Word of mouth is PARAMOUNT
First off, I want to apologize to anyone who’s done any business with American Plumbing Company located in Antioch, CA. Had this review been completed and posted when this experience happened to me, it may have prevented someone from having a horrible experience or a costly one which is worse! Here is my story and I hope everyone has the time to review this post.
My mother was visiting me and had smelled gas coming from the cabinet below the stove. I smelled it many times before but it was only present when I first opened the cabinet and then the smell would disappear quickly and usually not return until hours after the cabinet remained closed. We decided to call Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) to have them check to see if there were any leaks. The PG&E technician did a spray test and right away he was able to detect a very tiny leak that was of no urgency or danger but he did suggest we call a Plummer because most likely the leak was coming from one of the hoses underneath the cabinet which connects the stove to the gas. The next morning we called the plumber. They did the same spray test as PG&E and claimed to have found NO LEAKS. We were not confident with their findings and told them there has to be a leak as we smelled gas and PG&E confirmed that discovery, the day before. I even told the plumber that PG&E said the leak was most likely coming from the hose. They did another spray test on the hoses and still they determined there was no leak whatsoever! They decided to have me do process of elimination suggesting that perhaps one of the pots or pans may have had left over gas residue or perhaps the leak was so slow that it was only present some of the time. I followed their instructions and was told to not open the cabinet until the next day and to call them if the smell had retuned. It did. They came back a 2nd time only this time they sent 2 different employees. Because their spray test yielded the same result (NO LEAKS) they suggested that the leak might be coming from the stove. Fast forward to the appliance store where this person came to my house and did a spray test on the entire stove and its parts that he was able to reach) and found nothing. He determined that most likely if it were the stove, he would have to replace the entire unit. We did and we were told that all of the hoses would also be replaced with the new appliance - total charge to the Appliance Store - $1400.
The day after the job was completed, I opened the cabinet in the morning and guess what? Yes, the gas smell was still there! Immediately, I noticed they did NOT replace the original hose so I called them to complain, as they did promise everything would be replaced and since I was charged, it was only “right” that they come back and do what they promised to do.
Here’s where we come FULL CIRCLE to this nightmare! The hose was replaced and since then, NO MORE GAS SMELL & LEAKS.
HAD AMERICAN PLUMBING COMPANY DO THEIR JOB CORRECTLY AND AT THE ADVICE OF PG&E, this entire fiasco and nightmare would have never happened and my cost would have been a service charge fee plus the price of that leaky hose (~$100).
My effort for taking the time to write this review is to prevent a person from going through this B.S. all because a manager [from American Plumbing Company] did NOT care to listen to me when I called back. But instead, was condescending and rude.
A word of PROFESSIONAL advice to AMERICAN PLUMBING COMPANY: Word of mouth is EVERYTHING around here and those who adhere to this concept will be winners and those who do not, will eventually be forced to shut their doors, permanently!