In April of this year, I walked downstairs in my home to relax after a very long day. Before I…read morecould sit down, I was horrified to see water leaking through my ceiling and dripping down a wall in the middle of my basement. I then looked into the adjacent bathroom and was heartbroken to see the ceiling of my just painted bathroom sagging with a water "balloon" from the same plumbing catastrophe. I had no recourse other than to poke it with a screwdriver to drain the water into a cooler.
The next day I began feverishly searching for a plumber, hopefully one that was independent and reasonably priced. I could find none, so I opted to call a horrendously over priced company called Afford-A-Rooter. They came out and charged me a total of almost $500 to snake a few pipes and take a video of the main. Both the service rep and the office rep were unbelievably arrogant and rude. I asked them for an estimate to replace my old galvanized and cast iron drain pipes, and they quoted me a preposterously large amount to repair only a small section, which I turned down.
Over the next several days, I searched very seriously for an independent plumber to help me with my repairs. I looked online extensively, inquired with friends and co-workers, and finally was referred to one person known locally as "John The Plumber" who I contacted. After explaining the job to him, he asked me to take photos of the pipes needing replacement and to email them to him, which I did. He didn't even bother to reply at all. Neither did 3 other companies I left messages with to attempt to get estimates. Finally I had one other large company come out, whose office clerk spoke to me like I was a naive child, and they too gave me an utterly absurd estimate to do a partial job, which I also refused.
At least a full week after the initial disaster, I looked on yelp again and found Eric with Everyday Solutions. I called him and he responded within a day (on a weekend) and said he could come over to do an estimate early the following week. Upon meeting Eric, I immediately felt uplifted, as it was the first time in all of my dealings with plumbers that I could tell I was in the presence of someone who was sincerely willing to help me and had more in mind than serving his own or his company's selfish, greedy interests. He provided me with an estimate later that day.
I accepted his bid and we scheduled the work to be done in a few different sessions, as it was quite extensive, and I was no longer in an urgent crisis. As Eric is not affiliated with any large, corporate plumbing companies, he is quite busy and his services are in demand. Therefore he had to finish some existing work before he could begin repairing my plumbing. But after what I went through with all those other companies, and the education I received along the way (they all have fleets of vehicles, uniforms, and tons of overhead which must be factored into the price, and all of the plumbers work on commission, so it is in their interest to charge you the highest price possible), I didn't mind waiting a few more days to get started.
Eric's first day of work in my home was wonderful. He is a friendly, genuine, decent man who actually takes pleasure in helping people. He came over and got right to work on my plumbing issues. He took the time to do the job right, and was by far the most personable, respectful, kind plumbing and repair professional I have ever had in my home. Literally the complete opposite of the two reps from the two large plumbing companies who came over, both of whom had arrogant attitudes and talked to me as if I was an uneducated idiot who should feel fortunate that they were taking the time to rip me off.
The second leg of the job required Eric to acquire specialty parts to replace, old outdated sections of cast iron piping, including a four way connector which isn't made anymore. Therefore there was some additional waiting while Eric took the time to find and gather the correct parts (all of which he paid for up front and billed me for later - try to find a big company who will do that for you). And, there was at least one incidence of rescheduling on Eric's part, due to his being so busy giving the same level of service to other clients. I learned patience along the way, and after the first day of Eric doing first rate repairs and spending the time needed to do the job right without overcharging me, I had come to realize what a gem I had in finding this very nice and rare service professional.
This second phase of the job required two sessions to complete, and Eric put in an enormous amount of work to finish a very involved job - a huge amount of work for one person. The final bill I got was extremely reasonable and was very, very fair for a job of this magnitude. I did have one issue with a leak after all was said and done, and Eric came right over when I notified him of this, and fixed it perfectly and completely, all with a smile!
