Eric L.
We were experiencing an issue with our four year old tankless water heater. The code said it had a venting issue. Before reaching out to a company, I performed some simple tasks to ensure proper venting, but the problem persisted. We would still get hot water; the unit would shutdown/reset intermittently and water would go cold. An annoyance, but still needed to be rectified. As I was looking for a company to call to look at the water heater, I didn’t want to use a “jack of all trades” company due to poor experiences with them professionally. They seemed to be more interested in the upsell than just performing the needed task and preying on the vulnerabilities of customers. When I came across Mike Bachman Plumbing I was excited to see that not only were they just plumbers, but they also specialized in tankless water heaters. I called dispatch who was very friendly. She informed me of the dispatch price and that if the tech needed to do any work that it would be discussed at the appointment. I was also able to secure a next day appointment. I was out of town so my wife was taking care of the appointment. The tech happened to come while she was gone picking up one of our children from school so my older child let the tech in to get started. Shortly after the arrival, I received a phone call from the tech explaining that the dispatch fee was in addition to another fee that was based on the presumed difficulty in troubleshooting the unit. This added about three times the dispatch fee and the tech would not touch the unit until agreement to make this payment was made. Shortly into the conversation my wife returned home and agreed feeling a little trapped since he was already there. The unit was not a brand that this company installs and the tech was up front that he wasn’t familiar with it. He spent the next hour and a half or so performing some of the same simple tasks that I had already done among others and talking on the phone and seeming generally unsure of what to do with the unit. Once, he finished with what he felt like he could do, he indicated he would need to call the manufacturer on a different date and that would cost an hourly rate that may or may not resolve the issue or we could have them install a new tankless water heater. The tech also told us the unit was junk anyway and a new unit would be advisable. Upon the tech leaving I was left with a water heater that now wasn’t working at all with no hope of getting it working, a much larger than expected bill, and a quote for a new unit. I was at a loss for where to go next. I am a fairly mechanical individual so I thought maybe I can replace the unit myself. I researched the water heater they wanted to put in and found it to be a third of what they were going to charge for install. At that point I knew I wasn’t going to use them for installation because they had just turned it the “jack of all trades” type of company and wanted to upsell me. In the end I would never recommend Mike Bachman plumbing due to misleading house call fees, lack of knowledge unless it is familiar equipment, and preying on vulnerabilities of customers. *Update: No call yesterday for anyone who may have been wondering. **Update: I did receive a call the next day and talked with Vic. I explained my experience as described above and he was very nice and apologetic. He worked to make things as right as possible. Doesn’t change what happened, but I can appreciate the integrity of a company willing to own mistakes and strive to make things right for the customer.
