Business ProfileforWahl Family Heating, Cooling & Plumbing

Called **** because I didn't have hot water and noticed the hot water tank pilot light was out and wouldn't reignite. I was told on the phone a technician would be out with a "fully loaded truck" and that they would have me with hot water by the end of the day. This was Friday afternoon, so I felt lucky to have called ****.Technician came out, timely, and was polite.He told me that the water heater needed two parts, he detected a gas leak in the line leading to my dryer at the shutoff valve and had to turn it off and performed a free, full safety check of my boiler furnace. Eyeballing the furnace and serial number he told me it was old, outdated, inefficient and probably due to be replaced and that a valve (that another heating and cooling expert turned off) was leaving the furnace at risk for a massive explosion. He had solutions. Replace the furnace with a combination furnace and hot water tank in one ($23,000), a hot water tank, installed with expansion tank (to avoid an explosion), new, updated gas line to the hot water tank ($4100) or a tankless water heater ($6700). All packages included the repair of the gas leak. He couldn't repair the gas line unless I purchased something that day. He couldn't sell or install a regular hot water heater without all the "safety upgrades" because they are master plumbers and at risk for losing their *********** hours later he left. I had no hot water I had a gas line that was not repaired and a bunch of paperwork with pricing for things I didn't ask for. I called a different plumbing company that same evening. They came to my house the following Monday and installed the exact same water tank with an expansion tank for less than half the price **** quoted, without all the unnecessary safety upgrades that were perfectly safe and in working order to begin with. The gas leak was a connection that needed to be tightened.**** Plumbing is scamming /scaring people into buying unnecessary upgrades. Terrible business practice.

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. We understand that not having hot water is frustrating and can be stressful. Our goal is to help our customers to feel supported during these situations and we apologize that we didnt do a better job of that. Were sure that you werent pleased to find out that on top of needing to repair or replace your water heater you also had a gas leak and an aging boiler system. Thats a lot to take in at the same time!From what you shared, and from the paperwork created by the technician from the visit, it sounds as if ************** did a thorough evaluation on the complete system and provided the diagnostics included in our flat trip/diagnostic fee. We understand that it can be frustrating to wait for parts to become available, especially without hot water. While we do our best to keep our trucks fully stocked its unfortunately not possible for us to carry all of the parts needed for every make and model of water heater. Especially in this case because thermopiles and igniter assemblies arent among the most commonly failed water heater parts.Due to the age of the water heater, the cost of the repairs, and the availability of the parts it sounds as though ************** did the right thing in suggesting that you consider replacing your water heater. We find that a lot of our customers who have boilers enjoy the benefits of combining their heat and domestic hot water in home energy efficient combi boiler. Being that your boiler is over 20-years old it would make sense that ************** made you aware of the benefits of replacing both appliances with one unit that does both. The complimentary inspection of the boiler was a way for ************** to help you to know what type of issues you might expect to see with the heating system over the next 6 to 12 months. We believe in providing our customers all of the information so that they can make the decision that works best for them.As far as were aware the culprit for the tragedy that occurred in ********* has yet to be identified. Our goal is never to frighten our customers but our policy is to treat any potential fire or explosion hazards seriously as a precaution. Upon review we see that ************** did follow our process for identifying/confirming, and documenting the gas leak. We can see from his list of repair options that he did provide a basic repair option for as low as $282 to repair the gas leak at the dryer. That basic repair option was listed in option A.Immediate, along with the basic water heater repair pricing. (This was his last option above the total of all options on immediate.)Plumbing code does require water heaters to be installed with expansion tanks to prevent the danger of thermal expansion. This is not a scare tactic but in fact a requirement for the safe use and operation of a water heater and something that would be flagged during a county health department inspection. We cant speak for other companies but we can say that our company is committed to installing our products and services to state and local building codes or better. Our commitment to installing water heaters, boilers, and HVAC equipment properly is in writing as part of our done right guarantee which states that well be responsible for the correctness of our work for the lifetime of our installation. If its not, we make it right, at no charge to our customers. That guarantee along with our complete repair/replace warranty is included in all of our system installations at no extra charge to our customers. Because we include everything required for the safety and proper function of heating/cooling, and water heating equipment, the repair and new system installation pricing you listed does accurately reflect the quotes that we provided which we did offer with no and low interest financing.We appreciate your right to choose the repair/replacement options that work best for you even when that choice isnt to work with our company. We hope that in hindsight you can appreciate the value of some or all other information that ************** provided. If youd like to discuss this further please reach out to our office.Thank you.