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John Barbour On...Plumbers | |
By John Barbour | |
I would like to humorously post this pointing out how much more of a disaster 2025 is becoming. Actually, I have to post it as a warning to those who may have plumbing issues. Ordinarily, I would never, ever post something like this because it is both personal and financial …and it's my problem. However, it may be of some help to others who have the same problems with workmen, or, especially plumbers. A week ago, my wife Sarita who has to live downstairs recovering from her edema, found water on the floor of her bathroom. We called a plumber from the most advertised outfit in town. He said her leak was coming from the...basin around which he put $10 worth of caulking. I said, “Don't leaks come from pipes?” He said, “Not in this case." and charged us $359.00. That night, the floor was flooded. I called his Superior told him to send a different plumber and refund or apply the $359 to fixing it properly. The new plumber showed up with a partner and found out quickly that the faucet handle was leaking. He told me to save money I should buy the replacement from home Depot, which I did. He said he wanted to check everything in the house related to plumbing and to flush my water heater. At no charge. Sarita and I were so happy to hear that, not only did we tip them in advance, substantially, but hearing that he was a Bruce Lee collector, I gave him a huge Bruce Lee poster, with my son's name on it as co-producer, that cost a small fortune. The next day I discovered the part he had me order was the wrong part. Worse, I now discovered water leaking under my front patio. I called his boss and canceled the next visit. This time, I searched for a small family-owned company who sent a woman plumber. I thought, “Oh, my God, this is going to get worse and worse.” Financially, it did, but plumbing-wise and professionally it got better. She went around town to find the correct part. And stayed till late evening to fix it for Sarita. She then went out on the street and lifted a huge piece of concrete to reveal the meter that reveals water usage. The front leak was coming from a damaged water heater. Of course, as a former talk show host, I was curious as to how this very competent young woman became a plumber. She said her dream was to be in law enforcement, so she went and graduated with honors from the police academy. Once she became a policewoman though, she got depressed with the people she encountered, and as someone who always tinkered, she got bored, too. Her tinkering lead to her present job, would she loves. And it shows. Her first couple of jobs were with major plumbing companies, and she was quick to discover that some of the plumbers would deliberately screw up something so they could charge more, often to senior citizens. Sarita and I are obviously super seniors. The $359 we had to accept as a loss. But absolutely loving the house we live in with a monster museum of showbiz memories of films and tapes and photos, we felt comfortable that like Allstate we were in the capable hands of a caring professional woman. The cost to put everything back into the shape of a 15-year-old new house was nearly $13,000!!! Including a new water heater!!! Of course, I was hesitant to spend that much money...or even considering financing it...since all my life, like Sinatra told me, when he was almost out of the business, he still paid cash for the best publicist he could find. We paid cash. Sarita said that in making my films about JFK and Jim Garrison for 40 years I had spent 20 times that amount, so now it was time, she said, for me to hug my house!!! For middle class folks like myself, even upper middle class, we are vanishing quickly. While the lower week-to-week paycheck class is growing like a California wildfire, and the ruling billionaire oligarchs, raking in the billions, are growing even faster, I wonder and worry how on Earth those less fortunate than Sarita and I ever get by... |