smellslike$tome

A client's 80 gal elec wh, which I installed 14 months ago, fried it's lower element and stat and I don't mean just went out. There were scorch marks and burned plastic everywhere. I get on the phone with Rheem/Ruud and they tell me "no prob', take it to ANY Rheem distributer and swap it out. So I start calling around. The only one in town who has what I need is a supply house that I use a lot less than I once did. Tell them what I need and where I need it brought to. "ok, no problem" that is until they find out that I didn't buy it there originally. Allright so this is an annoyance, the fact that they won't bring it to me, but I understand completely, after all I don't warranty other plumbers work nor do I warranty products provided by ho's. Well the timing is just bad because I'm already on mega stress overload this particular day but it is what it is. This will sound crazy but all I had time to do was cut the thing loose and let it drain as I drive away. I just don't have time to stand there and watch it drain (I'm buying one of those pony pumps for sure!) Well the tank, because it's a warranty issue has to be returned to the supply house. My plan is to go on to where I need to be and have my other plumber come get it after he is done on his current call, take it downtown, swap it, and then go install the new one. Well as it turns out by the time he gets there I'm close to the supply house so I just go by there to meet him since I have all the reference numbers and necessary info anyway. So I get there just as they are pulling the other tank off of the truck. Pretty good timing. Go inside "hey I'm here for the tank, here's the Rheem warranty reference number".

Here's where it gets interesting.

The guy had told me earlier on the phone that he has 4-80 gal elec wh that were just delivered the day before. So now he pulls up our cash/cod account and says something like "How can we get you to spend $1000 with us this year" ... THIS FLIES ALL OVER ME! So I just tell him "You know what, I used to spend a lot more with you but the fact is that on most items you are the most expensive or nearly the most expensive in town and frankly your customer service sucks and that's why I don't trade with you as much as I used to." Well at this he is insulted and starts getting all in a huff and says something like "you have an attitude like that and you want me to help you! No, I don't have anything for you, I can't help you!" and he walks off. Well I'm in an instant rage but fortunately I have learned to control this over the years so I don't say anything I just pull my phone out of my pocket and start calling Rheem but before I get through I track him down and say "let's go talk to your boss". So now I'm with the next guy up the ladder in the middle of the administrative area explaining to him that I had a warranty authorization number from Rheem for a replacement tank and that I don't care where the tank was originally purchased from that I expected that replacement tank, since they are an authorized Rheem distributer, on my truck immediately. I also explained to him that I had one million things to get done that day and I did not have time for this and that everything that had happened so far only reinforced every reason I had for not doing the business with them that I had in the past. I also told him that if they were going to pull some stunt like this they should have told me that morning. I was red hot mad but managed to keep my composure although I did speak in a very clear and understandable tone. I told him that I did not appreciate at all the attempt to strong arm me into doing more business with them for the very great favor of honoring the warranty of a product that they are distributers for.

I had my tank loaded and my plumber was on his way within about 10 minutes.

Now looking back on it, I really don't know what would have happened if the shoe was on the other foot. I certainly do not warranty anyone else's work or products that I did not provide with the exception of 1 or 2 companies for whom I have signed up to be service providers for but for those that I am service providers for, I certainly do work within the rates agreed to by the manufacturer at no cost to the customer on warranty items. Now if it's non warranty item then that's a whole other thing.

The whole thing just caught me on the wrong day but I have to say I am even less inclined to do business with them at all anymore.

Btw this tank was out of my labor warranty for this particular tank. We offer 3 different installs for tank type water heaters: standard, deluxe, and premier. Any standard grade tank that we install will come with whatever the manufacturers warranty is for the tank and parts and a 1 year labor warranty from us. So even though the defect had nothing to do with us and our labor warranty was expired by two months, I chose to go ahead and replace it at no cost to the home owner because it just seemed like the right thing to do. Rheem did not hassle me at all about honoring their warranty either. So with the exception of the supply house (which the ho never knew anything about) these were examples of excellent customer service in action.

