I’m not a plumber, but I used to work on gas lines. Leaving a leak is unacceptable. My only religion is checking religiously for gas leaks. All joins should be checked (we just used a mixture of dish soap and water to see if there is any bubbling. We were dealing with gas in the natural state, so without the additives added by gas companies). Someone leaving your house without checking those things is unacceptable.
I would accept what they offer. I would also file a complaint about them to whomever makes sense. Don’t let your silence be bought, but don’t let greed get in the way of what’s reasonable.
In fact I didn’t, don’t, want to hurt anyone. I specifically said
I’ve told you LITERALLY a BILLION times not to exaggerate.
I did say
which I had rather hoped would clue people in that I understood that I was over-reacting at the time and would get over it.
While I appreciate and share your irritation at the “Sue the Bastards!” trend in our society, the fact is that money is used for compensation for everything from burning yourself on hot coffee (why was THAT ever reasonable?) to losing one’s spouse in a plane crash. I was asking for advice about what is customary and reasonable (because I was not feeling reasonable and so stated) in the hope that I would not do something stupid which I would later regret such as threatening to sue and or other overblown statements/claims/threats.
Also, (see next quote) a financial penalty for a screw-up is often the motivation for other folk involved in the same activity to be more careful, so that others do not suffer the same (almost in our case) fate. If there is no penalty for shoddy work, many people will continue to do shoddy work.
In fact this plumbing company is highly recommended, I am convinced that they do not typically do shoddy work and feel that they have already learned their lesson: always use the leak sniffer.
I’m not demanding anything. The top guy offered an unstated rebate and I was asking what might be reasonable.
I wouldn’t say such a thing, and in the OP I did say
and because I sometimes make mistakes, and because cars are one of the most dangerous devices in our world, I always make the kids wear seatbelts (not to mention myself & VeryCoolSpouse) before the car will move. And I never do my own gas-pipe work. With 59 years of experience I can say that I’ve made mistakes that might have caused people serious damage, and I regret those. Once again, I am not insisting on compensation–it has been offered and I am trying to do the reasonable thing.
Nope, that’s not what I’m doing. He has offered and I am (was) specifically asking what IS reasonable. What I said in the OP was:
And I have. He graciously offered to have his tech here when the official inspection happens to answer any technical questions that might come up.
I’m not, in fact, looking for anything from the contractor. A rebate was offered and I was hoping for advice from Dopers about was was reasonable.
And I don’t demand free food at resturants. If it’s lousy food I ask for a refund and don’t eat it…and don’t go back.
I did think about this, but as I said, I felt it likely that the smell was left-over from the guy working on the gas line, since he had to run a new one for the heater (a tankless, AKA “on-demand” water heater which required a larger line than we had). It was a judgment call, which might have been faulty. I did the best I could with the information I had.
I did not ask the contractor for money, I did ask The Dope for opinions. I did say in the OP
These questions did occur to me, and were dealt with. My question in the OP was
…which I would consider slightly different from ‘How much should I be paid?’ Admittedly there’s a distinction here which might not come across in a plain-text setting.
With 8 kids, a full-time job (to feed/support same) and other demands on my time…I’ve been busy. And I was hoping to give a detailed response, which I only now have had the time to do.
We’re thinking about going tankless for any new water heater, too - you’ll have to come back and let us know how you like it after you’ve had it for a while.
That was my immediate thought. This was a serious serious mistake.
I’ve personally witnessed a plumber set a house on fire by mistake. It was caught before anything really bad happened (a hole had to be cut into a wall to extinguish it). Shit happens.
Take the $50 and treat your family to a nice meal with a mental slice of humble pie for dessert.
while you’re researching it look at the new heat pump units to see which is more efficient. It would be great to pull heat out of the air during the summer but not sure how that works in the winter.
