Today's rant is brought to you by All State Plumbing, Heating and Cooling. Please do not take this rant as endorsement of their products and services.
In December 2010, you will recall that our hot water heater suffered a breakdown of sorts. You will recall this, thanks to the wonders of modern social networking, because I so cleverly decided to post a blog about it, entitled 'shitty monday'. Plumber guy spent nearly 3 hours in our house, between 8:30-11:30 that day, changing out 2 elements and a thermostat. I learned that our water is very minerally. If that is a word. The elements that Mr. Plumb pulled out of the water heater were covered in thick coatings of scale. That is ordinary wear and tear. There is nothing I can do about the water coming into the tank from the county to prevent this scaly build-up. According to my report long ago in December, we got exactly one shower and one load of dishes washed before the water heater tanked again. I placed a call to All State at 2am, knowing full well that no one would answer. I was unable to leave a voicemail; that stumped me. I placed another call through the warranty company upon my return from work. Big mistake. Because we "opened another ticket," All State deemed us 'Non-Urgent' even though the request was on the same order from less than 24 hours previous. The earliest we could be seen was Tuesday.
Tuesday's adventure: I was called at work at 11:30 and told to be ready for my 1:30 appointment in about 15 minutes. Since I was at least 40 minutes away (at 2am no-traffic-speed) and I specifically requested a time for AFTER my arrival at home, I actually had to say the words, "he can show up in 15 minutes, ma'am, but I am south of Baltimore right now and I will be home for my appointment at 1:30." He was blocking the driveway when I arrived home at 1:06. He opened a panel, hit a "reset" button and said, "My colleague will be back in an hour to check the heat." My jaw hit the floor.
Mr. Plumb #2 arrived spot-on one hour later, clanked around a bit, made generally un-encouraging noises like, "I don't understand this..." "How...??" and "Now I'm really confused." He clanked some more and in another hour advised me that "the wiring schematic for this water heater is printed backwards, so when it was hooked up on Friday, he followed the schematic, but it was actually backwards. The thermostat from the bottom was reading the top temperature and kicking on the top element and vice versa." My brain fogged over for a minute and I thanked him, dreaming of a nice toasty warm shower... and he left. We went without hot water in our home for a grand total of 8 days, with over five billable hours spent servicing the water heater, at an expense of over $200 including the service fees and hotel bills.
That was fun. So fun, we wanted a repeat.
Saturday morning (another weekend??!) the hot water ran out like a tall man in a short robe fetching the morning paper. Again, our turnaround was Tuesday because hot water is not an emergency. Seven assholes in this house... you want me to let them all ripen from already-dirty-on-Friday through Tuesday? Take a sniff dahlin'. That is the smell of an emergency. A different company was assigned this service request, with the note that it is a possible 90-day part warranty. I don't have to pay for this service call. w00t! I spent that money on a hotel room for showers for six on Sunday night.
Tuesday, our new plumber arrives. He said that because it was a possible warranty, he was going to replace all three parts again, both elements and the thermostat, and submit them to the warranty company. He was very weirded out by a couple of glaring details, though. First, the elements were not the same age. Both parts were replaced on the same date in December. New Mr. Plumb showed me the buildup of scale: One was clearly a year old, the other was newer, but had more buildup than should warrant for 3 months. Secondly, the "younger" element had a scorch mark. That could have been pre-existing; it could have been the cause of the failure of the water heater this time. New Mr. Plumb showed me that our parts came out of the package at this installation. He advised me to call them directly if something happened in the next week or so. Yup, learned that one last time. Oh and his arrival-work-departure time? In at 3:19, out at 3:55. That's 35 minutes, jack.
The Kate is NOT amused with the shenanigans of All State Plumbing, Heating and Cooling. I called my home warranty company and told them exactly what had happened, exactly what New Mr. Plumb had showed me with the elements. She took my call very seriously, noted that parts were re-used, and placed them on a "Do Not Use" list for my future repairs. Based on my service history and complaint and what the new plumber submits to the home warranty company in their report (so they get paid for this call), All State may be removed from the list of providers altogether.
Bottom line: don't muck with those of us who know how to use the channels. And blog. *evil grin*
note: Should everything go well, I will probably add the name of the New Mr. Plumb's company in the future.
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