Before Wife woke up, I started the coffee and readied for the well planned 15-minute project. I fantasized the victory breakfast, bacon and pancake, as I was fishing for the white Teflon tape. When the J-pipe, the hooked pipe that’s directly under the sink, crumpled with a slight twist of my big and heavy wrench, I sighed and threw out the pancake dream. Put everything down, came inside from the garage, and yellowpaged local plumbers. Within minutes, Wife woke up with a “what have you done this morning” look. Three plumbers would bid for this job and I expected to shell out several hundred dollars that day.<\/p>\n
“Now that you are here,” I shook hands with the chosen plumber in jump-suit off a well-stocked van. “Would you mind fixing my leaking faucet in the bathroom too?” He shrugged and added $25 to the estimate.<\/p>\n
He started and I came inside. Five minutes later, I heard a groan. The pipe that goes into the wall, broke off. He needed to replace it by first sawing off for a clean cut. Had I kept going, I would not have the tool. “I sure glad that I called you,” I smirked. Half an hour later, he finished the pipe job, started testing, and found water dripping off to the floor. “Your sink is leaking,” he was not pleased. It was a cast-iron sink that weigh about a ton and was as old as this 40+ year-old house. It is a back-breaking job to replace it. He called office and scheduled himself for the next day. After that, he headed the bathroom for the leaky faucet. Should be an easy $25 to make in five minutes.<\/p>\n
Fifteen minutes later, I heard another groan. He went back to the van for his torch. “What happened?” I do not have a torch and this has become more interesting. “Your pipe twisted off. I need to cut it off and extend it. It will take about 45 minutes.” “I sure glad that I called you,” second time I said that. He smiled back. We were now buddies.<\/p>\n
That 45-minute project became 90 when he broke my faucet. He was now quite hungry. When I handed over my credit card, he said, “You did exactly the right thing. You started early in a day and called a pro when you are in trouble. You would have got into a much bigger trouble than I am about to charge you.”<\/p>\n
Wife actually rewarded me a great breakfast. She was glad that I took care of the problem professionally. She knew that I would have wasted more time and money had I not called.<\/p>\n
The morale of this story? Know when to ask for help, prepare for the unexpected, and customers do not care who solved the problem, as long as it was solved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before Wife woke up, I started the coffee and readied for the well planned 15-minute project. I fantasized the victory breakfast, bacon and pancake, as I was fishing for the white Teflon tape. When the J-pipe, the hooked pipe that’s … Continue reading