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Review 10/13/2010
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Had old plumbing underground replaced with new aquapex plumbing material. They dug underground and ran new material into new spots in the ground. Tore out tile in bathrooms to plumb. Tore out carpet from all 3 bedrooms, hallway and LR for access. drilled out holes in all 3 bedrooms, hallway and LR. Front yard was completely dug up to access underneath the house. 2 new water bibs were put on outside of house.
Member Comments: We had polybutylene plumbing in our Rio Rancho house, so we hired Eclipse to replace all the plumbing with the aquapex material. We sprung a leak right underneath the slab in my daughters bedroom. So we called Eclipse and had them come out...They met the insurance adjuster. Everything went great until it was time for them to wrap up the job. I was told by some of the guys on the team that it should've only taken 1 day (if that) to dig up all the dirt beneath our house. It actually took 3 days. This fact didn't even bother me. And I have to say the gentlemen working on my house were FANTASTIC guys. The complaint I have is with the sales guy that initially came to our house, explained (somewhat) what would happen. The complaint also had very much to do with the owner of the company. The sales guy wasn't very forthcoming with all the details. Being a layman, not knowing anything about plumbing, I kept asking him questions. Not to mention we were in a hotel for 5 days because of the holes in the ground in almost every room of the house. We were told initially the water would be turned off for only a day or two, however it was much longer....The biggest concern was that the cement inside the house in the foundation were dug up and we could not safely return home until that was all filled in. We have 4 animals, it would've been unsafe. We were very cooperative in the whole process, Rick, the owner knows that we were. I had a very good rapport with all his employees. We were very open and willing to let the employees do what they had to do. We just weren't informed the way we should've been.
One of my major concerns was the tiling of our shower wall. I assumed if they took the tiles out of the shower wall, they would put it back. I was told that it would of course be new tile. Towards the time where tiling would go back in, I kept asking the sales guy what kind of tile would go in. He was never straight forward with the answer-he even at one point said they would go into the trash and find some tile and just throw it up there. He said this jokingly....I knew he wasn't serious, but he never disclosed that MY HUSBAND AND I needed to buy the tile, the grout, the caulking. These things could have been told to us from the beginning so we would have been prepared. I hard a hard time getting the sales guy to explain anything to us. They weren't a company forthcoming with details....So, at the last minute we had to jump thru hoops to get the materials and pay for them. Ok, no big deal still--we have to do what we have to do. Then we asked the sales guy, since the tile won't match the floor anymore, can we buy the extra tile so the floor can be done. He put up no fuss and said sure. It's only a 4 foot by 3 foot floor....Something small like that. And my husband made sure to rip out all the old tile and clean any roots and debris that was on the floor, we didn't expect the plumbers to do that.
I guess at this point in the job the owner, Rick Herrera was (I'm assuming) pushing for his guys to hurry and finish the job. At the beginning, before anything was done, the guys had to rip up carpet from the 3 bedrooms, the living room and part of my hallway. I was told that the company would put the carpet back in place and they would have a separate company perform that task.
So the last day when everything was complete, except the carpet, I started asking them when the company would be out to mend our carpet. This was important information because my husband and I own our own business and work 6 days a week and have 4 children. We were eager to get all the kids back home (stayed with Grandma), and we were locking up our animals in the garage for weeks. This whole plumbing process took 3 weeks and it was very frustrating. We were very nice to all the employees and patient, and I feel that I had a good rapport with all the guys. I asked them that last day when the carpet company would be there, and they weren't able to give me any information, they told me to call one of their team leaders. So, I called one of the team leaders, a plumber who had given me his phone number, he directed me to call another guy. Now I was getting the run-around. I called the other guy, he said he didn't know, he'll find out and call me when he can. He never called back. So, my husband called the sales guy who initially took the job for the company, and he immediately raised his voice in a hostile manner and told my husband, "I almost lost my job because of your house". He then stated that Rick Herrera (the owner) said that he would not be having a company come out and fix our carpet, nor would he pay us to have someone do it. He said that we were given too many freebies and that our house took up a lot of time and money. Of course, I didn't see how that was our fault, we were the clients, and the company received their money. Not using it wisely was not my fault. At this point our carpet was laying out everywhere, a terrific mess. There is a strand unraveling off one of our Berber rugs in my son's room due to the way it was taken up and peeled back.
