Gas water heater how easy is a "do it your self" replacement?

[USMC88-93]

We can now add to the troubles with contractors list....

Regarding paragraphs and punctuation I'm tired and if I feel like it tomorrow I'll fix it.

I went ahead and had a company install it. I went to Home Depot on Wadsworth in Arvada this morning and made the water heater purchase. Picked out a Rheem 50 gallon platinum series (Anyway moral of that part of the story is I over bought and bought and bought the "best and newest" 50 gallon Rheem that they had in the store). Took it with the Home depot pluming department guy up to will call and paid for the heater. Made arrangement and payment for the install and gave them the will call order number for pick up. Was told 2pm to 4pm for arrival. Get a call at 330pm that they probably wont be there til 630pm. I roll with the punches and have no problem with this as it is my day off and this is the only thing on my to do list.

At some point the actual installers call me with an eta closer to 730 (My impression is they were fishing for me to reschedule due to the time) I told them OK and had the typical "Damn he still wants us to come out silent pause". By the time they arrive I have already drained the water heater and removed both input and output water lines plus the exhaust vent leaving them only the gas to deal with. Now I am content to just greet them (they showed up well before 730 and fairly soon after the eta phone call) and I show them the location of the work in the basement.

Off I go to stay out of their way (I work for Comcast in homes and understand the frustrations of a customer hovering over me with 1000 questions as I work). Some time later I come down and it just doesn't look right so I stare at the work in progress trying to figure out why my spidy senses are tingling. All the sudden the light bulb went off as the color of the water heater was not the dark grey of the Rheem unit that I looked at in the store. Asked the installer "Where is the box" His response with his Romanian accent "is good, Is good, this 50 gallon 12 year warranty" Me - Yes but where is the box? I went out to their truck and sure enough they were installing a GE water heater and not the Rheem I purchased. As it turned out a heater with over a $300 dollar price difference from what I purchased. I told both of the Romanian installers that this was not the item I purchased after they were 3/4 through with the install. (My fault on that for not verifying the product they pulled off the truck). Their fault for not verifying the will call product receipt in the store, and Home depots fault for not keeping an eye on the will call product area as My water heater walked out of the store and they have no idea where it went.

Moral of the story is I ended up with a water heater that I did not choose however I over bought in the first place and the GE 50 gallon 12 year warranty one that I just had them complete the install with should be fine. Went to Home depot and was refunded the difference between the two plus 20% off the GE heater. Tommorrow I need to call install company and see about a partial refund on install for my troubles. As for Home Depot they are missing a $700 water heater that just magically disappeared from their will call area. I should have bit the bullet and installed it myself.

This is the one I bought. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rheem-Per...1?N=5yc1vZc1tz

Lesson learned