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Discount Contractors

10116 Chester Rd, Chester, Virginia, United States, 23831-1108

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Discount Contractors Reviews (%countItem)

As other reviews, this company is a rip off. They were called to my home for a water leak in my kitchen through ***. They showed up and told my tenants they couldn't find the leak. I went over there and found the leak and I'm not a plumber. I had a leak coming from the toilet upstairs and they didn't even look at the toilet in its entirely. They don't do a good job diagnosing the issue and just want to get out of there. I will never use them again.

This company is a rip off , they came to give me an estimate on replacing a water heater.
They told me that all the venting pipes are out of code and need to be corrected on top of the installation of the water heater. I had three more companies come to give estimates and they all stated that everything is in code and all they have to do is install a new water heater. The water
heater have been installed and passed code. Beware of this company!!!!!

+1

I have a warranty from *** and they sent out Discount Contractors to fix my broken hot water heater. My wife and I heard their technician calling *** and saying and I quote "don't worry I'll get them to pay for the hot water heater needing replaced". He then proceeded to cut the pipping apart and re-do it looking terrible after. When *** called me they told me the pipping was out of standards and it will cost me *** dollars to repair it (what he did) and they haven't put the new hot water heater in yet... This is worse than terrible. I'm still without water and on disability also.

Discount Contractors Response • Feb 12, 2019

Here is the email that was sent to Mr. in regards to his concerns:

