AKC Plumbing

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2015/07/13) */
Contact Name and Title: *** ***
Contact Phone: 405/XXX-XXXX
Contact Email: ***@akcplumbing.com
In response to the complaint dated 6/20/15:
Unfortunately I was out of town when these messages came in, however, once I returned, I
researched the file and sent the following response to the builder
At this point, the call regarding the water heater vent pipe is something reported to us by the homeowner, but we have not been to the home to confirm any of the information, nor received any documentation showing what the damage is and how it took place
My written response was as follows:
"I got your message about this but have been out of town until todayI took a look through the work history and at the plan to see if I could get you more informationWithout having seen the problem, I'm addressing your homeowner's concern that his water heater flashing is leaking, but obviously, we have not been there nor confirmed this is the problemAs far warranty is concerned, our final was completed in November 2013, we set appliances and passed final inspection on 1/31/14, which would make the warranty end date 1/31/
With regard to the flashing, although I don't have an elevation plan, what I remember about those houses is that the roofs were pretty steep and we always tried to get in before the roofer because they needed to do the flashingsIt's always been our policy to leave flashings for the roofer and to stay off of the roof if it's more than a 7/pitch due to safety concerns
That being the case, I don't think we installed the flashings and additionally, there is nothing in the plumbing code requiring that they be sealed; it states only that the flashings, storm collar and b-vent are to be installed correctlyI confirmed with *** ***, Chief Plumbing Inspector that sealing the WH flashing is not a plumbing requirement of OKC, nor is it inspected by the plumbing inspectorsWe passed the topout inspection on August 12, My guess is, this would be a roofing or building requirement, but I don't know that for sure
As I said, not having seen the house I can't really confirm what is wrong, but I hope this helps narrow it down."
There are a few important things to note with regard to the alleged leakFirst and foremost, the homeowner has been living in this house for a year and a halfDuring that time, there have been two storm and tornado seasons: storms, hail, wind, rain, etcIt is just as probable that the leak was caused by storm damage as anything elseThere is no way to confirm if anyone else has been on the roof to make repairs from storm damage and didn't seal the collar at that time, IF the storm collar is indeed the problemSecond, assuming that the storm collar is the problem (which at this point is only reported by the homeowner and not a qualified roofer) a seal on the roof flashing is not inspected nor required by the plumbing department or by plumbing codeThis was confirmed by *** ***, Chief Plumbing Inspector at the City of OKCLastly, our policy has always been to leave flashings for the roofer on a roof steeper than 7:pitch for the safety of our employeesAny sealing should have been done by the roofer or another qualified contractor with the correct safety equipment
With regard to the other complaints by this homeowner, I will address them individually:
Hot water at shower - we have emergency service only on the weekendsNot enough hot water in one shower when another shower is available to use for a couple of days is an inconvenience at worst and does not constitute an emergencyThe valve was installed correctly and simply needed an adjustment to the safety feature built into the valve to avoid scalding or injury
Mixing valve - We have no control over materials that failThe homeowner confirms we repaired the issue promptlyThe homeowner also mentions there was mud in the driveway and garage, but not in the houseWhile this is the first I've heard of a mud complaint, my employees were obviously conscientious enough to not track mud into the houseThe garage floor and driveway are made for car tires, which generally have mud on them during rain
Dishwasher disposal knock-out - This is an easily overlooked item, and as easily repairedA screwdriver and one minute will knock out the drainAgain, an inconvenience at worstKudos and thank you to the homeowner for being handy enough to take care of this for us!
