I had been renting a conventional water heater from National which started a slow leak recently. Realizing potential flooding risks down the road, I thought it would be better to switch to a tankless heater. So I called in a tankless heater agent to get a quote. The agent told me that Reliance had become the owner of my existing heater and I needed to cancel the contract with them first. I had had no dealing with nor knowledge of Reliance, so I checked Homestars reviews. Frankly I was quite worried seeing pages of negative reviews, although still less than 10% of total, what if I met the same sad situation? But in order to compare, I still decided to give them a fair chance.
So I called their number on Thursday March 10th in the morning, the lady answering the phone booked me a technician right away, and the technician came and fixed the leak by 14:00 same day. He also confirmed the feasibility of switching to a tankless from them. So I called back to Reliance office and was told they would send a sales rep next morning. The rep Dave came on time at 10:00 and his offer was better than that of previous supplier with the same Rinnai model. I saw no reason not to stay with Reliance.
The installation was on the following Tuesday morning. The two-people crew, Brent and Sean came on time. They were courteous and professional. They had to fetch a longer pipe from warehouse, hence spending more time than planned. At the end I noticed the new exhaust facing towards our neighbor, and asked them to change that. They had no problem to cut off the top and put in another 90 degree elbow. They left only after I was completely satisfied.
Up to that point everything was straight forward, no surprises, and I was very pleased. However, when we took showers in the evening, we found that the system could not handle a second shower without dropping the water temperature at the first. This is not what they had said. I called Dave twice on Wednesday, one at 8:30 in the morning and one at 5:30 in the afternoon, both time I could only leave a voice message but received no call back. Considering those negative reviews, I started to wonder if they were only interested in getting my business.
My suspicion turned out to be completely unfounded: Dave called back around 8:00 in the evening and apologized for being too busy to respond earlier. When I explained the reason of my calls, he immediately said that it was not right for the temperature to drop. I suggested to have his installation crew back, but he said the right approach then was for me to call their service department right away since they open 24 hours, which I did and a service tech was booked for the following morning.
Sam showed up within the booked window and discovered a restriction in the cold water piping. To fix it he needed more time than booked as well as some new parts. Sam first got approval from the office for a stay extension, then went to pick up the required parts, and finished the re-piping around 13:00. Being a mechanical engineer myself, I am certain that from now on should there be any further problem, it would be related to the Rinnai heater itself, which will be covered by the rental contract. Reliance has done an excellent job.
In summary, my experience with Reliance is a very pleasant one. They have given me first class, timely services, and delivered everything as promised. Every single person involved demonstrated professionalism and courtesy. I have no reservations to recommend Reliance to anyone.
I noticed that the long reviews on Homestars tend to be complaints, so I write this long positive review as my way of saying "Thank you, Dave, Brent, Sean, Sam, and Reliance!"
