comments

Alvin, thank you for taking the time to express your concerns. As clarification, pricing was given for the three items listed (thermocouple, gas valve, and door gasket), however, the gas valve and door gasket were stated in the notes that those costs would only be necessary if replacing the termocouple didn't resolve the issue of your water heater not working. Had the thermocouple been the only issue, that is the only charges that would have been due. Until the water heater was working with a thermocouple, it was unknown if further issues were present. Had they been, we wanted to be upfront and transparent on what additional steps would be taken. Additionally, as stated on the invoice notes, the cost of the diagnostic would have been applied to any repair costs. Our trip charge is separate than a diagnostic as the $39.00 trip charge offsets a portion of the cost of getting to your home (vehicle insurance, gas, overhead, etc.). I'll also point out that this trip charge was not collected in addition to the diagnostic as the technician chose to waive it. As a full diagnostic is only necessary in less than 5% of our service calls, it's difficult to tell if it will be necessary over the phone. We rely on our technicians to see the equipment and in a majority of cases they can determine the cause without a full diagnostic (which in this case took over an hour). We're glad that the second opinion found the same root cause with the thermocouple and that a gas valve was unnecessary and the door gasket was undamaged. Most importantly, we're glad you have hot water again!

Done Plumbing commented on 11/02/2015