Ampm Plumbing

Where do I begin. My water heater stopped working so I contacted my home warranty company, American Home Shield, to get someone out to take a look at my water heater in which AMPM Plumbing was assigned. The first employee that came out did not even check the water heater thoroughly as he just listened to it, noticed it was not making any noise, and deemed it as an electrical issue. AHS assigned me to an electrician who came out, actually took a look at the water heater, and noticed that at the top of the heater there was rust and corrosion causing the heater to back-up and leak through the top. AMPM Plumbing's employee did not even look at the top of the unit to determine if this was the issue. The problem was then reassigned to AMPM Plumbing and another employee came out, looked at the top of the heater, and said it needed to be replaced and that I would be contacted with information after AHS had authorized the replacement. AMPM contacted me and told me that the water heater through Rheem was still on a manufacture's warranty and that they contacted Rheem who said the exact unit had been upgraded to "more eco-friendly" units and because of this, they would have to Replace the water line ($189), TNP line ($189), and bonding and grounding ($99) since the new unit would not fit on the original box. This totals $477 that was not covered by the home warranty company and would be an out-of-pocket expense for me. They also told me that they have to replace the lines because they require their parts have a 1 year warranty to which I asked why do I need to pay for them to have a warranty required on their parts. I felt sketchy about the whole situation so I contacted AHS to see what my additional options were, especially because this whole process took over 2 weeks with no hot water. I decided to take the cash-in-lieu-of option which pays what AHS would have paid for the labor on the water heater and I hire my own contractor. I contacted a couple contractors to compare and all said that AMPM Plumbing was trying to make money off of me and they see it happen with a lot of home warranty contractors. Furthermore, I contacted the supply house here in AZ that carries Rheem water heaters and they said that they are still making the SAME EXACT model I have and that they were just awaiting a new shipment to come in. *FIRST LIE TOLD BY AMPM PLUMBING*. After speaking and shopping with a couple different contractors I chose one who has been in the industry for 30+ years who quoted me $315 ($100 for the warranty processing fee for the new unit and $215 for labor). AHS covered $180 in labor so out-of-pocket it only ended up costing me $135 for a brand new water heater and labor included with a 6 year warranty on the heater. Since the contractor was a specialist for Rheem products, he also checks on the unit yearly for free and fixes it free if there are any issues. He said that typically the piping is included in labor and since the water heater he got was the SAME EXACT unit it was not necessary to "modify" all these things AMPM Plumbing was saying to do and that it is a typical tactic that happens with home warranty contractors to take advantage of you and make an extra dime. What is even more funny is that (without me even mentioning) he mentioned they usually say you usually need modifications or upgrades and that these contractors will say they need to do additional things with the piping to bring the unit "up-to-code" which is what AMPM Plumbing told me they needed to do exactly. The contractor I chose said that this is total BS because when you buy a home it should already be up-to-code and even if laws change, once a home is purchased the code gets grandfathered in from the time you purchase which I just bought my home 10 months ago. Furthermore, I have tried contacting their phone to voice my complaint and speak to management to which TRISH is now blatantly ignoring my calls and not calling me back (assuming they know I found out they were scamming me). My last call I left a voicemail calling them out for the deception and lies, stating that I will write a detailed review on every possible site I see including the BBB and here it is.