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Review 8/15/2010
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I have a warning about a water heater company in Santa Clarita called Affordable Water heaters. They one I dealt with is located in San Fernando but they have companies throughout southern California. They are the ones that send out a yellow sticker through the mail to apply to your water heater with instructions on emergency shut down situations.
To make a long story short, we called them one evening because we noticed a leak in our water tank. They came out the next morning and told us the total cost including bringing it up to code was approx. $1600. We agreed to have it done, not knowing what the cost to replace one was.
Anyhow, a few weeks later a neighbor of mine installed a water heater through Home Depot for half the cost! I phoned Affordable Water Heaters and was told to fax them a copy of my friend's receipt which I did. Then they insisted that we had ALTERED the receipt because there was no additional pricing for bringing my friend's water heater up to code. I told them that was the final price they had paid. I asked for a breakdown of the price for the water heater we had installed. To my disbelief, the heater was only 899$ but they charged me $700 to bring my water heater up to code. I phoned city hall to inquire about the codes and they had no records of a recent permit (which they charged me 60$ for). I explained the $700 in code charges to an inspector at city hall who had originally inspected my home when it was first built in 2001 and she said there hasn't been much changes to the code to warrant that much of a cost. She told me to take him to small claims court.
Then, through taking with other people, I happen to meet 2 other women who used this company. One woman paid exactly the same amount as I did (TO THE PENNY) for a water heater installed in her home a year prior to me. Then another mom I met through my kids sporting events, also paid the EXACT SAME AMOUNT. She also had taken them to court over her warranty. Her new water heater leaked after 2 years. She called Affordable Water Heaters out thinking it was still under warranty. Well, it was under warranty, but the company charged her an additional $500 to bring her water heater up to code after 2 YEARS! Bradford White, the brand of the water heater, told her they will honor the warranty but they had no control over what the "middle guys" charge her for extra things. I can't believe that 3 homes built in different years had the EXACT SAME CHARGES TO BRING IT UP TO CODE!!!
Anyhow, I checked their BBB rating and it also had the lowest rating with tons of complaints regarding their unscrupulous business tactics. Please be aware and I don't want anyone else to be in the same situation I was.
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