Cross-threaded nut - This is the first I have heard of a cross-threaded nutI cannot address this issue since it was never reported to us
The issues that were reported to us in a timely manner and were our responsibility as the plumber on this job were taken care of promptly and correctly during the warranty period, as reported by the homeowner himselfThe issue with the leaking roof was reported to us well outside the one-year warranty period, to our knowledge has never been confirmed outside this complaint, could easily be damage received well after installation and was not our responsibility to begin with
AKC has been in business since and there are no Revdex.com complaints on recordThat is because we take care of our customers and builders and our responsibilitiesThese issues, while unfortunate, are not caused by our negligence
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 11, 2015/07/19) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
This is a response to AKC plumbingMeegan Holman will be referred to as "she or her" for the remainder of this responseFirst of all I do not and will never accept her pathetic excuses for the poor workmanship that HER employees have performed on my houseAnd secondly, I find it extremely ironic that she has the time to write her lackluster, laughable letter back to the Revdex.com, but can't return a phone call to a customer;that is just poor business on her partAnd third, I am not a typical homeownerI am a Mechanical Journeyman and have Installed many furnaces that require Type B Vent Pipe and I know and understand the storm collar, and depending on the run of said vent pipe, the pipe itself would have to be sealed with an approved sealant or they will leak and cause damage to the dwelling
For the rest I will continue with the fact that she is one of the most incompetent individuals I have ever had the displeasure of dealing withWhen she says that she is addressing the "...Homeowner's concern that his water heater flashing is leaking" that is incorrect and is not what I saidIf she had ever actually worked in the field and/or had any knowledge about the kind of work she is in charge of or even carefully read the complaint against her she would have noticed I said storm collar, not flashing; they are not the same thing and as an owner of a company, albeit a deplorable one at that, she should know the difference between the two
She continues to go on about the flashing, again not what I complained about, and states that the roof was too steep for them to get up onShe states that the flashing is up to the roofer to do, which is an accurate statement, but I am not talking about the flashing, I am talking about the storm collar on the vent pipe for the hot water tankAlso, vent pipes are required to have a vented cap installed to let exhaust from the tank vent while keeping water and moisture out of the pipe and tankAKC would have to put the cap on the Type B Vent Pipe; this is not the responsibility of the rooferTherefore one of her employees would have had to get up on the roof to install the cap and to put the storm collar on as that is not the roofer's job to do soSo for her to say that none of her employees were up on the roof is a statementThey put both the storm collar and cap on the vent pipe for the hot water heater as it is the responsibility of the contractor who installed the appliance to do soIf she doesn't even know the difference between a flashing and a storm collar or what is required to do a simple hot water tank installment, she does not need to be running a plumbing company
Then she says there is nothing in the plumbing code about the storm collar, flashing and Type B Vent Pipe being sealed; only installed correctlyThis statement is an example of ignorance at its finest"Installed correctly" means that is should be leak proofHow can it be leak proof when there wasn't an approved sealant used to seal the storm collar up? Answer = it cannotCan she honestly tell me she wouldn't want her storm collar on her hot water tank at her home not to be sealed? If she can, then again she isn't deserving of owning a plumbing company
She states that she talked to *** ***, Chief Plumbing Inspector that sealing the WH flashing is not a plumbing requirement of OKC, nor is it inspected by the plumbing inspectors..." which would be helpful if that's what I made my complaint about, but again it is notI am talking about the storm collarI am knowledgeable enough to first know the difference between the two and understand that the flashing is up to the roofing company and the storm collar is up to the plumbing company that installed the appliance and ran the Type B Vent PipeShe obviously is not
She calls it an "alleged leak" which I have both photographic and video evidence of the leak, the damage done to and mold that had accumulated on my ceiling which I would have willingly and happily provided to her if she knew how to use a phone and return a customer's callThen she says "First and foremost, the homeowner has been living in this house for a year and a halfDuring that time, there have been two storm and tornado seasons: storms, hail, wind, rain, etcIt is just as probable that the leak was caused by storm damage as anything elseThere is no way to confirm if anyone else has been on the roof to make repairs from storm damage and didn't seal the collar at that time, IF the storm collar is indeed the problemSecond, assuming that the storm collar is the problem (which at this point is only reported by the homeowner and not a qualified roofer) a seal on the roof flashing is not inspected nor required by the plumbing department or by plumbing codeThis was confirmed by *** ***, Chief Plumbing Inspector at the City of OKCLastly, our policy has always been to leave flashings for the roofer on a roof steeper than 7:pitch for the safety of our employeesAny sealing should have been done by the