RETURN of the Plumber

Thursday morning he came back, yes he was wearing the hard hat again (but the chin-strap was not secured this time!). He asked how the commode was and I expressed some concerns which he quickly brushed off with ‘everything is fine. It’s very good.’. Then he starts talking about his wife, having a baby or something yesterday and needing blood for $5US and how he was like ‘I’ll go ask my sister’ (this is me). So he continues about how much money he needs and how the money I paid him yesterday was good but he needs a bit more and could I please help him. I’m explaining to him politely that I can’t do that and trying to usher him out of my house. He quickly asks about the kitchen sink and tells me to put some water in to show him if it drains correctly. Out of habit I follow his instructions and dump some water in and he’s dismayed by how it drains so slowly. So before I know what’s happening he’s climbed under my sink and is taking pieces apart and removing pipes. Post-cleaning and a very long re-installation process (did I mention yet that he smells distinctly like he’s enjoyed too much Club Beer for it being 9am on a Thursday!?) he continues demanding that I pay him. I say, the pipes are dripping, there’s a leak. He ‘fixes’ the leaks, says ‘it’s fine, I do good job, very technical work’. I finally hand him $20Liberty (yes, this is small and basically insulting. But don’t come into my home and start ‘fixing’ things without asking!). Needless to say the pipes were leaking that evening so I had to ask my security guard to send the plumber back Friday morning to fix what he broke!

Today he made a total mess of my kitchen. I had to pay $75L right away so he could go buy cement to ‘fix’ the leak. He also says I have to pay him like $150L for his work. I said no way! He argues loudly, I explain myself louder: you can’t come to my house, breaks things and then demand that I pay you to fix what was fine before you touched it! I tell him I will not give him 150 or even 100. I will give him ‘small small’. Then he comes back with the cement, creates the mess and can’t seem to fix it (mind you I’ve returned to my bed, I figured it was the safest place to be!). So next thing I know he tells me that the drain in my sink is spoiled and that’s why the leak is happening (earlier the leak was because he’d removed all the gunk clogging my drain so that now the water was free and leaking?!). So he needs $125 to buy a new drain. I send him with the money. He returned an hour or more later without the new drain and explained they didn’t sell it here. That he needed $20L for transport to get the part. He says he’ll come back tomorrow morning to fix it. I tell him he will come back today and finish fixing it because I want to use my sink! He says he will be back, but he has to go take bath before he buys the part because he can’t take car all dirty with cement.

It’s 9:30pm, he hasn’t come back. My dishes are unwashed. There’s cement everywhere because I refuse to clean it up twice. My security guard says that the plumber did get the part but it was late so he’s coming in the morning for finish the job. I explained the whole situation and he said I don’t have to pay the plumber again tomorrow and that he will come in the morning with the plumber and make sure it’s all taken care of for no extra cost. This delights me (my colleagues had rationalized that I should just pay him $75L since it’s half what he’s asking) because the $20US for the toilet I had anticipated and was budgeting for, but this extra $240L I’ve paid to fix my perfectly fine (although slow draining) kitchen sink is killing me! Not to mention, I’m tired of the semi-creepy, very argumentative drunkard of a plumber coming to my house during the early hours of the morning! Today I was having a really weird dream and he interrupted it (now I will never find out what the tattoo on that guy’s leg meant)!