Rant: ThePunctualPlumber.ca

[5hift]

So with my parents out of town for a bit, it would make sense for my sister to clog and backup the sink in her washroom now so I have to deal with it.

The sink was plugged in a way that draino or any other DIY was not working. We have a family friend handman that came over, took a look, tried some things, and and said I needed profesional plumbing help.

I Called ThePunctualPlumber.ca (also known as clearview plumbing). The whole reason I picked them, was because I thought it would be better to pay an extra few bucks and know when they will show, than have to sit at home all day waiting for a plumber to show up. I explained the problem, and they told me someone would come within a 2 hour window, and gave me a price window of what to expect in terms of cost.

After 4 phone calls trying to find out what happened to my appointment after I recieved a no show, a plumber finally showed up hours late, blaming the fact my street didnt have sequentially increasing house numbers on him getting lost for several hours?

When he finally took a look at the problem, he agreed it pretty much involved what I had explained over the phone So you can imagine my shock when I was quoted over twice of what the pricing window max given to me over the phone ($500 opposed to $250), and was told it wasnt negoitiable at all. Not wanting to beat around the bush, I told the plumber straight up that it looked like he jacked the price when he saw the house he was working on. He defended this by saying the job could take him 30 minutes or 8 hours and he could never know for sure until the job was done. He I paid him the $90 bucks minimum for showing up and told him to leave.


So after spending a day sitting at home waiting, I've wasted $90 and still have a fucked sink.

If anyone can suggest a honest/reliable plumber (if such a thing exists) it would be greatly appricaited.

[hussein]

Oh, wow. Maybe if you explain exactly what your problem is, someone on here can come help you out!

[5hift]

Originally posted by hussein
Oh, wow. Maybe if you explain exactly what your problem is, someone on here can come help you out!

Its clogged beyond the trap. Those DIY blast kits and draino did nothing. I'm pretty sure its not something I could tackle even if I did have the tools which I dont.

[fiveabi]

yup put up the symptoms here many helpfull ppls.

[tictactoe2004]

Originally posted by 5hift
you can imagine my shock when I was quoted over twice of what the pricing window max given to me over the phone ($500 opposed to $250)...

He I paid him the $90 bucks minimum for showing up and told him to leave.

You called plumber, they quoted you max $250... show up at your house to and double the price so you paid him $90 to leave?

lol...

ThePunctualPlumber.ca > You

[fiveabi]

did you try a snake?

[BlackArcher101]

+1 for the snake

Here's an excellent website showing how to remove clogs in pretty much every drain imaginable.
http://www.free-ed.net/sweethaven/Bl...p?iNum=fra0602

You can buy a snake for cheap, especially at princess auto I think.

[5hift]

Originally posted by tictactoe2004


You called plumber, they quoted you max $250... show up at your house to and double the price so you paid him $90 to leave?

lol...

ThePunctualPlumber.ca > You

He shows up at my house late when I'm pissed already. On the phone I'm told me it will be $90 for just showing up/inspecting the problem +$250 for repairs. After he inspects the problem to see whats going on, I'm told it will be more of ~$500 + the $90 for showing up/inspecting. He cant explain the price jump besides saying with this kind of job he can never say how long it will take. I dont care if telling him to leave and looking for a new plumber will cost me more, its something about not giving money to a guy like that.

Self Respect/Not giving in to a Shister > Saving time(possibly $$$) and bending over.

*Sidenote: I'm going after their 'office' to get the $90 back as well because the guy came way after their promised time.

[tictactoe2004]

Originally posted by 5hift
Sidenote: I'm going after their 'office' to get the $90 back as well because the guy came way after their promised time.

If I called someone, and they said $90 to come out and $250 max to repair and then they showed up and doubled their price i'd tell him to leave and would not pay him... I would tell him, they quoted me $250 MAX on the phone.. had they quoted me $500 max I would have called the other plumber that quoted me $250 max and not you. end of story.. I dunno man... if the story happened just as you said, the plumber would have a better chance of having a period than getting $90 from me. If they don't know what the problem is then they shouldnt be quoting $250 max... if they had said we'd have to come and check things out before quoting you a price that would be different... but if they quote you a "max" price they can't charge you "double-max"

[topmade]

Those DIY blast kits are useless and only work if the clog is like a few inches away. Snake FTW. Go to any hardware store and pick one up, they are pretty cheap. Make sure to go for the longer one as well because before I had a 25ft one before and couldn't get at a clog so I had to call a plumber and he said the clog was at about 30-35 ft and it costed me $250 exactly as what was quoted on the phone. So now I got a 50ft snake.

