Reliance Home Comfort

Twice my hot water tank leaked. First time, the service people told me to put a hose fitting over the drain. The second time, the service people told me "it must be the pressure release valve" and I could "just put a bucket under it". Finally, when I woke up on January 26th with two inches of water in my basement, they decide to send someone out. After talking to several departments, I finally arrived at "Customer Resolution". I explained the situation to the person there and she simply implied that I was not being truthful about my dealings with Reliance. There is no way customer service would tell me to fix the problem myself. That was the point that I decided to end my Reliance relationship. The next bombshell really threw me off. I was informed that the technician coming to remove the old tank and install the new tank would be cancelled and I would have to schedule another day for removal! I was then informed, if I removed it myself, they would pick it up and charge me! (Or I could drop it off at their location at no extra charge.) I took a trip to my local hardware store to pick up a new tank and guess what? They had heard the same story from countless people about reliance. Customer after customer coming in to buy parts for their own quick fix at the suggestion of "customer service". After returning home with my new tank, the Reliance technician showed up with a new tank. Imagine his surprise! After explaining the situation to him, he was furious. He too had heard that customer service had been reluctant to send techs out for small leaks and such (Essentially saving reliance money and taking money out of his pocket!) Thankfully, he decided to remove the tank and inform his manager about the atrocious service I had received. Unfortunately, the tech had unplugged my chest freezer to plug in his pump to empty the tank and failed to plug it back in (by mistake I am sure). On top of that, his manager never followed up with any of it. In summary, $350 in lost wages for the day I took off, $400 for a new tank, damage to my carpet and items in my basement, probably close to $200 lost from my freezer and not even a follow up call from Reliance. So here we are two months later. Why write a review now? They just sent me a bill for Mar 27 to June 25 for a hot water tank that has been gone since Jan 26! With all the articles in the paper, stories from local hardware stores and reviews here, maybe people should think twice before deciding to deal with Reliance.