I want to let people know about the problems and very bad service I received from Big Iron Drilling Company with regards to their Springtime water distiller.
My family spent $3000.00 on a "Spring Time" water distiller from "Big Irion Drilling" after the reverse osmosis water purification system in our home started to leak. I was seeking a better solution to a need for my family to have good drinking water on our acreage from a local well.
This distiller unit worked well for one month then started to act up, by not producing water as quickly as it had been and then stopped producing water all together. I was unable to get useful assistance from Big Iron Drilling over the phone over the following weeks, when I did get a service person on the phone I was told that my "No cost 90 day warranty" did not include in home repair, diagnosis of the problem, pick up or replacement or a replacement source of water while the unit is being repaired. They told me that the problem could not be diagnosed over the phone so the unit had to be disassembled, boxed and shipped to them (by me). They would repair it and ship it back to me and I would install it. They said if it did not work then, I would ship it to them once again and back and forth it would go.
I did not believe the problem was with the unit itself, but rather the way it had been installed (by them) as such I thought removing it and sending it in would be no help but that was the only service they would agree to.
So I sent the unit off collect by Greyhound bus to the shop in Edmonton. 3 weeks later I had not heard if they had received the unit, if it was damaged and or repaired or any information from the company, so I wrote a letter to the President of the company Mr. Ray Field and told him how unhappy I was with the equipment and their service and suggested that they keep the unit and refunds my money (less 10% for handling) and I would go away. 2 weeks later I received a call from Mr. Field who gave many excuses for the problems; even though he did not have the info about what was actually wrong with the unit. He refused my request for a refund and only wanted to install the unit in my home. I was very frustrated.
At this point it appears to me that my only choices are to let them re- install this unit and pray that it works properly, or to sue them. I understood letting them back into my home would negate any chance to sue them in the future.
Without any other reasonable choice but to commence with a law suit I allowed them to re-install this unit but insisted that they come and install it so I would not be blamed for any future malfunctions. I also insisted and received a written warranty for one year of in home service for any future problems. I was unable to get any compensation for my troubles.
This "new" unit (distiller #2) worked for about one month before causing an electrical short and tripping the breaker. Big Iron did come and replace this unit with another (distiller #3) which worked for less than one week before it's high water limit switch failed and it soaked my drywall completely
Big Iron returned again and replaced unit #3 with Unit#2 which had been repaired. As of spring 2007 this unit still works. But the process has been very dissatisfying
Key Points
*The equipment is unreliable; at least three units have been in my home and they have all failed at least once. *The warranty is worthless: it does not cover in-home repair and does not detail what it does include. The customer is left to absorb the costs of:-replacement water source for several months while units are getting fixed,
-packing materials for shipping the unit back to the supplier (my concern was if it is damaged in transit is it my fault for not packing it correctly and how would I determine if they were telling the truth about the cause of such damage)
-my time or gas for picking up and dropping off this unit to the bus depot. (I live on an acreage outside the city of Calgary, and as such am a long way from the bus depot and do not go to that area of the city very often)
*The customer service is very poor. No one called in first 2 months to ask how it was going, I guess they don't care. When I called for help they offered none. They told me it was my fault for living in a place with well water. I had to suggest a resolution to this problem as they did not have any suggestions. We negotiated a one year warranty, for in-home service and replacement unit any time they have to remove mine.My family has been without the good quality drinking water that I purchased form Big Iron as a result of the failure of this equipment.
NOTE: In the end Big Iron has determined that the increased build up of minerals in the distiller #1 caused its failure and, without coming to my home, they believe this is due to the water softener in my home not softening the water enough. Perhaps this is the problem and perhaps it could have been corrected in my home, if they had attended as requested. And cleaned the unit on site, perhaps this would not have taken so long.
I do not understand why they would rather have me as a hostile customer, than a happy ex-customer.