Hot Water Heater Saga

Our hot water heater broke 3 months ago.  A home warranty came with the house at its purchase last year, and the hot water heater itself was still under warranty from its original purchase when the house was built. I'll skip all the gory details of trying to work with the home warranty company. But finally, finally, yesterday was the day of installation for the new water heater. Here continues the saga...

After Dave did ALL of the work making phone calls,  tracking down, ordering, and picking up the replacement water heater, the plumber forced on us by the home warranty company came out yesterday to install it. He got here at 3:30 and immediately started trying to negotiate his fee with Dave claiming he was owed more money for all the time he put in making phone calls, etc. Dave kept telling him it was the home warranty company who would be paying him, not us.

Dave was confused as to exactly what the plumber was expecting to get paid for because DAVE did all the phone calling. At one point, when Dave was trying to pin him down on exactly what charges the plumber felt he was owed for, he said he had to sit around for 3 hours once waiting for a return phone call from somebody. Apparently he wanted to bill us for those 3 hours! Heaven help us if the person hadn't returned the phone call until the next day!!!.

He finally announced he was done at 8:00 pm and Dave went out to wrap things up with him (after we were stuck not being able to fix dinner because the water was turned off the whole time). Dave noticed a leak and pointed it out. The leak was from a bad solder and the whole tank had to be drained, the pipe completely dried out and resoldered.

It leaked again. Drain, dry, resolder. It leaked AGAIN.

He repeated that process from 8:00 pm until 1:30 AM until he finally soldered it correctly!!!!!!!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Dave and I just sat inside the house in stunned amazement. What kind of a plumber doesn't know how to solder properly, and what kind of plumber stays at someone's house until 1:30 in the morning trying to finish the job? I guess I have to admire the guy's persistence, though. We were stuck over a barrel because this was the only plumbing company the home warranty company would authorize to install the water heater.

But at least we finally have a fully functioning hot water heater again.