When I last needed to put in a new water heater, I decided that it wouldn't cost that much more to have it installed by the "pros", so I just paid the extra.
For one thing, part of the deal was that they'd haul the old one up out of my basement and dispose of it for me. That saves me a trip to the dump and the hassle of dragging that beast up the stairs, too. So I went for the package deal from, I believe, Sears.
Well, to make a long story short, I ended up removing it after they got done and then reinstalling it so that the job met my specifications (which include it being installed up to local code, for one thing).
Never again!
It's a gas water heater. And they're easy to install, actually. The "pros", in this case, didn't get the unit level, didn't put a water-leak-tray under it, and didn't install any "junk trap" in the gas line feeding it (that's required by code here now).
Further, they didn't put in anything to hold the unit it place in case of earthquake and they didn't put in any kind of backflow preventers which can save a bit of energy.
They also couldn't figure out how to drain the old water heater, so they didn't dispose of it either. I ended up doing all of that and redoing all of their work which made it much more of a chore than if I'd have just bought the unit and installed it myself to begin with.
I won't make that mistake again
I, too have been having a bit of a problem shooting any transactions. I've chickened out on one that should be good, but maybe before this weekend I'll get up the guts to try shooting it.
It'll require some cooperation from the vendor and some willing customers if it's going to be posted on the internet. We'll see how people feel about the whole concept. People are kind of suspicious about this kind of thing, especially when it comes to having their likeness posted on the 'net. But you never know. The right people might absolutely love the idea.
I should go with my wife, son, and daughter in law. Having a group of people might make it seem a bit less "creepy". It's too bad that people have gotten so paranoid about all of this.
--
Jim H.
