Plumber

I needed a plumber, preferably a local guy, not a guy from many miles away. So I called a company that I had done business with before: Story Plumbing & Heating. I called him six times over two days and all I got was ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, etc. No one answered. There was no machine either. I scratched him off the list. 

On to the next company. This one was called Colonial Plumbing. I've had them work here before. I called them and they sent out a young man. I showed him what I needed, and I added that there was a possibility that he might have to replace the rough-in valve for the 3 handle faucet on my tub/shower. I had already determined where he would have to drill a hole in the adjoining bedroom wall. But as soon as I mentioned a hole in the wall, he asked if it was a plaster wall. Well, yes, it is. Then he couldn't work on it, he told me. He can't cut a hole in a plaster wall, according to company rules. Even with the owner standing there telling him it was okay, he wouldn't do it. However, he did mention that I needed to pay him 99 dollars just for coming to my house and telling me he couldn't do the job.

Now let me take an aside here, to mention something about legal transactions. What is the legal definition of a transaction?

In business law, a transaction is an event associated with business dealings conducted between two or more parties that involve the formation and performance of an obligation or contract. A legal transaction is when we exchange something — I give you something and you give me something — that we both feel are of equal value, more or less. But driving to my house and telling me you won't do a job is not worth 99 dollars to me. Regardless of what it costs you, it's not worth 99 dollars to me. I'm sure the company would like to have the money, but if I balk and it goes to a court, I think the court will rule that driving to someone's house in order to refuse to do a job is not worth 99 dollars. Then the plumbing company could be prohibited from charging people 99 dollars in the future. They might even be ordered to refund the 99 dollars to everyone they've charged. Whatever the reason, they canceled the fee because, and this is what I was told, "I was already in their computer."

Next I called someone I found online. This company was called Lockhart Plumbing and was supposed to be a local company. I called them, but an answering machine picked up the call and explained that no one could answer the phone and told me to leave a message. So I left a message with my name and address and phone number and reason for calling and asked them to return my call. They never returned my call. So I got their email address from their website (a little Wix website, and I've used Wix in the past, it's easy to create simple websites with Wix) and I sent an email to them, asking them to return my call or send me an email. But my email to them bounced back to me, marked "undeliverable". Apparently, their email address is now defunct.

Sigh.

So then I called a company called Winn's Plumbing. They accepted the assignment and sent out a plumber named Tracey. He, too, wanted to replace all the rough-in components, at a price tag of $400,  but I told him to at least try to do the repair I wanted. Replacing everthing meant cutting a door size hole in the bedroom wall behind the shower, because he intended to replace both the tub faucet and the shower head and the pipe connecting them. I thought that was overkill. So he agreed to overhaul only the tub faucet: the hot and cold valves and the diverter. We had a great conversation as he worked. When he finally finished the overhaul, the bill was $150 and, probably, the newly overhauled faucets will outlast my own worn-out body. But I watched everything he did, and I'm satisfied with the work, and I think the price was fair. You can't ask for more.