When our previous homeowner finished the basement they had put up a wall that caused the gas venting pipe attached to our Reliance hot water tank to bend slightly and crack. It was sealed to prevent a leak, but there was still that possibility. It was recommended by Reliance to have them replace our vent piping along with the 11 year old water tank.
In order to replace the venting we were asked to cut holes in the wall and ceiling of our finished basement. They then sent sub-contractors to do the work, and when they arrived they pretty much refused to do any work because the holes we cut weren't large enough. We found them very rude and completely unhelpful. We believe them to be a husband and wife team with the last name Lindale. Unless you have a very simple job, which we apparently didn't have, watch out for these sub-contractors.
After Reliance sent some in-house technicians to analyze our situation, most notably Jonathan, Wesley and Ringo, they were able to come up with a method of removing our damaged and difficult-to-access vent piping, and install a new tank using smaller pipes so we wouldn't have to rip out more of our wall. After about three weeks of stressing and using up wasted vacation time from work for people to come in and look at our situation, Ringo Lau and Stan Skorka were finally able to get the work done in a much quicker time and lower price than we had expected.
What we came away with after this whole incident was that Reliance's in-house technicians were extremely helpful, and went above and beyond to help us solve a problem they were really not entirely responsible for. If we do ever run into another issue, I would highly recommend having one of them take care of it, and would flat out reject any suggestion of sending another one of their sub-contractors.