After I heard this info, I called directly to Rick Herrera, and when he answered the phone he said something similar to me, "I almost fired BLANK because of your house." No hello, nothing, just started talking AT ME very loud. He said they weren't putting my carpet back because the company tiled our bathroom floor and clients usually only get one free cookie and that's it. He was very angry and stated many things in a very rude way, things like his guys did more to our house then they usually are supposed to do. This I didn't understand, I assumed whatever they tore apart they would put back; and very clearly they tore out our carpet, and it was a nightmare. That is what the sales guy initially told me would happen, that is part of their responsibility. I made sure to tell him that the sales guy was never specific about anything, wasn't very informative...And had left messes everywhere in the house. Told him that they didn't have a professional tiler, just the plumbers whom did our bathroom. They didn't have a professional dry wall guy, so they just had the plumbers do the wall patching. I stated that it was very unprofessional to take up a bunch of carpet and then leave it that way, that they had all my money and it left me nothing to pay for a carpet company to come fix it. He said I was "strong arming" him because I kept telling him, "Yes, you are going to put the carpet back. Your company took it apart, and it is your professional responsibility to put it back." He kept yelling at me and being mean. I was patient and never yelled back, he was using curse words, and I was very upset.
Eventually he decided to take money from his sales guys' paycheck to give us to get the carpet put back. The amount he gave us was only $150. The amount we paid to have the carpet people fix our carpet was $350. The amount would've been more, but the carpet people felt bad for us after we told them what had happened. All in all, the amount the whole job cost us was approximately $15,000. That included some new things we had to purchase, including a vanity for the kids’ bathroom, because the plumbers basically broke the one that they took out, and there was no way it would go back. The hotel cost more then $600 for the week since we have 4 children and 4 animals that had to go with us. That money was spent out of pocket since the insurance company didn't pay for the cost of a hotel. Rick Herrera kept telling me on the phone that I received a lot of money from my insurance company so why was I complaining? I told him that he got all the money that my insurance company had given me. It's not like I could've kept ONE DARN DIME!
Months later, I am still seeing staples left in the ceiling in every room where they had stapled sheets to the wall(to reduce dust escaping to all over the house). I see bumps under the carpet where big rocks were left and never cleaned up when they drilled. The texture of the drywall was done terribly. On a portion of the LR wall at the baseboard, there is carpet on the baseboard because it is a sunken in LR. There are some pipes that are still sticking out that one of the guys didn't get to go back flush, which is an eyesore! There was a bunch of dirt and debris left underneath our water heater and furnace area. In that space is where the uptake draft occurs. So, basically that is circulating through our house, the dirt and debris. My husband just cleaned that when changing from air conditioner to heater. There was another area in the living room where they opened up the wall, to access and install the new pipes. They made a hole completely through the wall and punctured through to the kitchen. They never noticed this, I had to bring it to someone's attention, and basically force them to fix it with some drywall material. They didn't texture it at all, so it's a smooth spot surrounded by texture! It looks terrible. I am very upset. We don't make a lot of money and I feel like we spent a lot of out of pocket money fixing things they did wrong.
I truly believe that the owner didn't expect our house to take 3 days to dig up, they (I assume) ran out of money on our job and the owner rushed his employees, so the job was completed poorly, since they weren't given the chance to do any better. His employees are awesome, great guys, professional in their mannerisms. WE WERE TOLD AS WELL THAT WE WOULD HAVE A PROFESSIONAL CARPET COMPANY and PROFESSIONAL DRY WALL COMPANY to do all the fixings. It was not to be and therefore it is the owner that my chief complaint is with. I cannot in good conscience recommend this company to anyone. I myself own my own business and I have spoken with quite a few people that also had Eclipse work on their house and they were not left very satisfied, including a family member (who initially warned me not to have Eclipse work on my house). However I will leave it to those individuals to voice their concerns if they choose to
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