S O S Rooter

I woke up and smelled gas in the house and immediately called the gas company.  They sent somebody to confirm.  What I didn't realize was that it's actually a PLUMBER who has to fix the problem.  I called my regular plumber and he wasn't around, luckily my good friend Cameron was in the house with me and said he had a GREAT plumber.  I called and S.O.S Rooter & Plumbing and Miguel Fernandez answered the phone immediately.

I told him the situation and that he had been referred by Cameron and he said, he'd cut me a good deal.

As soon as he got here he said his price was $125.00 for the first hour and then $60/hr afterward.  Because this was an emergency I didn't really have a choice but being the haggler I am I asked, because it was a referral if he could do anything about the price.  We don't have a lot of money and this was surly unexpected.  He said $225.00, I talked him down to 200.00 and said jokingly: "If you do a great job, I'll use you as my plumber for my bathroom remodel."  

Miguel smiled and said: "I'll do it for 200.00, it's worth 25.00 to me knowing I'll come back."  I knew I liked this guy right away.

The job turned out to be more than he thought.  Miguel found the leak... it was under the house.  He crawled in the spiders and dust and found what the problem was.  He said: "There's a 50/50 chance that his may be bigger.  The pipe is galvanized and I'm hoping to dig around it, cut the piece I need and replace it.  Otherwise we may deed to cap the gas line, feeding into the house, and then come back another day to fix the line to the garage."  (the leak was right in between the house and garage)

Well this supposed 1 hour job ended up taking MOST OF THE DAY  and you know what? He honored his price.  Miguel thinks it's better to have a satisfied customer than make a quick buck which is why he is now my #1 go to plumber.

Oh and as a bonus, check this out. 

We have a great 2 bedroom, one bath house in Burbank.  It's our dream home.  The problem is we've had problems with our ONE toilet ever since we bought the house.  It's a low flow TOTO toilet that retails for about $1200.00. It doesn't flush waste down.  We figured out a way to use it, simply add a small amount of water to it when you flush and down it goes.  It's a pain in the neck but seeing as we want to re do the bathroom anyway, we figured we'd just endure until it was time to remodel.

Over the course of the year we've had 3 plumbers come in and each of these plumbers has checked the pipes and the flush valve and water pressure and has concluded the same thing: "Great toilet, I have no idea why it doesn't work... must be a manufacturers defect."

After Miguel finished the job he was asked to do, I asked if he could take a look at the toilet.  I knew he was the guy we were going to hire to remodel the Bathroom so I figured we'd get a jump on it seeing as he was already here. 

Miguel looked at the toilet and said: "Great toilet it must be a manufacturers... wait a sec, what's that?"   He reached into the toilet and began scraping calcium deposits from the drain.  Next thing you know he's got his hand in there and with a small screwdriver and he's getting small chunks out.  Then he gave it an acid flush.  Thirty minutes later he says: "Flush it."  and IT FLUSHED PERFECTLY!!!! First time EVER!!!

Three plumbers couldn't figure it out and here is this one guy who's not even DOING THAT JOB and he fixed the toilet.  FOR FREE!

In the end, after he'd been here for 4 hours fixing a terribly inconvenient and hard to find gas leak AND my toilet, I asked him: "Okay, you've gone above and beyond... how much?"  He looked at me and smiled and said: "I know I said $200.00, how about we say $225.00 for the acid flush?"  I was floored and ran here to type this recommendation!

It's rare to come across someone like Miguel Fernandez, which is why I will hire S.O.S Rooter & Plumbing for all of my future plumbing/bathroom remodeling needs.