[5hift]

Originally posted by tictactoe2004


If I called someone, and they said $90 to come out and $250 max to repair and then they showed up and doubled their price i'd tell him to leave and would not pay him... I would tell him, they quoted me $250 MAX on the phone.. had they quoted me $500 max I would have called the other plumber that quoted me $250 max and not you. end of story.. I dunno man... if the story happened just as you said, the plumber would have a better chance of having a period than getting $90 from me. If they don't know what the problem is then they shouldnt be quoting $250 max... if they had said we'd have to come and check things out before quoting you a price that would be different... but if they quote you a "max" price they can't charge you "double-max"

I agree with your reasoning, but I thought with my parents out of town, me rarely home, and my sister usually home alone or with just a friend, it was better to pay with cc and try to reclaim the money through their office, than to piss of some plumber for the time being.

[natejj]

You shouldn't have paid, because he wasn't on time. I am pretty sure they have a "satisfaction gauranteed" policy too.

Check their website out.

Number 2 - We guarantee to be ON TIME! That's our Punctual Plumber™ Promise- We surveyed our customers and found out that in addition to quality work our customers appreciate it when we are on time! Sounds pretty simple right? Well it is.

We know how valuable your time is and we promise to show up on time - or we pay you. That's right - if we are late for our appointment - we pay you! This is one place where time really is money.


http://www.clearviewplumbing.ca/guarantee.html

[adidas]

Originally posted by topmade
Those DIY blast kits are useless and only work if the clog is like a few inches away. Snake FTW. Go to any hardware store and pick one up, they are pretty cheap. Make sure to go for the longer one as well because before I had a 25ft one before and couldn't get at a clog so I had to call a plumber and he said the clog was at about 30-35 ft and it costed me $250 exactly as what was quoted on the phone. So now I got a 50ft snake.

Are you sure you got the digits right?

A 50ft snake? i got a 5ft one and i thought it was pretty long. Im pretty sure if you put that in the toilet it would reach the sewage in your back yard. lol

[TimG]

+4 for a snake.

I think the one i have is 10-15 feet long.

[ninspeed]

you can rent snakes as well for 10-40$ at rona and home depot

[topmade]

Originally posted by adidas


Are you sure you got the digits right?

A 50ft snake? i got a 5ft one and i thought it was pretty long. Im pretty sure if you put that in the toilet it would reach the sewage in your back yard. lol

Yup it's 50ft from crappy tire. But also keep in mind the thread was about a sink and not a toilet. Toilet ones are much shorter with plastic ends so they don't scratch the porcelain and have bigger ends to clear more "shit"

[drew_goring]

Originally posted by 5hift


I agree with your reasoning, but I thought with my parents out of town, me rarely home, and my sister usually home alone or with just a friend, it was better to pay with cc and try to reclaim the money through their office, than to piss of some plumber for the time being.

I am thinking CC chargeback FTW

[Melinda]

Funny you should post this. We had a water heater issue and thought bringing someone out to at least tell us the problem (so that we wouldnt need to rip the damn system apart to figure it out) would be the best idea. We called "the punctual plumber" cause we dont have a lot of spare time to sit around the house. Needless to say, our 10am-noon window had him showing up at shortly after 6 that night. The guy quoted us something like $700 for something that we knew would take an hour at most and he couldnt even guarantee that it was even the cause of our problem. So Rolland paid him his fee to come out (I'm pretty sure it was way less than $90 though) and sent him on his way. The next weekend Rolland went and rented some special tool and had it fixed in 3 hours. All it cost was the $10 rental fee for the tool.

Puntual plumber FTL.

[Justing]

Originally posted by topmade
I got a 50ft snake.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Yep, rent a sewer snake. A powered drill-based 25ft snake works great for kitchen sinks, and it costs around $25 to rent at Home Depot.