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YourHub.com \\ The Valley \\ Stories \\ Home & Garden \\ Home Repair

Plumbers, a cautionary tale

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Contributed by: Arnie Moore on 10/8/2006

The following tale is true and happened two weeks ago. No names are mentioned. I relate this in hopes that others will be aware of the predatory practices of SOME tradesmen out there.

I was lucky in that it could have been much worse. What should have been a simple, relatively inexpensive job turned into an expensive lesson. Here's my story.

Recently I made one of the ultimate kitchen mistakes. I put the wrong thing down the garbage disposal. This is, unfortunately, not the first time this has happened, but hopefully, it's the last. This time the evil substance was cole slaw, and I soon found my kitchen sink backed up. A liquid drain product had no effect, so before sunrise the next morning I was under the sink trying to solve my problem.

I had taken the day off from work for a doctor appointment in the afternoon and I figured the problem could be solved by noon. In dismantling my pipes, a short section of brass broke off with the threads still in the brass t-joint connector. I then discover that the blockage is not in the elbow-shaped plastic "trap" but behind the wall ! Argh!

Rather then go to my local hardware store to buy a manual "snake," I decided to call a plumber. Hoping to get a friend's recommendation for a trustworthy plumber, I made some calls, none of which were returned. It was well into the work day by this time. Though I didn't want to do so, I headed for the Yellow Pages, and called the very first full page as I saw. Why? Because their ad said they could be there within an hour.

"Your ad says you can be here in 60 minutes," I said.

"Yes sir," the lady informed. "There is an charge of $175 in addition to our service fee."

"Wow!" was all I could manage. "Well, thanks. I think I'll shop around."

"Oh, don't hang up, sir. Let me see if there are any crews nearby who might be able to help you." Red flag number one. I should have hung up right then. But, noooooooo.

Less than a minute later I heard, "Sir, we could have someone there between ten and noon."

"Without the extra charge?" I asked.

"Yes."

Needing to have my problem fixed by a self-imposed noon deadline and thus feeling I didn't have time to shop around, I booked them.

Two men showed up in a timely manner and were clean and cordial. I showed them the dismantled pipes, explained the nature of the job, as I perceived it, and asked for an estimate. The job was to use their snake machine to remove the blockage, and merely reassemble the pipes, and be on their way. For this, the estimate came to $156 !

He had a secondary proposal all drawn up including a "service maintenance" contract. Red flag number two! I should have paid them their $30 estimate fee and shown them the door, but nooooooo.

I felt my own time pressure and accepted the $156 figure, and he then said that it might be more if they found anything else which they had to address. Red flag number three.

In ten minutes he came to me saying the pipe was now unblocked, but that t-shaped connector needed to be replaced, and that they had the part on their truck.

"OK, how much for that?" I asked.

Red flag warning.........he took out his calculator!

A second, additional proposal was presented to me. $209 to "Do the job right."
That's $209 PLUS the original $156, making the total for my job $367, for a job that would take them 1/2 hour. When I said I knew this was outrageous, his response was, "Sir! We're NOT handymen. We're plumbers and the job will be done right!"

That's when I wrote my check for $156 and showed them the door, with my pipes still not assembled. They had been there less than 30 minutes.
I'd be up to doing that reassembly myself. The connector pipe was fine, only needing to have the inside threads cleaned up with a pocket knife. I went to the store, bought the new four-inch connector pipe, and put it all back together myself.

As I was working I thought of the other customers these men would see that day, thinking of my vulnerable mother and wondering if any would be able to turn down their outrageous proposal.

Lessons learned.

First; Do your best to not be in the position of feeling rushed in making such decisions. Of course, sometimes it's unavoidable. A plumber's biggest day of the year is Thanksgiving.

Second: Just because someone writes a good ad in the Yellow Pages, or arrives in clean clothes, and seems professional, doesn't make them worth of your business, and doesn't mean they might not be sharks.
Third: Caveat Emptor!

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