tim mitchinson in Niagara on the lake

It's now time for us to file a claim with the City of Niagara Falls for the damage caused by their shoddy repair work on the sewer lateral a few months before the incident. In addition to the report and bill from Restoration 1 for remedial work, we now require an estimate for the restoration of the finished basement. The project manager Jason said he could easily provide this using their computer program, but he is no longer with Restoration 1 of Hamilton. Not knowing this I wrote to Jason but received no response. A few weeks later on May 12th, I received the following response: Hello Tim, This email from yourself popped up in jays inbox the other day. I have access to it but he is no longer with the company. What can I do to help? Regards, Paul Robertson, MBA General Manager Restoration 1 Sent from my iPhone I immediately wrote Paul back explaining what we needed, but there was no response. On June 1st my wife called Paul and left a message, but still no response. Then I received a request from Homestars to finish this review. We were not completely satisfied with the remedial work, but were overlooking the few things that got missed due to Jason's "ongoing" customer service after the cleanup. Now that Jason is no longer there, Paul doesn't appear to care. No response from Paul says it all.

Spoke to DE rep and set an appointment to change out rental power vented hot water tank (HT), which has a cracked liner and is therefore putting rust in the plumbing system. Rep was well aware of what my problem was and scheduled an appointment for a tech to come and change tank. Rep asked me to have a clear pathway through the basement for them to change tank, which I did. Tech showed up by himself and I showed him the HT. After I advised him that I have rust in the hot water, the Tech asked if I had any cast iron pipe. I advised him that I didn't. In the meantime he pulled on the exhaust (made of ABS pipe and at least 15 years old) and the pipe split at a coupling. I was not watching when he pulled on it, but I suspect he was the one who broke it since I was inspecting the tank last night and I did not see the pipe was broken, nor did I hear the exhaust gases hissing out due to the power vent. Since the HT was being replaced I was not concerned, thinking it was Direct Energy's responsibility to replace vent. Apparently NOT SO! The Tech advised me that it will cost $225 to replace the vent. When I said I'll do it myself, he advised it has to be made of a new material (636 PVC) and that the installers may not approve when they replace the HT. Hearing that I said I'll buy a new HT before I pay for a new exhaust line to vent Direct Energy's new rental HT. The Tech said fine and pulled the plug and shut of the gas and left, leaving me with no hot water. I fail to see why the old vent can not be repaired until such time as it can be replaced and a new tank installed. I don't know what Direct Energy was planning for me since the Tech showed up by himself without a new replacement tank and did nothing to improve my situation. He did make the comment that its a wonder we had not been affected by the exhaust gas (in other words, suffocated to death by CO2). I called Direct Energy and informed them I was not pleased with what took place, but moreover, that Direct Energy has never advised me that ABS exhausts were banned in 2007 because they crack. Given this is a potentially lethal scenario, I'm amazed that DE is taking no responsibility for this. They have never advised me of this potential hazard, even though I have had the HT serviced by DE at least once since 2007. Why didn't that Tech yank on the exhaust pipe. I suspect there was nothing wrong with the pipe until today! Nevertheless, I've been left without hot water. I am currently waiting for a return call from the "office of the president team" at Direct Energy's head office (416-758-8910). I'm amazed that DE is leaving such a serious and potentially lethal situation for the homeowner (client) to discover and correct. Has there been any loss of life or injuries due to this type of venting being left on RENTAL tanks yet? I hope the word gets around. This would be a great item for YouTube. Meanwhile, cold showers while I wait to hear back from my lawyer and Direct Energy.