SPRING RAIN LAWN SPRINKLERS

Still leaking had to be called back out.

While moving gas meters in our neighborhood, the gas company's contractor damaged some wiring in our neighbor's yard where the shared well for our two sprinkler systems is located. At my neighbor's request, the contractor had Gary from Spring Rain come and repair the wiring to get my neighbor's sprinklers working. That appeared to go fine, though it turned out later that Gary apparently reconnected the wiring improperly at that time. Since my sprinkler system still did not work, the gas contractor had me contact Spring Rain to set up a time for Gary to come out again. He came with two other guys (I'm not sure why that was necessary) and spent about two hours trying to figure out why our system wouldn't turn on the pump. He complained that our wiring was a mess (which, in all fairness, it was, though at least it used to work). Eventually he found that he could get the pump to turn on by connecting my +24 V control wire to my neighbor's relay switch, so he concluded the wiring was fine and my relay was bad. I therefore told him to send his bill to me rather than to the gas contractor, since the problem was not, apparently, due to damaged wiring. I then had the relay replaced by another company at my own expense. That turned out to cost nearly $700 because they had to put some exposed wiring into covered boxes. But that didn't solve the problem; the pump still wouldn't come on. I then realized that although Gary had indeed found a positive signal from our control wire, he apparently had not checked our common wire, so perhaps the problem was that the common wire was damaged somewhere between our house and the relay. I called Spring Rain back to have them come out again, but I was concerned that Gary did not seem to be very comfortable with electrical circuits and might not be able to diagnose the problem this time either, so before Spring Rain was able to get here again I had my usual sprinkler guy take a look at the wiring (at my own expense). My guy spent about four hours figuring out that the damaged wiring had been reconnected improperly to begin with (presumably by Gary during his first visit to fix my neighbors' sprinklers). My electrical system had actually been tied in with my neighbor's, which should not have happened. My usual sprinkler guy redid the connections, and located and repaired another damaged spot in my common wire. Everything then worked fine. When I called Spring Rain back to tell them it was fixed and that they did not need to come again, I also told them that since the problem had turned out to be the damaged wiring after all, the bill should go to the gas contractor as originally planned. The office person (Eileen) apparently had not understood that it was the gas contractor who was hiring Spring Rain (though she knew it was the contractor who had hired them for my neighbor's system, and I thought I had made it clear when I first called that I was calling at the contractor's request). She insisted on sending me the bill. I offered to have the gas contractor call her to reassure her that the bill should really go to the contractor, but she apparently thought I was trying to weasel out of the bill, and insisted she would send the bill to me and I would have to pay it and then get reimbursed by the contractor. The discussion became quite heated, and she hung up on me. I asked the gas company to call her, and that must have finally convinced her, because I never received the bill. (Hence my price estimate above is just my guess at what they probably billed the gas contractor for three men for two hours.) It was upsetting to have her treat me like I was lying or cheating. I can understand why the situation might not have been clear to her initially, but she should have been willing to at least entertain the possibility that I was telling the truth, and to at least check with the gas contractor before assuming I was lying. So in the end all they did for me was to reconnect the wiring incorrectly, then misdiagnose the problem and lead me on a $700 wild goose chase, and then treat me like a liar. I had worked very hard to be patient with them throughout the process (I always seemed to be low on their priority list and it took a long time for them to come out), and I did not even complain to Eileen about their misdiagnosis or my lost $700, so it was very disappointing to be treated that way.

Steve and his crew did an outstanding job. Two days and communication with the city and our system was ready to go. 10 zones that were tested and instructions given. Everything that I was physically shown was provided in writing. A diagram of all sprinklers and copy of permit were given to me and made for a great experience. Spring Rain came back after I did my flower beds and installed my soaker hoses. Steve offered to come back in the Spring should I need any modifications to my flower beds, and this Winter if I should need help with my winterizing. This was certainly, a great experience for us. Spring Rain did all they said they would do in the initial meeting and lay out of my yard.

Previously have had a few great usually average to good service. But on multiple occasions have had long delays in availability. Currently have complete system down in 100 degree heat and was put on 10 day wait followed by TWO cancellations. For someone who has spent thousands of dollars I consider this very poor customer service. Now that fed up, placed one phone call(from angies list) and found a guy to meet me next day!

Spring Rain Lawn Sprinklers originally installed the sprinkler system and it wears out fast. We have to have constant repairs. He said that the yard was too muddy from rain so he didn't want to get his shoes muddy and get in his truck.