MARIETTA'S PLUMBING & HEATING

We met down-to-earth Marietta in March, 2013. We worked with her & her organized assistant Donna closely. Marietta's firm filled out all of our paperwork, etc. We worked with them closely until installation day finally, excitedly came in August, 2013. Our total fee actually included Marietta to fill out ALL paperwork (not all other firms do this) and Marietta was to also handle THE FINAL INSPECTION with Nassau County. After interviewing over 10 firms, we selected Marietta because her price was excellent, she understood our limited budget, our neighbor used her and said that she had done a good job (which we inspected), and she was truly a purely nice lady. We were so excited to do this work. I hugged Marietta when she came to see our home because I felt that she understood our needs and we would finally be doing this huge, important job. We saved and begged/borrowed for eons to make this happen. This was a HUGE DEAL for us! Installation day Marietta's team worked @12 hours. They came clean and left exhausted and very dirty (their clothes, etc.) due to the nature of our very hard job of removing our old, 1926 oil tank. They did not complain one iota and remained chipper/polite and professional (then). Furthermore, Donna & the Team put down matts and left our home clean. Donna told me a story of a woman who had white carpet in her home, which they converted before ours, and when Donna left that lady's home the carpet was still white. I totally believed her. Up to this point, the Team deserved an A. The next day we were so gloriously happy that I sent them a thank you note and I truly meant every sincere kind word, then. I also asked them to check into one of our administrative refunds, which they did upon my follow up. The only snag was an extra unexpected chimney fee. It was supposed to be included in the final fee, but due to an issue, Marietta charged us a significant extra sum which threw us off guard. We settled that and even though it took us an extra 6 months, I insisted that we pay her back every penny that we owed her. She was surprised that we were so honest and she profusely thanked us. We are not millionaires, but we take our bills and IOU's very seriously. Even on our additional payment cover letter, with the check enclosed, I had mentioned that we heard a very loud boom noise reverberating throughout our home often. I did not think much of it at the time and Marietta & Crew did not inquire further. I dreamed of the day that we could invite them back and investigate WHY. In Sept., 2013 I wrote a letter of appreciation to National Grid even on behalf of Marietta and I regularly referred her to others in my community. About 16 months later, in December, 2014, we invited Marietta's crew back to give us an estimate for another, different plumbing issue. To our dismay, their fee was very high, so we got an Angie's List membership and began interviewing other local, phenomenal plumbers who came highly recommended via A.L. After reviewing the other issue with the Estimate Plumbers, I also mentioned to all of them that we often heard a loud noise reverberating thoughout our home, and you could hear it even in China! EACH of the Estimate Plumbers mentioned that that loud noise was due to the inaccuracies of our boiler!!! I was instantly depressed/angry. I had this confirmed by an expert and it was deemed true. We had spent all of our $ to have it installed in the first place in 2013. So I instantly called back Marietta's office and left a voice mail that we had a problem in late December, 2014. I also sent Marietta & Donna a marked up diagram with all of the problems (as told to me by the other Estimate Plumbers) by fax on the same day which included a copy of our boiler handbook. No response. A week later, on January 7, 2015 I sent a follow up e-mail. (I had given them the benefit of the doubt about the holidays, but a week is a week.) No response. I followed up again by e-mail on January 18, 2015. On January 19, 2015 they responded that ?they would call me to come and take a look.? That began the long wait. 4.5 MONTHS after I had originally contacted them, after SEVERAL delays and cancellations on their end, Donna and a co-worker finally showed up on Saturday morning, April 18th. By this point I was still hopeful that they would fix the problematic issues. I had never said anything but the truth about what I discovered was the problem and I outrightly told them so. Niceness had left the building 4 months ago. Now it was just down to plain fact. Perhaps this had ruffled Marietta's crew's feathers. That was never my intention. I just wanted it correctly fixed! Instead, Marietta's crew notified me that: 1) Only one issue really needed to be fixed, from our many issues, 2) that her firm?s work ?was perfect?, and 3) ?The manufacturer?s recommendations did not have to be 100% met, they were just recommendations?. "Was our boiler working?" "Did we have heat?" Then everything was OKAY! Period. Marietta's crew adamantly refused to fix anything else!!! After waiting over 4.5 MONTHS for