TL;DR Hired a big bog store contractor to replace my broken water heater. The contractor damaged the new water heater during install.

I think I made a mistake in using a Home Depot contractor to install a Home Depot hot water heater. 

I should have gone with a reputable company, but their quotes were $3k+ for a water heater with the same specs, and I’d have to wait a counter of days for an appointment. 

I’m busy with work, didn’t feel like shopping around more, and the HD contractor said they could do the job the following day for $1.9k. 

In preparation for the appointed, I drained the old heater and disconnected it from the outer supply. The contractor showed up on time, he was very nice, and explained hotter he’d do the job. He explained he’d only be using pex, and that he didn’t need copper for the expansion tank bc that was going to be bracketed to the wall. I told him that’s fine if it’s up to code. I’m in South Carolina and know nothing about pluming codes, so whatever. I left him to do his thing. 

The first picture is of the old WH that failed. The rest are of the new install. The contractor wasn’t going to say anything about the damage until I brought it up. He then admitted to causing the damage when getting the heater on the pedestal. But he said the top was dented out of the box. He said it’s only cosmetic though and won’t affect the performance. 

So, is that true about the dents only being cosmetic? How does everything else look? I’m tempted to seek a refund and return the damaged heater, but is that worth the trouble? If I go this route I’d pay the extra $ to get better work done (hopefully) and hopefully a WH from an actually plumbing equipment supplier.

What would you do?