The Tankless Plumber

Contacting this plumber was a mistake. Andy Bello's representative, Ray Sanchez, said our water should not be running cold and that he could fix our problem. He recommended flushing both water heaters to remove mineral build up for $330. We had him do this plus he also capped a pipe which cut off all water to one of our bathrooms. (He uncapped that pipe, but charged us for that mistake he made). He asked that I write a check out to him personally rather than Tankless Plumber or Andy Bello Plumbing. Flushing the heaters didn't fix our problem and instead CAUSED a new problem: one of our heaters was now leaking when it had never leaked before. Ray explained that we needed a new heat exchanger, which seemed very strange, but since it turned out to be covered by our warranty, we agreed. He installed this for an additional $360. The unit no longer leaked, but the water in both units was still quickly running cold, which was our original problem. Ray said there must be a crossed water line and for an additional $225 he could find where that was in the house. After exploring this option he concluded there was no crossed line, but suggested the real problem must be inadequate air flow to one of the heaters (which was in a closet with a vent to the outside). I told him that heater had been installed per specifications including air capacity and that it had been working fine for the past five years. I also told him he could contact the manufacturer and they could run a report on all error codes our water heaters had ever had, which he was oblivious about and had clearly never done before for any tankless water heaters he had ever worked on. At this point we had paid Ray almost $1,000, but still had the original problem we had called him to repair and he still seemed to be clueless as to how to fix it. I ran the hot water heater with the closet door open for maximum air supply and called Ray to tell him the water still ran cold. He suggested soaking the shower heads in CLR. I did this and the problem still persisted. When I contacted Ray to report this he became increasingly annoyed and his attitude shifted to this being OUR problem and not HIS to fix. He became very belligerent and told us we should go purchase new shower heads and if he had to come to our house again there would be an additional service charge. When I suggested he might consider improving his customer service, here is his verbatim text he sent me: "TEACH ME DUMMIE (sic). I'M DYING TO HERE (sic) WHAT YOU GOT TO SAY SO I CAN LEARN HOW TO MAKE MYSELF BELIEVE MY SHIT DON'T STINK, AND SO FULL OF MYSELF, THEN ILL (sic) WRITE A BOOK... STOP TEXTING ME." I would recommend that anyone with a plumbing problem steer clear of this business and if anyone does know of a competent plumber, I'm still in the market to find one for our plumbing problem. Robert N.

Almost perfectly. There was a delay in delivery from the manufacturer of the tankless heater. Andy, however, stayed the course - although it delayed him several hours - and completed the job to perfection before he left. Work was neat, clean, ordered and reflected true professionalism. Everything was tested out and explained. We are extremely pleased with the installation, the product, and the performance. Looking forward to significant savings in propane costs. Any is an experienced individual who could probably solve complicated installs. Ours was relatively simple since we had an outside closed where the old 75 gallon tank used to sit. He is also very engaging and an interesting man to talk to. Make sure you understand the credit charges before you continue. Some "infinity" cards may cost more to use because of the premium they place on small business.

The start was fine the execution was lacking. Before the job we discussed the install in detail. I left the house with Andy beginning the install and upon my return there was a helper and no Andy. The problem was that the plan of install somehow changed from what was originally discussed and I was not happy that Andy did not communicate the change nor was he there doing the install upon my return. He left for another job and to get supplies. I called him and he immediately (45 minutes) returned to address the issues with the install. His helper/assistant was not as professional in his work as I would expect and was paying for. Upon Andy's return he was accommodating to change the install to reflect what we had originally discussed and in the end everything turned out well. However, it was clear that I had to physically be present to make sure things got done correctly which was not what I had planned. I was constantly questioning why something was being done and then he would say "oh yeah, that's right, much better idea" . Upon install of the exhaust fan the stucco on the exterior of the house had cracked. Needless to say I was not happy. Andy tried to minimize my concern by saying 3 out of 10 installs crack stucco. That is not what I wanted to hear as I wanted to know how he was going to fix it. He said this happens all the time and he just patches it with stucco pudding. Time will tell if it holds. Andy uses "standard" size piping and does not customize the fit using piping. This was disappointing to learn as it was clear from our discussion that I wanted a custom fit job. We ended up using a mixture of rigid and flexible gas piper for the job and it worked out well. A lot of frustration could have been avoided had he communicated install issues before trying to "make" things fit.

THEY TOOK CARE TO REMOVE THE OLD WATER HEATER VERY CAREFULLY. INSTALLED A NEW HEATER AND TESTED THE UNIT. THEY WERE VERY PUNCTUAL AND COURTEOUS. THEY EXPLAINED WHAT WE NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT THE NEW WATER HEATER.