Veteran's Plumbing & Drain LLC

***Long story short***

- NEGATIVE 5 stars for Veterans Plumbing and Drain LLC. BEWARE & DO NOT USE THEM
- Aug 17 2017. Gas water heater fails, noticed around 5:30 am.
- Called Home warranty customer service and Veterans Plumber's arrive around 2 PM
- Veterans Plumber’s leave saying will call back in 2 hours, 2 hours passed no update .
- Aug 18 2017. Took break from work. Not convinced, multiple calls to home warranty and Veterans Plumbing, Veterans plumber says thermocouple and burner assembly has to be changed.
- Still not convinced, 3 more calls to plumbers in area and Bluefrog plumber arrives around 12 pm.
- SHOCKED TO FIND SERIAL NUMBER LABEL STOLEN from heater which was there on Aug 17 before Veterans Plumber's left. Gave serial number from picture taken before.
- Bluefrog plumber finds the issue with gas valve not thermocouple burner assembly in ~20 mins. Around 2:30 pm Gas water heater up and running after gas valve was replaced.
- Shocker from water heater manufacturer, water heater will loose next 3 years manufacturer warranty as serial number sticker is not present in the heater now.

***Full details***

--Aug 17 2017 Called my home warranty customer service for a problem with Gas water heater at home and they sent QUALIFIED TECHNICIANS of Veterans Plumbing. Jose and another person came in and removed the burner assembly looked at it in all directions for a while and told me that they do not have the right spare to replace and will have to look for it. Point to be noted is they did not tell me what the problem was or which part needs to be changed. Told me they will call back in 2 hours to update and then left. 2 hours passed with no update.

--Aug 18 2017 No call yet from Veterans Plumbing. Seeing family suffer in the morning, called them to understand where they are with the issue and asked which part is faulty to see if I can buy it somewhere else and speed up things due to family need. Front office transfers call to Frank and the answer is Thermocouple and burner assembly has to be changed. I am not convinced as I already spoke to AO SMITH customer service, manufacturer of my Gas Water heater. When I tried to explain him what I was trying to do, he said he knows what he is doing and hanged the phone on me.

Called BlueFrog Scottsdale and they were available to come between 12 and 2 PM. They were right on time and THERE WAS A SHOCKER waiting for me.

Alex was the technician from Bluefrog, he told me what he was going to do and was searching for the serial number of the heater. Serial number label was missing which was there on Aug 17. Luckily I had taken a picture of it on Aug 17 7:43 am and I was able to give Alex the serial number from it. While Alex started his diagnosis, called up Veterans Plumbing and asked for the serial number label and they said no one took it. Since Aug 17 7:43 am when I took the picture of the serial number label till Aug 18 ~12:20 PM there were only 3 outsiders in my garage. Frank and another plumber from Veterans Plumbing and then Alex, I was with Alex from the moment he entered the garage and till we found the label was missing.

Within 20 mins Alex found the issue and he told me the problem was with the Honeywell valve, not the Thermocouple burner assembly. He made couple of calls and came back with the new valve by 2:20 pm, next 15-20 mins heater was up and running.

Since I did not register my heater and anyone/technicians can call AO SMITH and order parts with the serial number stolen from my house called AO SMITH and asked them to flag my serial number so no one else other than me can order parts or replace the heater. Another shocker was waiting there, I came to know that I have 3 more years of manufacturer warranty and now since the serial number label is stolen my heater will not be covered.

I will be calling Veterans Plumbing on Aug 21 (Monday) and explain this to someone in a Manager level to see if I can retrieve the serial number label back. Will update what happens next.

Awesome Company ! Had to call these guys to help with a clogged tub ! They asked what time worked for me ! Awesome ! They came out that same day ! Got the job done ! Very professional and polite ! Veterans Plumbing is reliable ! Honest ! Frank was very polite and explained to me what he did and that all cost was covered by home warranty! I will only use Vertrans Plumbing in the future !

If I could give zero stars I would. They don’t answer calls or return messages, they don’t show up when they say they will, and they don’t fix the problem even after coming twice to address it. Customer service is atrocious. The only reason we used them is because of the home warranty company. Listen to the other reviews on here and avoid this company.