water did you not figure out to either:
A) hire another plumber to come in and fix the frickups.
B) figure out how to do it yourself.
It had better be a gas water heater, because if it's electric and you paid someone for any part of it, you're an idiot.
Shitty situation and shitty plumbing company. If I were you I would just leave a bad review and call it a day.
If you really want revenge, you could always try fricking the owner's mother/wife/daughter. That's sure to upset him.
Dear penthouse
I never thought it could happen to me....
>Not sure if this is the right type of question to ask here, but I'm sure there are some plumbers here.
>It's a long story so I'll just cut to the chase: I literally did not have hot water for 2 months because the plumbing company that installed my water heater was extremely annoying and unprofessional and strung me along this whole time. And they're not owning up to their mistake and instead just gaslighting me and blaming me. Holy crap I'm so pissed off.
>What are legal means I can do to get back at them?
Well, OP, I hope you learned your lesson. You get what you pay for. It's always worth it to find the good company that's expensive and have them do the work if you cannot. Doing most of the work yourself allows you to do this. Furthermore, you cannot expect anyone to respond well to your frustration. Nor can you expect tradies to take your best interests to heart. They're all looking out for themselves and can only do what they know. Nobody's gonna come in and magically save the day for you. That's your job as a man. You need to be the one that understands the issue, how to solve it and what the fine print says. We've hired shitty tradies before and experienced similarly ridiculous situations. You can't trust anyone to do their job. You gotta make sure they're gonna do it right or they're gone. It's that simple. I personally wouldn't even consider letting a tradie into my home unless I have thoroughly researched the issue, thoroughly vetted them and their company and I know what they need to do, can explain it to them well and know they will be able to do it. It's your house, it ain't theirs. You got to be the one to make it happen and you've got to be the one with your ducks in a row.
Instead of trying to screw them over you should spent your time & energy fixing your own issues.
Give bad onlinereview.
Read your posts what manufacture is it?