Noisy water heater power vent

[ottertailguy]

Replaced it, new water hater and labor

[WWW]

Hope you gave that guy a tip for his good work so he at least made a few bucks on the job. Im sure the gas company made a few bucks but they really put the screws to those installers.

[Redlantern]

A tip? I've never heard of tipping the plumber and I'm a plumber. I must be working in the wrong part of town.

[Tom7227]

Hope you gave that guy a tip for his good work so he at least made a few bucks on the job. Im sure the gas company made a few bucks but they really put the screws to those installers.

I am interested in this issue. I infer that the prepaid appliance 'insurance' outfits will only pay a set fee for a firm that they chose to do the work. Is that what you mean WWW? Given the chance something going wrong I don't see how a flat fee could be acceptable to those companies.

I am not a fan of theses types of plans.

[WWW]

From the companies Ive dealt with the sub contractor gets a ridiculous low flat fee for the installation. This includes delivery of the appliance, installation, haul away of the old appliance, permit and any warranty issues. Also with this the sub contractor gets to wait typically 30 to 60 days or more for payment. If these sub contractors are not able to staff people to do the installs on short notice they are off the list.

For the sub contractor to make any money on these jobs they either need to hire very cheap labor, cut corners or hope for ad ons that they can charge through the nose for. I know of one company that use the installs as a loss leader just for the ad ons that typically run over $400 per hour. This is a good deal for the store selling the appliance. All the expense and risk goes to the poorly paid sub contractor. Yes the customer gets a cheap water heater. Have seen many times after the ads ons they pay just as much or more for that cheap heater than what we sell a good quality heater with a real warranty for.

For big box store warranties you dont need to look any farther than the big sticker on the appliance that says "do not call or return to store for warranty".

I received a tip on one of my service calls yesterday and by no way am I close to being the cheapest plumber in my area.