I have a new favorite plumber.

I had an old favorite plumber.  Polite.  Quick.  Cleaned up after himself.  But I had been trying to get him over for weeks to fix a leaky toilet.  First he was on vacation.  Then he had to handle an emergency.  And then I think he forgot about me for a while. Perhaps our feelings for each other weren’t mutual.

Anyway – I thought about calling a different plumber but had gotten in trouble with that before. So I decided to turn the toilet off until Mr. Fave (not his real name) was available.

But then…we had guests and needed to turn that toilet back on.   It was okay for a while – but after a few days – on a Thursday night – we heard and then saw water dripping in places it shouldn’t be dripping.  Buckets full.  So forgive me Mr Fave, but I couldn’t wait for you any longer.

We got the name of JVG Plumbing from Gary Saleeby who is the King of Referral Info – and I’ve heard an excellent Realtor too.

At 7:30 the next morning, a Friday, I called JVG, told Joe, the owner, what was going on and do you know that one of their plumbers was at our house within an hour?
His name was Corey.  Corey took off his shoes before he came into the house.  He fixed the leaky toilet and a broken shower faucet.  Since he was there, I asked him to check and repair everything in the house that could possibly leak.  He did all of this, petted the dog, rubbed the kitty and worked around our late-sleeping guest.

I can’t pinpoint the exact time, but sometime during the four hours that Corey was at our house, JVG became my new favorite plumber.

Later in the day…I heard strange noises.  Gurgle Gurgle.  Whoosh.  Woo.  It was coming from a toilet. Just a one time thing, I thought.  Probably just settling in with its new flapper.

I was wrong.  Gurgle Gurgle Whoosh Woo repeated over and over all day long.  Very annoying…especially since I was trying to concentrate on an article for Chapelboro.com.

It was too late in the day to get Corey back over so I  just turned the toilet off.

Maybe I didn’t have a new favorite plumber.

On Saturday morning, I called JVG, expecting to leave a message asking someone to come over on Monday morning to re-check the toilet, but Joe answered the phone.  I told him what was going on and he said, “Will you be home for a while?”

I said, “You mean today?”

Yes – that’s what he meant.  He arrived within 30 minutes and worked for about 45.

No excuses.  No more Gurgle Gurgle Whoosh Woo.  No additional charge.

An even bigger favorite than before.

Fast forward to Monday when I came home to find this phone message from Joe.

He said, ”  Hi Jan.  Wanted to check to see if everything is okay and working properly.  If not, please let me know.”

Unbelievable follow up!There was no doubt about who I would call next time we needed a plumber.

That night, I reached under the kitchen sink for detergent and noticed a neon pink sticker that said:  For Service Call:  JVG Plumbing  919-929-1422.

They were making it easy.  I wouldn’t even need to call Gary again for the number!

Fast forward again to the day our next OWASA bill arrived.  Our usage was down 40%!

Thanks  Gary for the referral.  And thanks Joe and Corey Gucker from JVG Plumbing for the good work.  And for being a great example of Good Business.

Other Notes of Interest

1.  Looking for Signs for Game Day?   Here’s the link to Welcome ECU Fans.

2.  For those of you who read my notes about August being finish-book-manuscript month and wonder about progress…much progress was made but there is still work to be done.    The working title:  From Rotten Eggs to Mistake Cake and this story about JVG is included.  Stay tuned!
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