Home Pro, or Home Amatuer?

[Reposed]

Home Pro is so far the most well-run retailer I've encountered in my time here. I actually like it better than Home Depot. At least they have people in each aisle to help. Nary a hint of anything dissatisfying…until now.

 

Remodeling my kitchen down south, but I also have an apartment in BKK. So I bought all the appliances in Bang Na after visiting the Mex showroom which has displays and specs readily available. 

 

Bought mostly Mex (from Home Pro); gas cooktop, hood, built-in oven, water heater, sink/faucet, and a water filter. Now, I have a lot of building experience, but was told if I installed, no warranty. And, the water filter is a bit of a complex one, so that was really the only reason for having an installer. That and a warranty on a 35,000 baht oven.

 

Went into the "local" Home Pro, which is 90 minutes from my house. Told them I was ready for install. Lady spoke decent English. Wrote up the order. In Thai, so I verified that the four items to be installed were the oven, hood, cooktop, and water filter. She confirmed. I signed and paid 4000 baht. 

 

Installer came today. I had already wired the outlets for the oven and hood, so that was quickly completed. I pointed at the water filter…..he said, no, no. Not on contract.

 

Huh?

 

I called the lady who worked with me. She said, sorry, I forgot about water filter, my mistake. Okay, no problem. I suggested I would install the cooktop myself, and let's take that 1100 baht and apply it to the water filter and call it a day, that I did not care about the 350 baht refund. Gas would cost more than that to drive 3 hours.

 

Oh, but cannot, sir.

 

You must pay the installer 750 baht, then drive here to get refund.

 

Uh, no. Not going to happen.

 

Or, for all intents and purposes, I could pay 1850 baht to install a water filter, a 30 minute job.

 

So I called the 1284 number. Nice lady, good English. She sent the installer on his way and will get back to me. Or so she says.

 

This has all made me thirsty. Off now to buy some water at the mom and pop up the road.

 

Don't know when I'll be back, the installer did not know how to set the clock on the oven.

 

 

.

[pgrahmm]

Anything we've had them install has been done well....

But, we are close to Chiang Mai so the installers probably stay busy + current skill wise.... 

I'm sure the further out you get the quality of the work diminishes....Same with auto repair options in the rural areas...

[AlexRRR]

There a bit of both, thats my experience, using them to do a full condo reno bar the kitchen, im picking them up all the time for things, they dont talk that much, dont relay instructions to workers often, ignore or not respond to about 50% of anything i raise in the group chat between manager supervisors and workers.

 

They struggle to think outside of the box, lack problem solving skills, couldnt fathom how i wanted my bathroom vanities even after i sketched it up for them once it got through, ho no cannot....so the kitchen guys are doing them....

 

Lucky i have a solid back ground in building and expect to have dills working for me...so its ok...i could imagine the local village builder and contractors....ho no i wouldnt go there....

[Encid]

On 7/13/2022 at 4:55 PM, Reposed said:

Bought mostly Mex...  water heater...,

Whatever you do make sure that it is properly earthed or grounded.

 

I bought a Mex (made in China) water heater from HomePro about a year ago and it worked quite well until recently.

A couple of months ago we went away to visit the family up-country for a week or so, and upon our return discovered that the hot water outlet hose from the heater had burst (it was located underneath the sink to supply hot water to both the sink mixer faucet and the shower) and was leaking profusely and our bathroom had about 20mm of warm water on the floor and it felt like a sauna.

Luckily the floor drain took most of the water away so the flooding was confined to the bathroom only.

I turned the water supply off and electrically isolated the water heater at the breaker.

Over the following couple of days after drying everything out I replaced all the hoses, turned the water supply back on again, and reenergized the water heater.

I tested that it was working OK by turning on the mixer faucet to hot and checked that nothing was leaking.

All seemed OK.

 

However later that day my wife used the bathroom to have a shower and whilst she was showered she yelled out to me to come quickly.

She said he had received an electrical shock from the hot water tap in the shower.

I was dubious as I knew that all the hot water piping inside the wall from the heater to the shower was PPR and therefore unable to conduct electricity, so I tested it myself.

Sure enough... I got an electric shock from the hot water tap too.

No shock from the hot water mixer faucet in the sink, just the shower.

And the shock only occurred when the heater was operating, no shock in standby mode.

 

After that I decided to replace the Mex water heater with a British built Redring water heater (also from HomePro) and have not had a problem since.

 

Perhaps the Mex heater was damaged from the steam from the hot water leak?

I don't know, but I wasn't going to take any chances.