fixing a subcontractor’s failure

Terry and I have long loved our reverse osmosis water systems. When we had just bought our house in Gilroy we attended a home show and came across a reverse osmosis (R.O.) system vendor. We signed on and had the system installed. We loved the crystal-clear ice cubes we got. (Never mind that a reverse osmosis system throws away a gallon of water for every gallon you get. I don’t want to talk about that.)

When we did our kitchen remodel the workers mistakenly trashed the system in the destruct process. We replaced it with a system from a company our contractor recommended. It was worse that tap water: my hot tea came out super strong, So I pulled out the Yellow Pages (remember the Yellow Pages?) and found a local water treatment company that installed a new reverse osmosis system for us. He was a good guy, and he maintained it for us until we sold our house in 2015. That system was in fact an improvement as the previous vendor was part of a national company and the service technicians had to come in from out of town.

Here in Hemet, in November 2020 we had new countertops and a stainless steel sink installed in our kitchen. We decided that while we were at it we would install an R.O. system. I told our contractor what we wanted and he said he would check with his plumbing subcontractor. The contractor came back and said that the plumbing subcontractor told him that he installed and serviced R.O. systems. We said, “Let’s do it.” We did and loved the system.

Last November I called the plumbing subcontractor and said it was time to service the R.O. system. He asked who provided the system. Well, uh, you did. He had no record of what he installed. I sent him a photo of the system under our sink, but he never responded.

Yelp pointed me to a company here in town that specializes in water purification. I sent the owner two photos of the system. He confirmed it was a standard system that he could service. (At least the plumbing subcontractor did install a standard system and not one of those one-offs that both guys told me are out there.) Our new R.O. service technician replaced the various filters and pointed out that the unit was on the floorboard under the sink when it needed to be attached to the cabinet wall. He fixed that.

We’re now good for pure water (and those marvelous crystal-clear ice cubes) for another year.