About a year a go we had a water heater installed by Action water heaters. We had just returned from vacation and, with small children, needed to do laundry etc. I was at work when it broke which left my wife to deal with it. She got Action Water heaters out of the yellow pages and called them to come out and fix the problem. After she hung up she thought better and decided to shop around.
When she called back she was told the plumber was already on his way and we would be charged a service call fee if we didn't go with them. She was intimidated by this. She did not want to pay a service fee as well as an installation fee. She told them to come out. There was nothing odd about the installation. It was not hard to get to, there were no upgrades (eg; gas to electric). We were charged $1412.73 for a water heater installation.
Unfortunately I did not contact the BBB before we had the work done. Had I done this I would have found out that Action's membership had been revoked and they were in bad standing with the BBB. I spoke to the owner, Bret Medland several times on the phone. He was indifferent. He explained the big labor charge by saying all of his plumbers were licensed. He justified the exorbedent parts costs by saying they only use the highest quality parts. I do not know how he can justify close to a P0 increase in one case.
I called around, got an itemized price list of all the parts and labor and the difference in what they charged me and what any of three other companies would have charged is about $800. None of these other companies (I've got names if you want) had ever heard of quality parts that are not available to the consumer. All of them were astonished at the cost of my installation. I want my money back. I want to be charged fairly for services rendered.
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