What A Week!
I don’t want to label all you men out there as jerks but I sure had my share of a couple of male jerks (plumber’s) this week. When we bought the house we took out insurance that would repair things if they broke, etc. My shower started leaking and before I got the insurance company called the next day, a mystery puddle was showing up in the basement. They came and fixed my shower but the puddle in the basement showed up again after my mom took her shower in her bathroom. Now it wouldn’t take a whole lot to figure out that there must be a leak from her bathroom and that the dripping shower in mine had nothing to do with it. But the man scheduled a return appointment didn’t call until an hour late and then rescheduled for 6 that night. By 6:45 we called the insurance company back (they maintain a 24 hr line) and within minutes the owner of the company called. He stated that his man had called again after 6 and re-scheduled for 8. I told him that was a lie, that we had been home; then it was he left a message on the phone and again I told him was not possible as he was calling on my cell and I don’t have message service. He then offered to come out himself. He tried to tell us the leak in the basement was from water coming either from below the concert from a spring under the house or our hot water heater was leaking.
He then went upstairs and told me that it was leaking from behind the space on the tub spout and it needed to be caulked. He then left. I went to Walmart at ten at night, got caulking, caulked the tub. The next morning as mom got in her shower, I went down in the basement and sat until—you got it, the water started dripping from the pipes plainly in sight right under her tub. I marked the spot and promptly went upstairs and called the plumber directly (he had ask us not to call to complain to the insurance company as it took lots of rights to undo a complaint). First thing out of his mouth when I said the puddle is back, was I told you that you needed caulking around that tub. I promptly informed him that I had kept my word and had got the tub caulked. Well eventhough Mom and/or I had taken off work everyday this past week to be here for them to fix our problems, they just couldn’t do it until next week. Well, guess what, we called the insurance company and complained, ask for a new plumber and they came promptly out that afternoon, immediately identified the area of leaking without mind you our pointing it out. They are scheduled to repair the bathroom next week. Who not to use did you say? South River Contracting of Roanoke, Inc. will not be returning to our home!
This next week must be better! It will be as I am going with Bitter to the NRA Convention for our yearly trip together.
No obviously related posts.
Getting that sort of insurance on a newly-bought house is a good idea. I eventually cancelled ours, tho. Repair guys took days to arrive, when if you hired them in the ordinary day they were there within hours. So much was excluded — a plumbing stoppage is only covered if in the pipe under the house, etc., etc.
One year when I lived in that area, our apartment management installed washers and dryers in all the units in our building. The contractors were unbelievable — they’d come out and do half an hour of work, then take off for two, then come back and do another hour or so. I’m no expert but I would think that even with running some pipe and electric cable, that should be maybe a two-day job. These guys took something like a month in all. We started calling them “Layabout & Son”. Wonder if it was the same outfit…