Mr. Rooter  -  Hot water heater service

Called a plumbing service (Mr Rooter) as my 17 month old water heater was tripping off and had to be manually reset due to an intermittent fault. A O Smith's service line said a technician had to be there to go through diagnostics. The person Mr Rooter sent asked me how to reset the heater and several other basic questions so I asked him if he had been trained on the unit or had been certified in a formal way. He got huffy and walked out. A call to the Greenville NC office (dispatch for the Raleigh area) said he left for another call. Another tech was to come on Saturday morning at 8 am and call when on way. Saturday morning at 8:30 someone shows up without the call, then when in front of the heater he discloses a $145 fee. No fees were discussed in the multiple phone calls to the Mr Rooter office. A O Smith had provided 5 names of companies they approved of for service, calls to those other companies stated their charges up front as to whether they did the diagnostics or did the complete repair. Mr Rooter did not do that.
It appears their business model is to get on site and stick it to the individual instead of being upfront about the potential costs. A O Smith confirmed the unit was under warranty for tank and parts while Mr Rooter;s office manager claimed the unit was out of warranty when provided information about the unit.
Call around before using this firm, a total non-service company!