A Kiss is All Part of The Service
I picked up a call from a customer who relayed a story about another company who had cleared the drains and carried out a CCTV survey, they supposedly spotted a tree root intrusion through one of pipe joints, excavated and broke into the drain upstream of the problem and relined the drain for 4m downstream, and then filled in the hole. This was done two weeks ago and the drains had not run since. She’d tried to contact the other company who refused to come back, and now refused to answer her calls; unfortunately she’d paid the invoice.
She owned the house but it was rented out to tenants, I offered to visit either late Saturday or Sunday morning to have a look, she added, “My husband will be there, and he’s already re-excavated the drains and chopped the tree down”.
I arrived early, walked around the rear of the property to find the decking removed and a 3 foot deep hole in the back garden adjacent to the kitchen waste water gully, which was filling with water each time the kitchen sink or washing machine emptied.
The husband arrived and immediately described how he been ripped off, how he’d already got ‘Trading Standards’ involved, and would be seeing them in court. I put my hand out and shook his hand and said, “No problem, we can help you with that, let’s see how we can get this drain running shall we, firstly do we know if the neighbours drains are blocked?” He came back with, “Yes apparently they’ve been blocked for the last 18 months.”
He went next door, and before he returned an obviously nervous lady came out of the back door followed by her three small children. We had a quick chat over the garden fence and she confirmed that her kitchen gully had been blocked for the last year and a half, which it had been getting her down, as she had no money and couldn’t afford to get the work done. She went on to say that her husband had lowered the garden to allow the water to run away from the house. I asked her if I could lift up a fence panel and come through to have a look, her reply was to say certainly, but again to add that she had no money and couldn’t pay anything.
Sure enough the gully was blocked and the waste water was running onto the garden, which had been lowered by about 6” for the full width and the soil piled up at the rear end. I indicated that I needed to find out if her blockage was affecting her neighbour, and said, “Let me have a quick look at clearing it for you”.
I got a six foot industrial drain rod with a 6” plunger from the van, stepped through the fence, smiled at her & her children and said, “don’t, worry have faith”.
I inserted the plunger into the kitchen gully and used an action honed by over twenty years in the business; the water dropped with the first plunge and went completely with a very satisfying glug after the second. I turned and told her that her drains were now clear – her eyes filled and to see 18 months of worry & misery disappearing from her face after approximately 20 seconds of work, free of charge, was something that has made my weekend.
After a few seconds she looked at me and said, “You have made me so happy, I could kiss you”…. I gave her a little peck on the cheek as I walked back through the fence and said, “It’s all part of the service”.
The prognosis was that the drain liner inserted into the next door drain by the other company had collapsed inwards on itself before the epoxy resin had set. The solution is an excavation in the garden of the lady with the long term blocked drain (although she is not affected), to remove a short section of drain where the liner has collapse. Does the lady mind us excavating the drain in her garden…. What do you think??
I did ask the husband how he came to call us after his experience with the other company, “Oh you were recommended by the Estate Agent we used when we bought the house”
#LoveTheDrainsBusiness