this appointment, after numerous cancellations on their end, they spent 45 min. in my home and only fixed ONE item. They also looked at our radiators for a moment and legitimately tried to help with a few of those. Thank you. But this "fix" was OVER THE TOP INADEQUATE in my book. I was amazingly calm, but I was also internally livid. Three days later, on April 21, 2015, I sent Marietta an e-mail strongly requesting that we have our final Nassau County boiler inspection, which oddly never took place before, and was under MARIETTA'S PLUMBING's JURISDICTION. In my 4/21/15 e-mail I included the inspector?s name, telephone number, and hours to schedule appointments with him. Still there was no response from Marietta. That is when I began to take matters into my own hands by contacting the Nassau County Building Department. I was told that only the master plumber, Marietta, could make this appointment. NOT the homeowner! WEEKS PASSED. NO ACTION. One day Donna told us we needed fire detectors and CO2 detectors on each FLOOR of our home. I went out and bought them and had them installed IMMEDIATELY. Finally Donna told us that the inspection was set. After sadly one failed attempt, which took weeks for Donna to agree to make at all ("It will be AT OUR CONVENIENCE, NOT YOURS!" [per Sweet Donna's voice mail], on May 13th, the inspector was finally requested by Marietta/Donna to return. In a relatively short amount of time, once the Nassau County boiler inspector arrived, he determined that many of the issues that the other plumbers had advised me about and which I had asked Marietta to address continuously since approx. December 30, 2014 were unacceptable to Nassau County?s standards. Here is a breakdown of what needed to be fixed in the boiler and the water heater: 1. Feed boiler through return line 2. Pipe header to manufacturer?s specifications; pipe size swing 3. Hartford loop per manufacturer?s specifications 4. Piping into water heater is incorrect. 5. (An auto feeder is preferable here) 6. Equalizer to manufacturer?s specifications 7. Relief valve discharge is NOT to code 8. Missing smoke alarms in ALL UPSTAIRS BEDROOMS I understand from many sources that steam boilers are tough and I defended Marietta's firm to all that they worked so h****** our installation day. I didn't "out" them to anyone, by name, prior to TODAY. But sadly NO MASTER PLUMBER NOR DONNA were at our home for either of the scheduled FIRST 2 final inspections to go over these issues with the inspector themselves in person!!!! That was VERY ODD to me, being as ONLY the MASTER PLUMBER could REQUEST the appointment in the first place, so if there were a problem, then the inspector could tell the plumber directly. Okay. At that point, I continued to strongly request A REFUND from Marietta to have ANOTHER plumber just do the work, but Marietta's firm returned to correct the needed issues (with attitude at this point in my opinion) on May 22nd. They corrected the items that the inspector said were mandatory. This update took them SEVERAL HOURS. (Not just 45 min. as it had on April 19th.) Trying to schedule inspection #3 took some time due to the inspectors' summer vacations, internal issues at Marietta's, etc. Finally BOTH the inspector AND Donna returned on June 9, 2015 for our ***AUGUST, 2013*** FINAL NASSAU COUNTY BOILER INSPECTION, which finally passed. I was happy. But then I found out in the late fall, 2015, from people that I trusted, that there were still some issues, despite passing, which were still generally overall incorrect. Ugh!! If you use Marietta's Plumbing & Heating services make sure that the inspection takes place soon after your work is completed. It took me 4.5 months from the time that I informed Marietta in late December, 2014 until we passed in June, 2015 that we had a problem to come at all. Busy season/cold or not, that is poor customer service! It also took 22 months (from August, 2013 to June, 2015) to schedule and pass the Nassau County inspection at all! Oversight? Coincidence? My neighbors, who recommended Marietta to us, did not have a final Nassau County inspection either I found out later, after many years. After so much time has passed, I still feel very deeply and very strongly that Marietta's team, professionally did not do right by us. And furthermore, no one should have had to call, write, fax, send e-mails, and follow up, etc. as many times, to as many people that I did, to get a result that you paid for, with every penny that you have, from the outset. Was this all really necessary? Recently, we had the entire system repiped by another great firm. Not free. But perfect now.

Donna and Marietta are the nicest ladies in the world! They did a great job except... They didn't push the the washing machine against the wall when they were finished - they didn't even ask if I wanted them to. And they created a 1 piece valve but made it just barely above the washing machine (once it's pushed back). It's possible they didn't measure properly, they just eye balled it.. I don't know. Otherwise.. they are great to work with.