Quoted $150+GST per job over the phone while other plumbers won't give me a quote nor returning my calls. Chinese Cantonese, speaks OK English. In&Out in 30 minutes, no mess (didn't open the trap), straight to the point. Note: My friend tried helping me twice opened up the trap (which was quite clean; the clog is somewhere down in the pipe leading to the main drain) and inserted drain snake (1st time: manual, 2nd time: the snake attached to a cordless drill for a more powerful drill), but to no avail and the drain was clogged even more... Also note, this guy (Tony) is not a super-friendly person, but I like his style, straight forward and no BS. If there's problem within 1 week after service, he'd come back and rework for FREE. Total cost: $150+GST = $157.50
- Approximate cost of services:
- $150.00
- Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
- If you can speak Chinese, sometimes engaging a Chinese contractor is cheaper but yet work is decent. This is my 2nd experience hiring a Chinese contractor. First time was 5 years ago, I had custom roller blinds for 3 windows + 1 big window + 1 door for <$500 (installation and GST included), while at that time the quote from The Bay with 50% off was $750 for the cheapest, lousy & ugly materials, and from Home Depot it'd cost me over $1000 due to the branded Hunter Douglas and installation was an additional $150. Back to the plumbing issue, I also like the per-job quote instead of the open-ended quote with hourly rate. Eg. Call Canadian Plumbing's quote was $95/hour and minimum 2 hours charge, and on top if need to use special machine (eg. Drain Machine) it's another $50 charge. Pete the Plumber quoted $59 to show up on my door, $49 per 1/2 hour, but told me usually it's 1 1/2 to 2 hours of job.