I came home one day (I want to say Friday) and could hear water RUSHING through the pipes even though nothing was on.
The city had just done some work so I called them up to come check and make sure it wasn't them. It wasn't, so I had them shut it off and began placing calls.
My first call was to Joe the Plumber after the city visit - around 11 pm so I wasn't expecting much. Never even got a call back from this guy.
Second call was to Puget Sound Plumbing the next morning (I believe, I may be getting the names mixed up) - where a gal said they would have someone over to me by 5 or 6. They never showed.
Third call was to another company with a guy by the name of Scott answering. He told me his person, Jordan, would be out by 1. At 1, I called to verify if he was coming and got "yeah, he just went a little over and will be right there".
By 5 pm I was on the phone with Mark Sonnenberg. I told him what was going on (trying not to panic - I have two kids, no water, and the bathtub full of water for flushing the toilets was running out).
He told me he'd be there by 6:45. I said ok and he must have known my thoughts "YEAH RIGHT THAT'S WHAT THEY'VE ALL SAID" because he followed up with "If I say I'm going to show up at a time, I show up. Don't worry. I'll be there. 6:45"
He showed up at 6:35 Saturday evening and started digging. He found the leak pretty quickly and proceeded to quote us. He told us what we could do on our own for much less if we wanted to save money, told us how to do it, what we'd need, etc. and that he'd only charge us for gas if that were the case.
He let us know he didn't work Sundays so he wouldn't be able to come in until Monday to complete it.
Towards the end of the conversation, we mentioned we'd had some other issues and he stated he'd take a look and probably do it for no charge.
On Monday, Mark showed up when he said he would (I know because he left a voided contract for me - my SO had passed out and didn't hear him knock - UGH) and I called all panicky thinking that we'd blown our shot with this guy.. the ONE guy who had actually come out.
He said he'd show up right after lunch and was there at 1:30 and done by about 6.
For us, this was really worth it. We both have horrible backs and no one to really help us, we aren't great at delegating work to others, and we needed water!!
I highly recommend Mark. We'll be keeping his number for the future.
*sidenote.. Scott called on Tuesday to see how we were doing - I think he was really just calling to see if it was a "real" job that was lost so he could let his employee know they lost a bit of money for not showing up. read more