The Reliance rental hot water tank stopped working Saturday evening. We called Sunday morning and we're instructed to book an appointment for the following Monday which we did in the PM. A contractor, Dillon (not a Reliance staff), showed up and was clearly inexperienced having to call in for instructions. We left him alone so he could focus. When finished he told us the part needed (igniter) was no longer made and they would need to install a new tank. He left then nervously returned 'needing' to remove a part he'd installed that was no longer needed and removed the vacuum trigger (?) assembly for the vent system and left.
Heater not fixed, no hot water and we lost an afternoon's wages missing work for the service call.
Next day's (Tues) appointment Tony 1362, a Reliance Employee and Installer, called and explained he didn't have the proper tank and would be right over to see if he could fix it. Tony clearly new what he was doing and was dismayed to find the previous contractor had not fixed the problem, taken parts and left the gas on. He tested all parts and replaced (you guessed it) the igniter and vent system trigger/switch part ... we had hot water within an hour.
The reason we rent is for fast service but having been w/out hot water for 4 days straight this did not happen. Further, we are very disappointed in Reliance sending out a contractor who 1) didn't know enough about what he was doing 2) seemingly left with a part not belonging to him and 3) didn't get the job done when it was fixable instead opting for a new tank install which, as it turned out, was not needed after all.
We gave a 4/10 rating as Tony did an excellent job and the telephone support staff held-up there end of the game. Reliance had been great in 2015 with a service call by an experienced employee who did a great job. However, due to our recent negative experience with the contractor assigned we're looking at other options.