Culligan RO removal futz's faucet, makem fixit?

I keep thinking we will be moving soon, so have insanely kept Culligan and their monthly charges for Softwater and Reverse Osmosis drinking water many years. With the last rate increase I told them I would be buying a RO and removing theirs and giving it back to them. They insisted that they needed to do the removal, and came out yesterday and did it. After removing all their stuff, and instead of installing a simple bypass using the tubing they tossed in the trash, they attempted to reconnect my aging but working just fine faucets flex lines back to the wall pipes and the faucets hot line started leaking. Current status, both hot and cold shut off at the wall, wife not happy.

The only reasonable fix is a new kitchen sink faucet, which I will be looking around here to see just how much of a pain it will be to put in (lousy clearance back behind the sink bowl), but I was wondering what you all think I should do with Culligan about this.

It was a nice old guy doing the work and I don't want to get him into trouble, and I don't think he "messed up", more the Culligan policy of leave nothing behind and my old faucet are to blame. However, it was working fine before this with replacement maybe years away, connecting two of the tubes that went in the trash with a $2 coupler and nothing would have happened, and finally I have been a customer for maybe 20 years, and I am still paying them for monthly soft water service.

Should I just toddle off to Home Depot or Costco and fix it myself and drop it, or should I be calling Culligan to either install a new faucet, or credit me at least for the replacement cost?

I would hate it if they sent the same old guy out as some kind of punishment detail to install my new faucet, fact is I would rather do it myself almost since I will also be putting in the new RO unit. What I am edging towards doing is calling them and/or just including the bill for purchasing a new faucet with my next payment.

faucet

Unless they had a saddle valve on the tube coming down from the faucet, I cannot see how removing the RO would require a new faucet. But other than that, the repair would depend on how the RO was connected and therefore, what was removed.

Culligan purchased a local company Layton about 5 years ago, and the unit I have is a Layton from a few years earlier. Its a unique zero waste design, the RO membrane is spliced into the cold water line and gets flushed by using cold water in the kitchen sink.

Hot line wasn't changed, just bumped, wiggled, whatever and started leaking.

Cold line from wall pipe and shut off valve was connected to the membrane with a section of tubing, and from the membrane another section of tubing connected to the faucet cold water flex line. The membrane could have been removed, and a coupler installed to tie the two sections of tubing together. Instead all the tubing was removed with a lot of moving around the old flex lines and the hot line started leaking.

I just want to know what the "normal" level of responsibility is for this kind of damage. Culligan sure doesn't say when they do the install that you may not have a working kitchen sink after they are done, of course it may be buried in the fine print.

culligan products

they are a dubious bunch of people to say the least....

lets see, you have basically probably bought the unit twice over that
they installed in youir house ------ years ago...

now that you have dropped them, they basically spit
in your face and leave you hung out to dry....


they sould not have to change you rfaucet, but they
should make the leak right .

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what irritates most plumbers is that they are not liscensed plumbers,

but are in youir home doing plumbing work usually with no one in their

firm lliscensed to do plumbing ......and they get away with it...

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I suggest calling them to tell them you have a leak and had to shut off both hot and cold water to your kitchen sink. Mark doesn't believe it but us nonplumbers that do water treatment are honest hardworking types that don't want anyone suffering leaks; including ex-customers. And Mark, don't get me going on how many times I see licensed plumber caused mistakes along with their overcharging...

Gary
Quality Water Associates

overchargeing

GARY

I agree that they will most likely make it right...if properly asked.


You got to agree that they are probably the most expensive

water softerner on the market.....simply for their name.

and I know you have

heard stories or you have probably underbid them by THOUSANDS.

They command whatever price that they ask for their name only

and they dont need any

kind of license to go out and plumb overpriced units in for
unsespecting customers.......


Thats just my pet peeve.........
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As far as plumbers go, thier are many in my own city that

I would classify as crooks based on what they charge and the quality

of their work.

In our town , once your name is mudd and everyone knows
about your high prices and has heard horror stories that are legendary,

just change your name.


so what ya gonna do.

I talk to a lot of people all over the US that have had Culligan and other national brand dealers out to talk about their water quality and I can tell you there are many that have much higher prices than they do and do not take care of customers near as well. Frankly, my opinion of them is much higher than many others and based on their overhead, they are more fairly priced, and have basically good equipment, than many others I could name.

Gary
Quality Water Associates

I dropped Culligan for RO, but still have their water softener on a monthly plan.

There equipment is good, built for long rental life and no callbacks, but yeah the installers are NOT plumbers or even within the general handyman classification, just guys taught how to install one or two devices with no why to do this or that, just do it. Some of their installers are a LOT more knowledgable than others, and when people have problems my experience is that Culligan sends out one of the better guys.

Plenty of people are a LOT worse than culligan.

Have you got any idea how hard it is to find a good honest plumber? Thats what is driving DIY, not really the cost, but the pig in a poke.

I find a good, honest plumber everytime I look in the mirror. lol

Dangler said:

I dropped Culligan for RO, but still have their water softener on a monthly plan.

There equipment is good, built for long rental life and no callbacks, but yeah the installers are NOT plumbers or even within the general handyman classification, just guys taught how to install one or two devices with no why to do this or that, just do it. Some of their installers are a LOT more knowledgable than others, and when people have problems my experience is that Culligan sends out one of the better guys.

Plenty of people are a LOT worse than culligan.

Have you got any idea how hard it is to find a good honest plumber? Thats what is driving DIY, not really the cost, but the pig in a poke.

Click to expand...

Culligan uses a control valve based on the Fleck design, or maybe actually built by Fleck under private labeling. It's the same design the Clack WS-1 uses and it was designed by ex-Fleck guys, and it's way better.

Gary
Quality Water Associates