I'm still pretty ticked off about this. I just can't believe the nerve of these guys to try to extort more business from me in exchange for the warranty tank. It's also incredible to me that this goofus after failing in his attempt to get me to promise "to do better" would actually refuse to honor the warranty simply because I answered him with a rebuke rather than submission. Who do these people think they are!? Someone needs to explain to them that the gold rush days of the new construction business are over (at least for the time being) in North central Alabama.

These are tough economic times. I'm not talking about beating down the supply houses. I certainly am not the cheapest plumber around but I bring the goods. People routinely hire my company in spite of our expensiveness because they see and understand after talking with other "plumbing companies" the difference between us and them. So it's not always about money regardless of the economic state. On the other hand I would never dream of saying to one of my clients "Well Mrs. Jones, we can get a technician to your home this morning but I see here that you've only spent $250.00 so far with us this year. How can we get you to spend $1000.00? Can you imagine what sort of results that would yield!?

22rifle

You providing warranty service on another man's work is a completely different animal than a factory distributor doing it. It's part of the deal for them.

Tankless

When I have things like that, that I need to warranty, I just call and check stock. On things like cartridges I will ask if they have any warranty ones available before I remove it from the valve if I don't have it with me.

Smells, my only advice is this: pick your battles. If it were me, I prolly would have just brushed him off, but who knows. I agree that it was pretty ballsy of a thing to ask and hay, I did sales too...I know how it is. When I am running hard, I don't have the time to BS with idiots again... pick your battles bud, before you start needing to take high blood pressure meds!!

SewerRatz

All the supply houses here that carry Rheem, AO Smith and Bradford White charge me a $100 paper work fee if I was not the one that originally purchased the water heater. Yes I will do warranty work even if someone else installed it. Heck I still get paid for my labor. The one State distributer I deal with does an even exchange no matter where the heater was bought or who bought it.

__________________
Ron Hasil Lic #058-160417
A-Archer Sewer & Plumbing specializing in:
Tankless Water Heaters | Drain and Sewer Cleaning
Sump and Ejector Pumps | Backflow RPZ Testing

Bollinger plumber

Hey if you buy a chevy in st louis and you go to boston and it breaks down you don't go back to st louis to have it fixed under the factory warranty you have it fixed in boston at a chevy dealer. So why should a water heater be any different regardless of who put it in or who installed it. I am not going to go to mexico and track down juan del rio ortega vanzuela el hernandez to fix it just because he is the one that installled that particular part.

__________________
Only two devining forces have died for you. One is Jesus Christ and the other is the American soldier. One died for your soul the other died for your freedom.

Plumber Jim

That's part of being a distributor. The counter guy is just being an a** . Trying to bump sales in the wrong way.

pauliplumber

They charge the same here even if you bought it from them. Puts me in a tough situation, do I eat the $100 or try to explain to the customer why a warrantied heater is still gonna cost them. Usually if it's a good customer, I'll eat it.

grandpa

How often does Rheem want the tank back from you? Most of the time , I thought they just wanted the serial number tag off the unit/

22rifle

They allowed to do that?

DUNBAR PLUMBING

I have good relationships with the supply houses I deal with on a regular basis. The others I will not step foot in and they will never see my dollars again, it's that simple.

To get to that point, they've done something that didn't follow the routine of respect or there was an instance where they didn't have my best interest.

On the matters of these warranty issues, I usually let the customer do all the footwork because they have the most to gain, right?

Time spent in the matters of pulling tanks to give back bring one back put in another is mind numbing to say the least.

The worst situation I've been in is calling over the phone reading a serial tag and BAM! all I have to do is mail the serial code sticker or send it in to them next time I'm in.

I've said this more than once...but anytime you're in a supply house, you're losing money. There's only one bradford white distributor in my area and I won't buy from them just because of who they are and what they 'didn't' do for me years ago.

Their loss, not mine. Loyalty can be bought and sold on ebay these days it seems....

I probably would of beat them down like redheaded stepchilds as well, just to rehearse for the next time! LOL!!

__________________
Northern Kentucky Plumbers | YouTube Videos | Twitter Feed