YellowFever
New member
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Unscrupulous repairmen in Orange County Irvine
- Thread starter YellowFever
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Gotta watch out for those Yelp reviews.. never that reliable. Glad to hear you found a quicker cheaper way to fix it.
What's the name of the company?
I once saw Anita Lau, the prolific Yelp food blogger, at Cucina Enoteca at the Spectrum. She was getting comped left and right with flights of wine and food. I didn't figure out who she was until she whipped out her camera and started taking shots of food porn. Sure enough, the place got a glowing review!
But it works both ways. I've heard of many business owners who have received threats of a bad review unless a customer's bill was waived or discounted.
The South Park episode about Yelp reviewers is spot on then!
J
jmoney74
Guest
MagicJ1zz said:Long story short:
-Power Vent Water heater broke. Ignition but no flame. My home is only 9 years old so original water heater in great condition. (very clean, no leaks, cracks, etc)
-Called a 5-star Yelp Reviewed OC Water Heater repair company
-Guy shows up next morning, takes one look for 30 seconds, turns on and off, and says to me "Yeah, you know these things are complicated, if I start changing parts, it might not work, then we'll go nowhere. Usually parts are $600.. but I don't want to do it. It could end up costing a $1000. I can sell you a tankless system for $2700! or you can stick to a replacement unit for $2300". I just changed one of your neighbors in your same village to tankless as well.
-I looked at him. He then says "There's a rebate for $200 for the tankless water heater, I'll apply for the rebate for you. So then how about $2500 ?
This went on back and forth for 5 minutes.
Finally, I was thinking to myself... this is supposed to be a repair call, not a salesman job. I asked him what the problem is. Is it mechanical or electrical? He told me it's electrical. He wouldn't elaborate further.
I sent him on his way and he didn't charge me for the visit but I immediately suspected BS and knew that he knew EXACTLY what the problem was...as he operates in Irvine/OC a lot and knows of these power vent units.
Finally, I spent the night to research for 2 hours and finally discovered that the problem is quite common and is likely to be the gas valve/thermostat integrated unit. This unit costs $200 on Amazon. I figured I repair it myself. If it didn't work, I could return it to Amazon.
Well GUESS WHAT!!! I swaped it out, it took me 30 minutes, and I HAVE HOT WATER NOW. What a FUCKIN' a$$hole these unscrupulous repairmen people are...
To be honest, I don't mind paying $600 for the part + labor. I understand he has to make money on the labor and time. But he flat out REFUSED to fix it. He threw a sales pitch and told me to buy his tankless system instead.
Gotta watch out for those Yelp reviews.. never that reliable. Glad to hear you found a quicker cheaper way to fix it.
YellowFever
New member
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J
jmoney74
Guest
MagicJ1zz said:
What's the name of the company?
zubs said:
I once saw Anita Lau, the prolific Yelp food blogger, at Cucina Enoteca at the Spectrum. She was getting comped left and right with flights of wine and food. I didn't figure out who she was until she whipped out her camera and started taking shots of food porn. Sure enough, the place got a glowing review!
But it works both ways. I've heard of many business owners who have received threats of a bad review unless a customer's bill was waived or discounted.
J
jmoney74
Guest
WTTCHMN said:
The South Park episode about Yelp reviewers is spot on then!
momopi
Well-known member
New construction homes have builder's warranty from 1-10 years on various things. Although water heaters and heating/AC units are not typically warrantied to 10 years by builder or builder's subcontractor, you'd be surprised at how well some treat their customers/end users. When my heating unit was acting up after 8 or 9 years, I called the builder's subcontractor and they came out to fix it, only charged me $100-something for the parts and did not ask for any labor fees. I tipped the guy $20.
My contractor can soemtimes find scratch and dent el cheapo water heaters for $200-something, we use them for rental properties. People prefer mint looking stuff so there's a lot of discounts to be had with scratch and dent. On used Dell PC's, for example, you can save an additional 1/3 buying scratch and dent models. Save even more buying them without HDD. Install your own SSD and Win 10 (use Win7 license sticker on case).
My contractor can soemtimes find scratch and dent el cheapo water heaters for $200-something, we use them for rental properties. People prefer mint looking stuff so there's a lot of discounts to be had with scratch and dent. On used Dell PC's, for example, you can save an additional 1/3 buying scratch and dent models. Save even more buying them without HDD. Install your own SSD and Win 10 (use Win7 license sticker on case).
YellowFever
New member
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