vulgar but all-too-true image from
My toilet was not flushing right. Overflowing. I won't go into the fecal/farcical details.
I tried everything to fix the "issue" -- after all there are no "problems" in the Land of the Free, just "issues." I tried:
"Get-rid-of-your-clog" chemicals bought at the local supermarket; my "brain [sorry, I meant drain] buster" [here pictured blue; mine is black in color and far bigger, but I cannot find a pix of it on Google], one of humankind's greatest inventions.
But nothing fixed the quite annoying overflowing toilet "issue," not even my ungloved hand searching around in the bowels of the toilet itself.
So I call Bill The Plumber's company. Nice, in-charge guy, strong, baritone voice. Clearly the boss -- and why not? How else do you run a company?
He efficiently (after getting my credit card info -- not exactly a reassuring request) sent "his" plumber, José (when we met a the entrance of my condo, we exchanged names), to fix the "issue" on the very day that I called (time: before noon). José was admirably punctual and polite.
Once in my apartment, José put on a blue rubber glove and with the help of a plunger fixed the issue in the one and only toilet in my modest one-bedroom abode -- subito.
It took José ten minutes (ok, I didn't have a stopwatch) to fix the "issue."
I flushed the toilet to check his work. Clearly it was an all-American success. José, a careful craftman, double-checked it too.
After talking with his boss on his cell phone, José presented me with the bill (an in-house service that required him to drive -- granted, time is money -- to my one-bedroom apt):
I quote from the bill:
to repair the toilet use the hand snaker, and was all good.
Service call charge: $52.00
hours 1/2: $52:00
please pay service man: $119:00
***
See, as a point of pay comparison, "I am an adjunct professor who teaches five classes. I earn less than a pet-sitter," theguardian.com.But hey, first things first, even if you have to pay for them! :)