Hi Mr.,
There seems to be a lot of confusion in regards to this hot water heater. Hopefully I can clear somethings up for you.I had some concerns when you had expressed that the water heater was installed by *** 4 yrs ago as the water heater in your home was 14 yrs old. I did a little research with *** and found that *** did replace this water heater for you back in 2004 which that then lined up with the age of the water heater. In regards to the visit on Saturday, Tom was scheduled to come out and make the diagnoses. Once the diagnoses is done, we call into *** for an authorization. When we call *** for the autho, we let *** know what needs to be done at the home, ie. replacement of the water heater, any code upgrades, any modifications, and or any permit fees. Once all that is given, *** then tells us what your contract (or whomever the customer may be) covers. We have no idea if your contract covers modifications, permits, code violations, and or disposal of the old equipment. Per your particular contract with ***, the water heater itself, the BASIC install (this means we cut one out and put one back no rework of any sort), and disposal of the old unit is covered by ***. An *** rep should have called you and gone over the section of your contract that states this. Once we have to make ANY modification to any piping be it flue, water, and or gas even if it is 1", it is then considered to be a modification. Again, some contracts with *** cover different things. If *** covers the modification or if they don't, the same price that I would charge them is what the customer is charged. Of course in my example above of 1" may be a little extreme, but none the less does constitute a modification. In the case of your water heater and the non covered charges, here is the breakdown:$*** for the water pipe modification to make the new modern sized water heater fit. Last year the government mandated that all water heater manufacturers us more insulation internal to the water heater tanks. This change required to the manufactures to make the water heaters taller and wider. Because of this mandate, it is next to impossible to find any water heater change out "basic". Some water heaters due to this can not even be put back where they are currently located because there is no room. It has definitely been a struggle for contractors and homeowners alike.$*** gas pipe modification (unfortunately, we are not able to reuse the old flex line as per county code regulation a new flex line would need to be put in)$*** for the flue pipe modification to make the new modern sized water heater fit. Your flue is a hard pipe not flex therefor would need to be trimmed down to accommodate the taller water heater$*** for the gas drip leg PER CODE I can not get around this. This is a county code requirement and must be on the gas in order for the inspector to pass the install of this water heater. This is a safety measurement.$*** insulation of the pipes per code again this is a county requirement due to this being a gas water heater. The pipes will need to be insulated and taped to keep from any issues from the heater from the exhaust to the pipes$*** for the PERMIT. I can not avoid this. The county requires that a permit be pulled to change this water heater out. As a licensed contractor I must comply with county requirements (anyone licensed or not should always comply) I can tell you that in *** county, your permit actually costs $***, but again due to standardized cost for ***, you win on this non covered. You can thank someone in *** county for paying that extra $*** for you. I do have the right by law to charge a processing fee for this, however we choose not to do that as this is a requirement. Total non covered costs to be paid by you for the water heater is $***I am not your home warranty, I am only the contractor. I have no control over what your warranty covered or doesn't. That is something between you and your home warranty in regards to the choices you select for coverages. In regards to the invoice, yes the invoice does state that the Service fee was prepaid. We do not collect service fees for *** they collect them on their own. Seeing as we were not able to get through to authorization in a timely fashion (extremely long hold times), we were not able to give you this breakdown until we did reach authorization on Monday morning. Tom was not able to speak to *** on Saturday due to this hold time. The invoice also states that we drained and looped the water heater which I know you are concerned in regards to those pipes. We drain and loop it so that in the interim of waiting for your hot water heater to be delivered to us from your warranty company (we do not supply the water heater they do), we do want you to be able to at least have cold water through your home, but we want to mitigate the damage that the water heater would cause do the to leaking (after all that is why *** expedited the call as it was causing damage). If we simply drained down the water heater and turned it off, some fixtures would not allow even the flow of cold water to come out as they require pressure balance in order to flow. In order to achieve this for you, we "loop" the lines to allow equal pressure to the fixtures so that all fixtures will flow at least cold water. This is a courtesy we do and some companies would charge you for this. I know the pipes look a little odd, but again, that is just a way to get you water to all your fixtures until your water heater has been provided to us. You are not being charged the modification price because of that "loop", but instead because the new water heater will be taller.I have tried to reach out to you a couple of times in regards to this as well as your attorney that you had contact me to no avail. I have also received your complaint from Revdex.com that I will respond in this same exact way. In regards to Tom speaking with the home warranty, I am not too sure where the misunderstanding in regards to that was, however Tom did not speak with *** on Saturday because again hold times were too long. With that said though, yes *** is covering for the replacement of the water heater itself. As mentioned above, under your particular contract with *** covers the water heater, the BASIC install, and the disposal of the old unit. Folks are often misguided in regards to home warranties and exactly what they do and do not pay for. There is some tiny print that a lot of people do not read and it can become very confusing. I am sorry this happened in your case. I can assure you that you do save money in the long run with having a home warranty. The water heater alone saved you on average $*** if installed be a "licensed and insured plumbing contractor". I do emphasize this as many "handymen" claim to be licensed and insured to do this work, however do not have a gas license and therefor are NOT qualified to install a gas water heater. In closing, while I would love nothing more then to install this water heater for completely nothing out of your pocket, unfortunately I have still not found employees that want to work for free nor have I found utility companies, gas suppliers, and or suppliers that wish not to charge me. I do however promise that when I do find these things in my lifetime, I will share that information with you. We do offer % discount to seniors and or military. I am not sure if that helps, but I know for me $*** is a difference. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns that I can address. The water heater is available for us to schedule with you for install. You are also able to do a cash out option with *** if you so choose to. *** can go over that option with you, however I can assure you that it will wind up costing more in the long run with the cash out option.Kind Regards,ShannonOffice Manager
This above response should clear up any questions you may have, if not please feel free to contact me at

My complaint against Discount Contractors stems from a recent service call at my home to correct a plumbing system issue. I have an American Home Shield policy that covers both appliances and systems, and on December 8, 2017, a service technician from Discount Contractors was dispatched to my home to address an upstairs shower issue where I previously had adequate water pressure that slowed to little more than a trickle that resulted in an inability to use the shower. This change in water pressure in the shower was isolated exclusively to this specific bathroom shower as the water pressure in the rest of the house was fine. The plumbing technician diagnosed the problem as debris that had built up in the water supply line over time and had clogged the line, but indicated that “AHS would likely not cover it.” The technician then quoted a cost of $1,125 to remedy the situation, which I paid under the assumption that the service denial by AHS was an error that would need to be resolved later, and because I needed the immediate use of the upstairs shower, the work was completed.

In following up with AHS on this matter, AHS denied the request for payment of the related work, claiming that the plumbing issue I had experienced was ‘pre-existing’ based on the diagnosis by Discount Contractors. Discount Contractors said the issue was 'pre-existing' due to excessive water pressure in the lines of my home; however, I confirmed with the Henrico County Utilities Department that water pressure does not exceed 80 psi anywhere in the County's residential system. The Discount Contractors denial resulted in the firm earning a commission from AHS for denying the claim while also receiving $1,125 to install an unnecessary water pressure valve. I am requesting that Discount Contractors refund the payment or coordinate with AHS to confirm that the water issue was caused by debris that built up in the line as originally stated by the technician.

