Tuesday, December 17, 2019
I have plumbing problems. I have been hearing weird noises in my plumbing occasionally when the upstairs toilets were flushed since Wednesday or Thursday. Saturday night (after I was in bed), the downstairs toilet overflowed. It was an all towels on deck situation. The plunger did not help at all. My significant other, Donald, tried to snake the line but the issue must have been farther than the 25-foot line he had. He let me know I would need to call a plumber the next morning.
Sunday morning, I visited a website of a plumber I have seen advertisements for on television for years. They had an online “schedule now” widget on many pages of their website and advertised no extra fees on weekends so I filled out the information and expected a call in a few hours. No one called or emailed me to schedule an appointment on Sunday.
Monday morning I was a little annoyed that I never received a call for two reasons; one, do not advertise you work Sundays if you are not going to respond to schedule requests and two, why do you have a “schedule now” widget on many pages of your website if you are not going to respond to schedule requests? I thought about calling another plumber, but I had already checked their complaint record with the BBB and read several bad reviews online to see how they responded. I did not feel like vetting another two or three companies I have never heard of.
When I called, I told the woman I wanted to schedule an appointment. She proceeded to ask me the same questions I had filled out on their online form the day before. I became a little more annoyed and asked, “Why don’t you look at the schedule request I filled out on your website yesterday?” (Annoyed Susanne is a little snappy.) The woman told me nothing had come through their system and she would look for it. I let it go at that and scheduled an appointment for the plumber to come today since they did not have an opening yesterday.
I, of course, had plans to go to a women’s networking group I belong to today. I emailed the managing director yesterday and said functioning plumbing was more important than socializing with friends and I would not be there today. I was bummed because I missed the lunch last month because I had that nasty virus that has a strangle hold on Colorado Springs this year.
The plumber was a little early (oh, maybe I can go to my lunch after all), and very respectful of my house. He even tolerated my big dog, Anakin, trying to jump on him and establish dominance. I apologized for my poorly trained dog. It took more than an hour to completely snake my main drain (so much for making it to my lunch).
I received a call from the plumbing company approximately two hours after the plumber left asking me if I was happy with the results from my visit. I explained I could not possibly know what the results were so soon. I had not washed a load of laundry, run the dishwasher, flushed a toilet (the plumber did flush an upstairs toilet), or taken a shower. She thanked me for my time and told me to call if I had any problems. I did not mind the call, I simply thought it was two days premature.
My piece of advice to you is to be a slacker sometimes. I could have gotten mad when I was not contacted on Sunday instead of being a slacker, because I did not want to vet other businesses, and calling the company on Monday. I think my plumber was very nice and he even filled up two milk glasses for me to drink because I was home alone. The milk made up for missing lunch (almost).
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.
I have plumbing problems. I have been hearing weird noises in my plumbing occasionally when the upstairs toilets were flushed since Wednesday or Thursday. Saturday night (after I was in bed), the downstairs toilet overflowed. It was an all towels on deck situation. The plunger did not help at all. My significant other, Donald, tried to snake the line but the issue must have been farther than the 25-foot line he had. He let me know I would need to call a plumber the next morning.
Sunday morning, I visited a website of a plumber I have seen advertisements for on television for years. They had an online “schedule now” widget on many pages of their website and advertised no extra fees on weekends so I filled out the information and expected a call in a few hours. No one called or emailed me to schedule an appointment on Sunday.
Monday morning I was a little annoyed that I never received a call for two reasons; one, do not advertise you work Sundays if you are not going to respond to schedule requests and two, why do you have a “schedule now” widget on many pages of your website if you are not going to respond to schedule requests? I thought about calling another plumber, but I had already checked their complaint record with the BBB and read several bad reviews online to see how they responded. I did not feel like vetting another two or three companies I have never heard of.
When I called, I told the woman I wanted to schedule an appointment. She proceeded to ask me the same questions I had filled out on their online form the day before. I became a little more annoyed and asked, “Why don’t you look at the schedule request I filled out on your website yesterday?” (Annoyed Susanne is a little snappy.) The woman told me nothing had come through their system and she would look for it. I let it go at that and scheduled an appointment for the plumber to come today since they did not have an opening yesterday.
I, of course, had plans to go to a women’s networking group I belong to today. I emailed the managing director yesterday and said functioning plumbing was more important than socializing with friends and I would not be there today. I was bummed because I missed the lunch last month because I had that nasty virus that has a strangle hold on Colorado Springs this year.
The plumber was a little early (oh, maybe I can go to my lunch after all), and very respectful of my house. He even tolerated my big dog, Anakin, trying to jump on him and establish dominance. I apologized for my poorly trained dog. It took more than an hour to completely snake my main drain (so much for making it to my lunch).
I received a call from the plumbing company approximately two hours after the plumber left asking me if I was happy with the results from my visit. I explained I could not possibly know what the results were so soon. I had not washed a load of laundry, run the dishwasher, flushed a toilet (the plumber did flush an upstairs toilet), or taken a shower. She thanked me for my time and told me to call if I had any problems. I did not mind the call, I simply thought it was two days premature.
My piece of advice to you is to be a slacker sometimes. I could have gotten mad when I was not contacted on Sunday instead of being a slacker, because I did not want to vet other businesses, and calling the company on Monday. I think my plumber was very nice and he even filled up two milk glasses for me to drink because I was home alone. The milk made up for missing lunch (almost).
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.