Menyhart Plumbing & Heating Supply, Inc.

Business responded to complaint.I received your letter Thursday of last week informing me of a complaint which was filed against Menyhart Plumbing & Heating Supply by our customer, [redacted].  We've been in business since 1928 and have never had any complaints filed against us to my...

knowledge so this is something very new, but I guess the old cliche is that there's always a first time for everything.  Anyway,  I wasn't aware of any difficulty that anyone had returning this part, other wise I would have offered a better solution for them on the spot to try to please the customer as much as possible and to avoid any complaints in the first place. I read her statement and would like to respond to it so that our side of the story is told and can be hopefully understood as well.    From her complaint, it looks like [redacted] purchased an A.O. [redacted] pilot assembly for her water heater from us back on Jan. 17, 2015, but ended up not needing the part and instead bought a new water heater.  I don't believe she purchased the new water heater from us, but I'm not certain about it.  She attempted to return the A.O. [redacted] part, but was told that we have a policy of not returning electrical parts, which is pretty standard among any electrical parts suppliers because it's hard to test electrical parts to make sure that they haven't been used or shorted out even though they may appear to be fine physically.  Also, being Winter, during this time of the year we frequently have people trying to return electrical parts for various reasons especially furnace electrical parts so this situation is something we deal with generally every Winter on an ongoing basis.  All of this information that I've read in her complaint seems to be accurate, but in our defense, I will say that our sales guy did everything correctly based on our company policy.  With that being said though and being a 3rd generation family business that Menyhart Plumbing & Heating Supply is, we sometimes tend to and are able to bend the rules and policies slightly based on individual circumstances.  I definitely believe in the theory that rules are a good guideline to keep things in order, but at the same time, rules sometimes need to be flexible and tweaked based on special circumstances.  So here's my solution.  Yes, technically this water heater pilot assembly in question in this complaint can be considered an electrical part which technically shouldn't be returnable.  As I mentioned earlier, our sales guy was correct in following our company policy, but at the same time, I do wish that I would have had the opportunity to be involved with this situation at the time to offer a different solution.  Since this is a water heater pilot assembly that is harder to ruin, if I would have been asked about it at the time, upon physical inspection of the part and if I would've found it to be unused, I would have probably authorized a refund to the customer for the part which is what I would like to offer her now.  Also, because we are a family business who prides ourselves in our high quality of service that we provide to our customers, I do feel bad about this situation that has occurred so in addition to a full refund, I would also like to offer a $25 store credit good for 1 year from today to [redacted] as a good faith gesture to show our apology for this happening with her.  I believe that this should be acceptable to all and hopefully will turn this unfortunate situation into a positive one.I copied [redacted] on this email so that she will receive it and be aware of my response as well.  I also plan on following up with [redacted] via a phone call later today so that I can personally contact her as well in case she may have any further questions.  Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions too.  Thanks for your time!Sincerely,[redacted]