Discount Contractors Response • Jan 22, 2018

On December 06, 2017 Mr. opened a claim with his home warranty company American Home Shield (AHS) for his shower valve in his upstairs hall bathroom. The claim was assigned to us, Discount Contractors LLC (we are contracted with AHS). Mr. was scheduled for an assessment of his issue of no cold water coming from valve on 12/08/17. Tech arrived at home to find a few different issues. First issue tech found was the pressure to the home at 83 PSI. Per customers contract with AHS, pressure to the home should only be 50-60 PSI. Section I6b of his contract excludes repairs when caused by excessive pressure. This high pressure did cause the seats and springs to blow out. This would be a very minor repair at a cost of $***. Moving forward for the pressure not to be an issue a PRV (pressure reducing valve) would be required on the home to reduce the pressure to 50-60 PSI at a retail of $***. This is not a county code, however, an AHS requirement for coverage. The second issue the tech found was that the customer had a flow restriction in his cold side of his water line. The customer was told this on July 7 of 2016 as well when he made a claim then. Per his contract with AHS, flow restrictions of water pipe lines are not covered. It is considered to be foreign material in the line and also goes back to section I6b of his contract where it states, “AHS is not responsible for inadequate water pressure”. To cut out the section of piping where the flow restriction is retails at $***. Technician explained to the customer he could do the rebuild of the seats and springs ($***), the PRV ($***), and the flow restriction ($***) for a total of $***. Tech then also gave the customer the option of replacing the shower valve ($***), PRV ($***), and isolation valves for the shower valve ($***) for a total of $***. By replacing the valve in whole, all the pipes would need replaced, therefor the flow restriction would be resolved as way of new piping and a charge of $*** for the flow restriction would not be charged. Mr. chose to have the valve replaced. Tech completed work and work is correct and meets code. Mr.’s son contacted Discount Contractors stating that the reason AHS did not cover the repairs was because Discount Contractors told AHS that the issue was pre-existing. I explained to Mr. that was not the case and went over all the above with him and why they denied the claim and read to him exactly what was told to AHS that confirmed the information I was supplying him with. Even though the claim in a sense was pre-existing as the same issue was denied in July of 2016, Pre-existing conditions apply to new contracts with AHS. Mr.’s current contract with AHS has been since 2014 so pre-existing would not apply regardless. AHS did speak with Mr. Dalema and confirmed all this information with him on a conference call initiated by myself. Mr. was not forced to do any work. That shower has had the same issue since 2016 so I am not sure why he states there was an urgency. That shower is also not the only shower in the home, so there was not a situation of urgency for health reasons. Mr. could have requested a second opinion from his home warranty, or could have called someone else in if he chose. Mr. chose to have the work done by Discount Contractors then and there and signed an invoice agreeing to such. The work that has been done in the home has resolved his issue and is done per code. He is not having and issues with the work which is warrantied under his home warranty for 90 days. For Mr. to assume that the denial would be an error was an error on his part. He should have argued with AHS prior to having us do the work on the chance of what has transpired, that the denial held. If Mr. has an issue with his home warranty covering something he believes they should have, that is something he would need to discuss with them, however, Discount Contractors only did what was asked by Mr.. Unfortunately, this is the downside of working with home warranty companies. Customers do not read their contracts and assume everything is covered. When they find out differently, they have buyer’s remorse. Mr. was not duped, misinformed, or cheated in any way possible. While I empathize with his situation, Mr. paid for a job that was done and was done per code. He was advised that the job would not be covered by AHS (with whom his contract is with) and why. Mr. entered into a contract with AHS without knowing all the facts and wanted something that was clearly outlined in his contract as not covered. Again, while I empathize, there is nothing I can do as Mr. asked for us to proceed with the job and the job was completed. If any other assistance is needed, I, Shannon D, can be reached at ***. Anthony D is the owner and the master plumber, and I am his wife. As a side note, all calls to and from AHS are recorded and can be pulled for reference. Kind Regards, Shannon D

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Address: 10116 Chester Rd, Chester, Virginia, United States, 23831-1108

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