roofer or another qualified contractor with the correct safety equipment." First of all I am so proud of her for being able to tell timeFinally something she is capable of doingThere has been no one doing work on my roof; she is welcome to talk to every single roofing company in the country and look for an invoice with my address and name on it in the past year and a half to see if anyone has been out to do workNot a single individual has performed work on my roofShe can even get herself up there and look at the storm collar; she will find that that there is no damage to the storm collar just as there isn't an approved sealant on itSecondly, as a self-proclaimed "plumber" she should understand there is such a thing as a "slow leak"These things take time to get thru, and with the copious amounts of rainfall Oklahoma City has had this year (2015) and not the previous (2014) has happenedAgain I have both video and photographic proof of not only the damage done to the ceiling, the mold formed on the ceiling but also of precisely where the leak on the Type B Vent Pipe is originating from and that's from the storm collar, not the flashingI don't have to have it reported by a qualified roofer; I am a Mechanical Journeyman and AM qualified to say whether or not that storm collar on a Type B Vent Pipe is sealed and it is notShe needs to accept responsibility for what her company did wrong instead of putting it on the roofers; they did their job correctly
Now with my shower faucet in the master bedroomThey did not install the faucet correctly to allow hot water to come outWhen I originally spoke to her about this she referred to it as a "warranty issue" and not an "emergency" as she does in her statementShe told me she wouldn't send someone out on a "warranty issue", which it wasn't even that; it was an issue of a device being installed incorrectly the first time and should have sent someone out to fix itThe matter of me having another shower in the house is besides the pointI just moved into the house before that weekend and spent a large amount of money to do so and shouldn't have to use the other bathroom to take a showerIt was a brand new house and the faucet should have been installed correctlyAnd she's right it is an inconvenience for me and as a gesture of good customer service she should have sent someone out to do what should have been done correctly to begin with
With the mud on my drive way and in my garageIt is not and will never be up to her decision as to the purpose of MY garageIf I don't want mud in MY garage that's all that needs to be saidI own this house, not her, and it is up to me where the messes will and will not be madeFor her to say that "The garage floor and driveway are made for car tires, which generally have mud on them during rain" is explicit proof she not only has no common courtesy for other people but also has a non-functioning brainBefore this she says "my employees were obviously conscientious enough to not track mud into the house"Again congratulations!! You do not praise or brag about your employees doing their job CORRECTLYIts common sense not to go inside someone else's house with mud all over your shoes and it's not her house and if I don't want mud on my garage floor that's my decision, not hers
I don't have enough words to discuss the other issuesWhile I may be the only one to complain about her doesn't mean that there haven't been other problems; it means I am more knowledgeable than the average homeowner and refuse to accept her indigent excusesAnd she does not take care of her customers or builders because if she did Home Sweet Homes would still be using their services and I would not be writing this letterShe is not only negligent in the work performed she is also an ignorant, futile, laughable inexperienced excuse of a person who does not need to be in charge of a service company
Final Business Response /* (4000, 19, 2015/08/25) */
Due to a death in our family, I was unable to respond to Mr***'s 2nd complaint before it was closed on lineHowever, our answer remains the same
As I explained in my previous response, sealing the roof in any way not the plumber's responsibilityEven if it were, the houses in this subdivision and by this builder have steep-pitched roofs and our employees do not get on them to install or seal flashings or collarsWe leave the flashings on the jobsite for the roofersOur builders have been informed of this numerous timesBuilders standardly have roofers come back and paint their vents, seal the collars and flashings, etcThe fact that this builder failed to do so is not AKC's responsibility
We have not been to this house since this problem aroseIt has been out of warranty for monthsThe evidence he claims to have has never been submitted to usThey never even REQUESTED that we go to the homeThe homeowner called while I was out of town, the builder wrote me about it, I responded, and it escalated to this immediatelyThis homeowner is dragging my reputation through the mud and at the same time demanding reimbursement for an issue we literally have never even seen
No matter how insulting and immature this man behaves, it does not change the fact that this is a builder issue, not a plumbing issueBeing a "mechanical journeyman" does not give him magical plumbing powers beyond my years of experience and Plumbing Contractor licensingHis comments are clearly rooted in frustration and misinformation about me being fed to him in order to pass the responsibility to AKCI spoke in verifiable facts; he spoke in venom and personal attacksHe cannot bully a lie into becoming the truth
The fact that we passed all inspections during the construction of this home is evidence enough that we did our job completely and correctlyWe have completed nearly homes in the metroIf the libelous things said by this customer were true, we would not be in business
Our reputation speaks for itself