My hot water went out on Friday night, so I was scrambling to find a plumber to take a look at the hot water heater on Saturday morning. After calling several plumbing companies with no luck, I reached a plumbing company (which I wrote a separate review about) that agreed to send someone out that afternoon.
The technician arrived around 4pm, and after spending - max - 5 minutes diagnosing my hot water heater, he told me that the problem could be a variety of issues, maybe a broken gas valve or potentially a faulty burner assembly. He then went into detail about how, because the labor to fix a burner assembly would be almost as expensive installing a new water heater, I should just go ahead and get a new one installed. WHAT?? That's what you call a diagnosis of the problem? He then went on to quote me a fee - for labor, pulling a city permit, and working in the attic - for over $1,000 - and that DID NOT include the cost of the water heater itself (which was covered under warranty).
I was left with the feeling that I might be getting conned, so I called Plumbco to get a second estimate. If I was going to pay that much to get a new water heater installed, I wanted to be sure that I wasn't getting swindled. Gary quoted me a price comparable to what the technician from the first company quoted - BUT, his price INCLUDED a new water heater. If I supplied the water heater myself and only wanted to pay for labor to install? Gary told me it would only be about HALF the price the other company quoted me.
Gary then started asking me what my issue was. After I explained what was happening, he told me that, unless my tank was leaking, I didn't need to replace it with a whole new one. He had a good idea of what the problem was, and agreed to come by Monday to fix the water heater. He called on Monday morning to confirm he had the replacement parts, showed up EARLIER than originally promised, and fixed the problem in under 45 minutes. The best part is, it cost me only about 1/3 what the other company quoted me.
Gary and one of his other technicians were polite, friendly and professional. They wore booties in the house, and Gary even made sure to clean up all the dust and debris that had floated down from the attic. To top it all off, Gary even stayed around an extra 10-15 minutes, and then went back up into the attic to double check that the water heater was, in fact, working properly. Can't ask for better service than that!