The water heater is busted. Happily, though, it’s busted in a way that has not (has not yet, let’s not tempt fate) leaked water anywhere. Also happily, it’s a rental so it’s Somebody Else’s Problem.
Unhappily, there are five people in the house at the moment — three large and two small — and we’d all like to avoid the ninja-shower thing, character-building as it is.
I called Direct Energy yesterday and they had someone out to have a look at it within hours. Great. Buddy agreed that yes, it was dead and yes, we could replace it with a larger one, and yes, it could probably happen today. Great.
I called this morning to make the appointment; dispatch called me back. Next Wednesday, they thought they might be able to come out.
Ummmm, no. No, no, no. We are not doing without hot water for a week.
Four phone calls and the intervention of a supervisor later, we have an appointment for 9am tomorrow morning. It was in their system as a straight replacement, not as something broken.
I’m writing this because, despite the glitch, it’s been an unusually pleasant customer service experience(*). They answered the phone, they were polite, they were nice, they took initiative to get things done. They called me back when they said they would, and they were clear that a week without hot water was not considered acceptable.
Of course, we’ll see if they actually show up tomorrow.
(*) Buddy the repair guy took exception to the placement of some of our machinery relative to the placement of the furnace, which is vastly inconvenient for us, but eh, he was doing his job.