E T'S PLUMBING

It went well! The overall experience was very good. ET's Plumbing is a father and son team that is contracted through Lowe's. At the time, Lowe's had a special on installations for about $170. They arrived on time, and were very clean and efficient. When opening up the package of the new faucet, they found a defect. Once spotted, his son went back and found a replacement faucet for me. While at the store getting the replacement, he made sure to check for any other defects before he left Lowe's. When his son returned they were all ready to complete the installation and they did so quickly and neatly.

They did a super job with the water heater. They did a super job when they came out. They took their time with what they were doing, they were doing it right.

unknown

Our 14 year old gas hot water heater recently quit while we were on vacation. When we came back I ordered a new one from Lowe’s. Lowe’s subcontracts hot water heater installations to a local contractor (E.T.’s Plumbing). The replacement heater was essentially identical to the old one and would be located in the same location, which was in the attic. I mentioned the attic location during the phone call. Lowe’s gave me an over the phone quote of $1,202.25 for the heater including installation (to be performed by E.T.s). The gas heater with extra hardware and permit to meet code cost $732.25. The rest ($470.00) was for installation labor. The labor quote supposedly covered the attic location as well. Anyway, I called E.T’s to schedule the installation. They asked if I wanted a detailed estimate before they did the work. I said, fine if it didn’t slow up the process. Since I was without hot water for several days I was anxious to get the new one installed. Their detail estimator came by within a few hours, but gave me no information about his estimate. The following day Lowe’s called me with a total cost estimate of $2387.00, an increase of $1,184.75 over the original estimate! I was quite surprised since, they were aware that this was a huge increase over their original quote. Lowe’s said that E.T.s would require four men to do the job and would have to install additional equipment to bring the installation up to code. Our house is a single story 14 year old house with a pull down set of stair to the attic. Four men seemed to me to be a bit too much for the job. Since I was in no position to argue I told Lowe’s to give the “go ahead” to E.T.s Plumbing. Later that day (around 2PM) E.T.s Plumbing arrived with two men. They went right to work and in less than 3 hours they had removed the old water heater and completed installation of the new one. They then had me inspect the new water heater and gave me a complete description of the work they had done. Everything appeared satisfactory and we had hot water in less than an hour. I have no complaint about Lowe’s water heater or the installation work performed by E.T.s. But, it seemed to me that the estimate for installation cost escalated much more than it should have. According to several sites on the internet gas hot water installation should cost no more than a few hundred dollars per Lowe’s original estimate.

When we scheduled the service, we were scheduled first in a morning slot (9 - 12) and told that our plumber would be dispatched to pick up the toilet at Lowe's at 8:30. Before 9:00 the morning of the installation, we received a phone call informing us that the plumber had picked up the toilet and was on his way. He arrived shortly afterward. When I explained we had been unable to turn off the valve behind our old toilet, the plumber demonstrated its function to me and turned off the water. He also asked me to turn off the main valve by the water softener, which I did. We asked him to install a new valve as well. His paperwork didn't include this task and he informed me there would be an additional charge. I checked this out with Lowe's and the amount of the charge and all other details were just as the plumber said. I was able to pay over the phone to Lowe's. Our plumber's work was done efficiently. He saved the packaging for us, at my request, and even dug out the large box that the main toilet unit had been packaged in from under a couple items in his truck. He showed me how the new valve worked. He was polite, friendly and professional in all his work. We love our new toilet and the painless installation!

I was happy with all aspects of the job except for the cost. The cost to remove a failed hot water heater, install the new hot water heater with a surge tank, replace interconnecting plumbing and valve, and to haul the old heater away wasabout 3 times the cost of the new water heater. I felt the cost was excessive, but I was under a time constraint and the additional cost was acceptable to me. Otherwise, I would have taken more time and attempted to find a more economical solution. I was pleased with the companies work, it was just expensive.

The Lowe's toilet is fine; the SAWS toilet (lower quality but widely distributed throughout San Antonio) leaks. If I put my hand under the tank where the line joins it, water is leaking out. ET's came back and said that their experience w/SAWS toilets tells them that the tank is defective and water is leaking through the tank material itself. I questioned whether/not they could determine that w/o removing the tank. They will not warranty their work on this toilet because they did not provide it and will give me no satisfaction.