We had what we thought was a leaky pipe under the kitchen sink, and I've been having a hard time finding anyone who would give me a personal recommendation for a plumber. So I resorted to yelp. Based on the Yelp reviews, Mike's Plumbing was my number one choice.
Mike's Plumbing Service has the Responsible Plumber Endorsement from the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners. I looked him up by his license number, and it shows License Status: Current. Expiry Date: 04/30/2016. It also shows Certification of Insurance: Yes. Insurance Expiry Date: 10/01/2015.
I happened to call on Friday morning before a long holiday weekend. Unfortunately for me, Mike was out of town visiting relatives and didn't respond until Tuesday. That was my bad luck, because in the meantime, since I didn't hear back from Mike, I called my second choice (based on yelp), Mr. Plumber. Mr. Plumber said they could send someone out right away on Friday, but I ended up (due to my schedule) arranging the appointment with Mr. Plumber on Tuesday morning.
When Mr. Plumber came out Tuesday morning, the guy said we did not have a leaky pipe. Instead we had a leaky faucet that needed to be replaced. Mr. Plumber said he would charge me $575.00 to replace the faucet. YOWSERS!!!! More than $500? I couldn't believe it. I felt Mr. Plumber was over-charging me, so I decided not to do business with them. For this bit of knowledge, I had to pay the $65.00 site visit fee to Mr. Plumber. (If I had gone with their recommended repair, the $65.00 would have been absorbed into the $575.00 cost.)
I checked around and found out I could buy a nice faucet for about $200 from Lowe's or a cheap faucet for $99 + tax (about $108). If you go into the store and sign a contract, the Lowe's on Callaghan Rd will arrange for a plumber to install the faucet for $100. That would have been the cheapest thing, but when you go that route, you don't know the quality of the plumber you will get.
As luck would have it, after Mr. Plumber's visit and right after I got off the phone with Lowe's on Callaghan, Mike's Plumbing called me back. Boy, was I glad to hear from him. He said he could come over and replace the faucet for $165, as long as I could get the faucet and have it ready at the house. Yes, this was more expensive than the $100 installation quote from Lowe's, but I had a good feeling about going with Mike, and what's more, he said he could come out and install the faucet the very next morning. I'm guessing there would have been a lot more wait time if I had gone through some contractor through Lowe's. So I paid an extra $65 to go with Mike.
Mike was very professional and came out the next morning to install the faucet as promised. He did a great job. As I'm out of town, he even sent me photos of the old and new faucet, as well as a photo of his invoice.
Price quoted from Mr. Plumber: $575.00
Price I paid:
$65 for Mr. Plumber visit (charged because I refused their services)
+ $165 for Mike's Plumbing Faucet Installation
+ $108 for new (cheapo) faucet
---------
$338.00
Cost savings by going with Mike's Plumbing: $237.00.
To be fair, if we compare apples to apples and replace with exact same quality of faucet, the price would have been an additional $80 + tax. So if I had gotten the nicer faucet, my cost savings would have been only $150.00, but that's still a good chunk of change.
(I went with the cheaper faucet at Lowe's because I was reeling from the $338.00 total figure. With $80 + tax more, it would have been $425.00! Goodness gracious. The cheaper faucet is fine for now, as it kept the total cost closer to $300.)
Although this was an expensive setback, the silver lining is that now I've found a good plumber. If I ever need a plumber in San Antonio, I know who to call. Mike's Plumbing.
I'm so glad I found Mike.
