I was awakened Monday morning by a knock on the door from the DWP who said the pipe connected to the water meter was leaking into the street and it was my responsibility to fix. I couldn't think of a better way to start the week.
The problem didn't really seem that serious though.It was just a simple crack in a copper pipe that needed to be sealed. In fact, if I had the proper tools, I probably would have taken a stab at it myself.
... but I didn't. So I started calling every plumber with a 323 area code and the average price I was quoted was $250 and most of them weren't able to come out until the following day... which was my birthday, so that was pretty much out of the question. Plus, I was losing money to the DWP by the minute from the seepage.
There was one company called Nautilus who refused to quote me over the phone and insisted on coming by to take a look and give me a free estimate. Well, they had great reviews on Yelp, so I let them. They quoted me $450 and claimed that all those other companies I spoke to would end up charging me the same amount once they actually saw the problem in person. I asked why and the guy said "Well... they'll have to shut the water off and then drain out all the water from the hole (which was a whole foot deep. LOL.), then dry off the pipe and then there's the charge for materials..." Pfff. Get real, pal. And they turned out to be full of shit, just as I expected. Keep reading.
Despite some less than stellar reviews on here, I decided to call Plotke since they were only two blocks away from my house. Not only did Mario promise to fix the problem that day, but he told me since the problem was curbside, I could go to the office as I was supposed to and he would just send me a bill in the mail.
And here's the reason for the 5-star review:
Mario made a promise to me over the phone that the cost would not exceed $200. I agreed. He called me on Tuesday morning to tell me that it only took him an hour to seal the pipe and the price is going to come out to $125. He could have charged me $200, but he decided to be a mensch and cut me a break. And no, I didn't tell him it was my birthday. Again, Nautilus was going to charge me $325 more than Plotke!
Even though I didn't get to meet Mario face-to-face, I can tell this is a good, honest company... a company I will definitely do business with the next time I'm hit by another plumbing fiasco.
Thank you Plotke. read more