I have a newly built home and contracted a company for a water softener, under sink reverse osmosis filter system, and Elkay water dispenser installation. They subcontracted to Utility Plumbing. The first thing they did was to install the water softener in the garage. They should have installed the system in the corner of the garage, near the tankless water heater, so it would be out of the way. Instead they installed it in the middle of the wall, blocking the water manifold access panel, and in a position to be hit with a car door when parked in the garage. I informed them that the system needed to be moved left, into the corner, out of the way. I came back days later to find that the system had been moved...but to the right! Near the door that leads into the house. Eventually, it got moved into the correct position. Then they installed the under sink filter that feeds the water dispenser and ice machine located in the wet bar. When attaching the array of filters to the inside of the cabinet, Ivan used 3 inch long drywall screws instead of much shorted ones, considering it’s the thickness of a cabinet. He poked holes into a $3,000 ice maker! The issue was only discovered when the ice maker wasn’t making ice because the valve behind the ice machine was turned off. The appliance man had a hard time pulling out the machine, and it was severely gouged and scratched down the side, as it was being held in by the screws. The ice machine was hooked up to the house water, but was supposed to be hooked up to the reverse osmosis. When Ivan was making the connections to the ice maker, he released the pressurized water system into my new cabinetry making a HUGE mess of water. I had to check to see if it was dry to the touch 3 times! The client should not have to go behind and check the work of a professional because it should be done right the first time! THEN there was the Elkay water dispenser. The filter lights on the front of the machine were flashing because it was not connected to a genuine filter. The main contractor assured me that there was a way to get the lights to quit flashing, and he sent Ivan over to resolve that issue. Mr. Ivan removed the front cover to the machine, and without turning off power to the machine, fiddled with the wiring and shorted out the machine, rendering it useless, and requiring a replacement. That was a $1,200 mistake. Professionals don’t make those kinds of mistakes. If you don’t know what you are doing...say so! I thought that my run ins with this company were through, but I was wrong. I just so happened to open up my cabinet today and saw water standing there! As I frantically looked for where the leak was coming from, I noticed that a blue plastic little water line coming from the filters into the water chiller was just shoved on there. No clamp, no fitting, just forced on there as hard as it could. I contacted the contractor and asked for competent plumbers to come and fix the issue of the leak, and low and behold Ivan shows up at my door. He ended up placing a compression fitting onto the water line (which is what should’ve been done in the first place) and called it a day. When I asked him why it wasn’t done in the first place, he didn’t seem to have an answer. I can surely understand ANYONE making a mistake or two...but this many on 1 job by 1 person? IN NO WAY A PROFESSIONAL! Maybe if you have some basic plumbing job Ivan MIGHT be amateur enough to complete it...but I would say that you are better off watching a YouTube video and doing it yourself. At least that way you will know what kind of job was done.
