The Captain of a B-737 lectured a Maintenance Controller regarding the failure of maintenance personnel to reset pulled and collared circuit breakers following a maintenance procedure.

Narrative

During preflight I noticed that the Lavatory Water Heater C; A; and B circuit breakers were pulled and collared. I contacted Maintenance Control and asked why the circuit breakers were pulled and collared. Looking at the history of the aircraft he initially stated that 'it was kind of hard to follow the history; because a couple of write-ups had been made and there was also a reclassification. The potable water system was placed on MEL back at the time of these write-ups; and it is standard procedure to pull the Lavatory Water Heater circuit breakers. But the MEL had been cleared nine days earlier'. He stated that Maintenance had overlooked the Lavatory Water Heater circuit breakers; and not reset them.I asked what procedure Maintenance has to double check or in any way make sure that maintenance procedures are accomplished completely and correctly. He stated that in this case; we just rely on the mechanic to sign the logbook off. I stated that not having any procedure in place to make sure that items (such as circuit breakers) are correctly positioned is very disturbing. I stated that this plane had been flying for nine days and not one Maintenance individual had caught the discrepancy. He then stated that no pilots prior to me had caught it either. I said that apparently was correct; but that I am interested in discussing why Maintenance does not correctly complete items; or timely catch errors? He then stated that I should be just as concerned about the previous pilots and that if I continued to argue with him that he was going to hang up on me. He asked if I wanted to talk to a Duty Manager. I said yes. I was put on hold and then disconnected. Later I called the Chief Pilot's office and explained my conversation with Maintenance Control. I explained that I had put an entry in the logbook and; per the FOM; was not comfortable resetting circuit breakers that had not 'tripped' (FOM verbiage). I asked that Contract Maintenance be called. He called back quickly and advised that Contract Maintenance had been called. Contract Maintenance reset the circuit breakers and signed off the logbook. This checking by me is unacceptable and is a maintenance function; not a flight crew standard operating procedure.