My water heater started leaking this morning...sometime between 7 and 8 am. I was in and out with kids, so I'm sure of this timeframe. I called for an appointment, assigned time between 12-4, and the guy arrived at 12:15. Everything is fine so far. Very pleasant.
The guy looked at the age of the heater (16 years) and said it needs to be replaced. Told me it's been leaking for some time and my drywall is rotted and will need to be removed, he won't be able to put the new heater on the existing drywall platform. (It's been leaking approximately 4 hours, drywall was wet, not rotten or soggy at all).
I ask ballpark price because I know if I buy and do it myself it will be a few hundred bucks, but I can't do it. He said blah, blah, blah, warranty, professional install, big job, etc., and I'm looking at about 1000-1300 at least. I tell him to figure out exactly and we'll go from there. I put out a Facebook mayday to a couple of friends and found out they paid less than half. He came back and said it would be 1361, 3 hours to do and gave me the option of 2 extended warranties that would increase the cost by 175 or 350 depending on which I chose. I declined, said I'd pay the service call, turn off the water and explore my options. So I'm looking almost $1400-$1700 total!
I called another company, paid $660 total. I highly recommend Stellar Home Services. Reasonable prices, fast service (in and out in about 45 minutes), very nice, quality work.
The good about George Brazil = ease of scheduling, very polite, and ended up waiving my service fee. The bad = INSANELY overpriced and trumped up bills. If you've got money to burn, call George. If not, don't waste your time.