Claudia, this is probably over the top, but ask the contractor if the pump is hooked up, and if so, flood the basement with a few buckets of water and see if the pump goes on.
Or ask them if they will do that to demonstrate to you that it works. If you add water away from where the pump is, and the pump goes on fairly quickly, it would seem there is pipe for the water to go through. This is off the top of my head too early sunday morning and may be entirely nuts. What do more experienced folks think of my radical tests? Tom Fowle
