I thwarted a scamming plumber and saved $5,600.00! Give me a thumbs up, please! :-)
Two days ago my water heater went out. I had Gemini locate a highly rated, honest pluming company to come work on it. The guy that showed up looked really sleazy, but the company was highly rated so I decided to give them a try. The guy came in, looked over my heater, felt the pipes, then pulled out his iPad, and without telling me what was wrong, flashed 3 options on the screen to replace the heater...... for $8,000.00!!!!! When I questioned why it needed to be replaced, he said "there's water in the pan, and the pilot light is off." Huh??? I refused the option. He said "Don't you believe me???" and I said, "I don't know, I just want a second opinion." With that, he got up, and walked out the door. Just like that. No 'well, if you change your mind sir, please give us a call.' Nope. So I went over and read the installation date on the heater was 10 years ago, so I knew I'd need a new one. So I went online to Lowe's, found a similar heater with a 12 year warranty and bought it....for $826.98 plus delivery fee of $69.00. Lowe's also provided the installation service, who just completed the job along with installing a new vent pipe, for $1,471.00. My total savings for managing this myself: $5,633.02!!! And now I have a brand new water heater and $5,600 in my pocket! This shows that you should always buy the equipment online and have it delivered to you, instead of having them buy it for you and marking it up hundreds of percent. It's so easy to do, and as a new homeowner, I'm learning never to buy their 'service' of providing the equipment for you. And, if you think the $1,471 was high for the install, the initial estimate was $1,100.00, but as he went through it, found the vent pipe was blocked and the heat coming out was melting the plastic gaskets on top of the heater, so I needed to be replaced, so an additional $371.00 for that. And it's good he did, because it had been causing an exhaust smell in my room because of the poorly ventilated heater, and now that's fixed too. So, I stuck it to the rip-off plumber. I didn't fall for their scam!!! How good I feel!