HERANDO COUNTY, Fla. — A basic repair swelled into a homeowner being out thousands of dollars and living with brown, unusable water after he hired a Florida repairman to fix his water softener system.
David Hibbard contacted Susan Solves It last month, fed up with the brown water flowing out of every faucet in his home. After sharing his story, things are now changing thanks to an ABC Action News viewer who stepped in to help.
Watch full report from Susan El Khoury
“There is a silver lining to every story.”
In February Hibbard noticed a leak in his water softener system and hired the Spring Hill-based company Tri-County Water.
“He said he could replace the two heads that go on the tank and I said I really don’t have the money because my wife just passed away,” Hibbard recalled.
Hibbard still has the receipts showing he paid Tri-County Water $270 to remove, repair, and then reinstall the tanks. Hibbard said Tri-County Water took the tanks, then disappeared.
“He ghosted me,” Hibbard said. “I was fed up and I called you.”
ABC Action News discovered Tri-County Water is not a registered company with the state. The owner didn’t want to do an interview, but he did install a new system at Hibbard’s house. Still, Hibbard said the fix wasn’t working.
“That’s not our old system, our old system was a two-tank system and it had an iron tank,” he explained.
After ABC Action News shared Hibbard’s story, the owner of City Soft Water & Plumbing, Derrick Nails decided to reach out.
“After seeing the news broadcast with Mr. Hibbard and yourself, he said we need to find this gentleman and help him,” recalled City Soft Water & Plumbing employee Helena Fletcher. “Our owner Derrick just felt the need to help someone.”
City Soft Water & Plumbing tested the water at Hibbard’s home and decided to provide a new system, free of charge.
“When we tested the water we saw for ourselves, this isn’t right.”
“He’s upgrading the system to a bigger unit plus an additional filter unit,” Fletcher explained. “This is how it should be versus what they had.”
None of it is being lost on Hibbard.
“It has been a blessing,” Hibbard said. “It just warms my heart because this is a company that cares.”
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