Jesse N.
05/04/2022 12:00:00 SA
First, I never write Yelp reviews or any review, EXCEPT, in this one instance this service was so bad and wasted so much of my time and trust, that I am going to waste time out of my day to say how horrible this business is in the hope that I save at least someone some time and money. Also of note, I am a huge DIY guy and work a ton on my house. I'm also a physician and am totally fair and truly want people to get paid fairly and appropriately for their work. I fully expected to pay a high labor charge for the repair, but not this high.
My tankless water heater stopped working (no power), and I assumed it was the mother board. I'm busy and the wife and kids want hot water. I happen to contact Wolfer's early the next morning, who amazingly and unexpectedly said they could come that day between 9-12. Great! So I turned around and stayed home from work after taking the kids to school to take care of it. 11:30 rolls around and I hasn't heard anything, so I call to make sure I understood it right and that I had gotten the days mixed up. They said they were still coming and yes that was my time slot. 12:30 comes, I call again and they say someone will call me. , Someone finally calls to say they messed up. The girl who called was very apologetic and nice, and said they could come at 2pm and they had been held up at the appointment before mine (totally fine, i get it). I was very patient and flexible and agreed, even though I had to pick up kids at 2:40 and had already taken the day off work and there was no communication.
The guy shows up, spends 45 minutes (this is important) taking it apart, talking to Rinnai, and tells me the mother board is out. Ok, great, how much to fix it. $2000 was the quote! Now, I can buy an entire new replacement system for $1700, so I ask what the breakdown is. $300 or $350 for the part with rush delivery (ok that's fine) and $1700 for labor. I said isn't it just a simple replacement plug and play. He tells me that housing prices are expensive these days and basically that's reflected in the charge of the labor. He also tells me that since he's been here two hours already that would get rolled into the price of the repair. I corrected him saying he'd only been there 45 minutes. After saying it was impossible to find the part number for the motherboard, I asked for the part number, he said he was a nice guy and gave it to me. It was actually very easy to look it up. I paid the $100 diagnostic/service charge. If I had been charged for the apparent 2 hours spent at my home it probably would have been $200. He then says on the way out that he left some things disconnected, and I would easily be able to tell what they were. When I went down and looked later that night (remember now I had to rush to get kids to activities), there were a couple (wires) disconnected, including the mother board not attached. I'm a little upset but seek to solve it. Next morning I call and leave a message for them to contact me because I'd like to know exactly what they left unattached. No one returned my call. In the afternoon I call again. This time they take a message and the guy calls back and says so I hear you're ready to set up the repair. Um No, I say, but I'd like to know what you left that was not the way you found it when you came. He says he has no idea, they don't really plug stuff back in or put things back after diagnosing them because they assume you will be getting it repaired with them. Basically, not part of their job description. I'm more perturbed at this point. Mind you I've been super polite this whole time. Now, I'm not sure why the labor charge was so high for a 15 min job. Maybe it is because I live in a slightly more affluent neighborhood, but that shouldn't matter and is extremely bias and opportunistic. Anyways, I order the part and overnight it, for slightly less than $300 I might add. It would have taken me 15 minutes to swap it out. There were only 6 cables to switch, all different plugs sizes/types so you can't mess up if you tried if you're just swapping cables, assuming they were all plugged in the right places to begin with. There are a bunch of cables that aren't plugged in because their used to add to the system or add a wireless remote..etc). Problem is, I had to spend 30 extra minutes figuring out what this guy had changed from how it is supposed to be hooked up. Works like gang busters, hit showers galore. Honestly, I expected to pay for the labor and whatnot to get it repaired, but $2000??? For a $300 part and 15 minutes. All forms of communication were terrible and wasted a work day. I would not trust this company at all. Trying to cheat on the time spent at my house wasn't appreciated as well. This is one of those companies that truly tries to take advantage of people, but this time they got caught and called out. They also never even mentioned that on their website they have deals like 10% off parts that I could have taken advantage of. Weak sauce.