Rebecca R.
02/10/2016 12:00:00 SA
I'm never pleased to write a poor review of any service or company, but because of the extremely poor service we received by Rick of Tavor plumbing, I feel obligated to share my experience. Long story short: Rick was sent to our new home by the Home Warranty company (through which we had just purchased a policy with our new home) to check out two water heaters. Our contractor had advised that they both need replacement, but, fact is, that was the least of the problems. One of the water heaters was (as best as we could pin down the source at that point) leaking gas into the garage space; the other one was leaking water from the bottom. Pilot lights had been turned off by our contractor, for the time being. Rick came in, listened briefly to the description of the problem as I was able to explain (including my description of gas leak, which, by the way, PG&E had deemed serious enough to shut off the system), then lit the pilots (I said ok, not knowing what was to follow next) and then would not wait the 30-minutes to see if hot water would flow from pipes. He did not show interest in exploring the problems that had been identified by our contractor NOR did he concern himself with the smell of gas in our garage. He declared the two water heaters fine and left in a hurry. I happened to be dealing with about three technicians simultaneously at that moment and didn't think fast enough, but phoned him back within 10 minutes to express my concern over pilot lights being left on in face of gas smell. I asked him to return to the house to turn them off, he refused. I ended up being able to get the contractor's foreman in to shut down the pilots and turn off the gas.
Bottom line, I found the service to be sub-standard and worse than that, his actions could have endangered me, our house and possibly the neighbors. I reported this to the home-warranty company, who did nothing in response.
The cynic in me assumes that Rick's poor performance was based on the fact that he was receiving lower payment on this job because it was with the home-warranty company. What else could explain it??
I'll never understand how people/service technicians can earn fine or very high scores in one instance and really bottom out in other instances, such as this, but it is the way it is. Not a rant, just the actual facts. Very disappointing. I give one-star for showing up on time but since that ought to be a given, I'd give zero stars if that was an option.
P.S. For clarification, although I currently reside in San Jose, the new home is in Belmont, which is where this all occurred.