So I saw a commercial yesterday for some food product that said “Made with Real Ingredients!”.  Made with Real Ingredients????  What is that???  Are they saying that other companies put “fake”  ingredients in their food?  As baffled as I was by this statement it reminded me of quite a few “green” campaigns I have seen over the past few years.  The reality is that the plumbing industry is becoming greener everyday.  Toilets will be made to use less and less water, water heaters will become more and more efficient, and all the fixtures in our homes will be designed to use less water without us noticing the difference.  The other reality is that not all of these products are going to be well made, or with your best interests in mind.  In fact some of them will be “real ingredients” an empty statement designed to mislead you into thinking that you are spending your money on something worthwhile and good for your home.  When the truth is the people who produce, sell, and install these products care more about their bottom line than doing anything good for you, our community,  or the planet we live on.  If everyone was just honest enough to tell us what the ingredients really are, we could all make the right decisions on how to live with more freedom and comfort, without it costing us our valuable time and money to figure out what the ingredients are on our own.

Posted By: Paul Guzman, GM

Promised I’d follow up with info about “free” estimates, so this is my take on “free” after over 45 years in this industry.  Originally, even as late as the 1960’s, the plumbing union held sway.  They trained and dispatched plumbers to all shops, so there was a pretty even base of talented plumbers no matter whose business you called for service.  With such a dynamic in place, you actually could price shop with every confidence in having a well-trained individual come to your home … and one you could trust because the union saw to that.

Then, speakin’ only for California, when the union lost the residential side of plumbing because of the “right to work” laws and the ease of getting a sub-contracting license, almost anyone could call themselves a “plumber” and set up shop.  And it gets worse.  In our state, there is no test, no license, and no regulation at all for “plumbing” employees.  Hey, a biz can hire a person who worked at a hardware store for a week and LEGALLY send them to your home when you call for a plumber. 

Okay, okay I’m gettin’ to the “free” estimates part.  With all the slack laws in place to allow such a problem to exist, what I consider un-ethical employers could now pay their people as cheaply as possible, refuse to invest in training, offer no medical insurance whatsoever, so could afford to come to your home and give you “free” estimates.  These folks can’t pay for background checks, drug testing, training, and don’t even look too hard at the history of any dude or dudette who say they can turn a wrench.  And just for your info, teaching the “trades” is the number one educational “benefit” taught in prisons — San Quentin included. 

So there’s your “free”.  There’s the profile of many companies that come to your home for “free”, and there’s the profile of the individual you are allowing into your home to give you that “free” estimate.  If this is the company you want in your home — well, good luck, because you might need it.

What’s the alternative?  O’Connell Plumbing, Inc. – Diamond certified; Green Screened; PHCC trained; Green Plumber’s, USA accredited.  Want more? Just phone and ask.

Ed O

Why do we charge a diagnostic fee?  The bottom line is a professional company cannot afford to pay a professional plumber to drive to your home, diagnose your problem, and quote prices.  Just can’t be done — and they’ve got families to feed.  Plus, do you really want some half-trained, half-professional, half-caring non-professional individual to show up at your front door?  That happens more than not when things are “free”.  Yeah, free — so is lunch!

The part for you and I as consumers that comes into play is how do we afford multiple service or diagnostic fees if we’d like to have different companies look at our problem?  The simple answer is to call a company you can trust from the gitgo.  Well, “Duh!” you say, but that’s where our company and Diamond Certified come into play.  Go to our home page and follow the Diamond Certified connection under the Plumbing Category.  (There are other plumbing companies listed in D.C. but they’re locations are in Heating or Sewers … enough said?)  Anyway, in a couple of clicks you can find out what hundreds, if not thousands, of customers have said about us over the years.  Oh yeah, one more little note: ALL of the money you “invest” with us stays in Marin.  We’re a local, home-grown company so you don’t pay extra for franchise or licensing fees that head out of state.  I mean, California needs every penny spent in California to stay in California.

I’ll explain how you can still get “free” estimates in another post to follow. 

Posted by ‘ol Ed

Okay, Green Plumbers, USA.  Fine.  Yahoo.  Big Deal.  Blah, blah blah. 

All us plumbing companies come at you because we want your patronage.  The old “yeller pages” are full of plumbing companies, the internet lists hundreds of us — there are approximately 200 companies in Marin County alone.  So how do you choose? 

Well, why not choose a 3rd party recommended plumbing company?  That narrows us down to only 4 in Marin County.  And what better 3rd party recommendation than a company that puts its money where its mouth is — Diamond Certified: www.diamondcertified.org.  They’ll guarantee we do a good job or pay you $1000.00 – now that’s a number even I can trust.

Okay, now why, out of the 4 plumbers recommended, should you choose us?  Simple — We are the only FULL SERVICE plumbing company listed.  The others do a bit of new building, a bit of sewer cleaning, a bit of water softening, a bit of remodeling, a bit of this, a bit of that … and a “bit” of service.  We, on the other hand,  are service-only — totally dedicated to service plumbing, totally dedicated to keeping your home healthy, safe, and secure. 

If you’re a woman looking for plumbing service then you should know that our company is owned by a woman, Rebecca Kleiner, my lovely wife and partner who understands service from a woman’s point of view.  If you’re a guy wondering why my lady owns the company then you should know she’s smarter, better looking, and more business oriented than me ‘ol Irish self.  If you’re a pet wonderin’ why we’re woman-owned you should know that she has katz and firmly believes we are responsible for the clean, fresh, water you get every day from your own owner …, er,  I mean pet-guardian.

Well, now that you know we’re Diamond Certified, are a Service-Only company, and that we’re woman-owned, you should also know that our male plumbers are good-looking, have nice smiles, talk gently, have “feelings”, and are generally considered to be the best technically trained dudes on the West Coast.  (We are = opportunity but have not found any women plumbers … yet; though you may rest assured Ed O’Connell hizzelf is working diligently to this end.) 

If you’re reading this, then you’re already in our site, so look around to find out even more about us.  And don’t trust just what we say — trust our Diamond Certification and what our present customers say about us.  Dang, but we really are that good.  Dang, but I’m really not that humble.

Have some fun today.

‘ol Ed

Jun 24, 2009

I’ve not done this bloggin’ before so bear with me as this old(er) dude launches hizelf into the 21st century … not that I’m about to do any twitterin’ or the like.

I was so sick and tired of hearing the word “Green” applied to stuff like, “This broom is a green product because it is human-powered and cleans your home without using electricity” that I almost passed up the real opportunity to be of green service in the plumbing industry when it came along.  Thankfully, I did not — enter ”Green Plumbers, USA”, an offshoot of ”Green Plumbers, Australia”.   

Skeptical at first, I decided to attend one of their trainings in Sacramento, California to see for myself what they were all about and found they were the real deal.  Subsequently, I made the investment of time and $ to attended 1 more workshop in Sacramento and 3 more in Las Vegas.  What I learned literally shook me, and made me glad I’d not fallen in to that old trap of “contempt before investigation”. 

Bloggin’ should be short, so for now I’ll simply say I had only the vaguest impressions about the connection between water use and energy.  If I was surprised to find our local Marin County water districts were the heaviest users of electricity in our area then I could only imagine that most of my clients did not know this either.  Add the fact I did not know these water districts sent water meter readings to the various sanitary districts so they could tax us accordingly and I knew I had found a new passion — Green Plumbing. 

I am now embarked on the attempt to educate the folks I do business with about the positive aspects of green plumbing – even if it’s just one service call at a time.  With 6 guys workin’ in the field, visiting an average of 2 or 3 homes a day, that’s 12 to 18 customers every single day, or 90 a week, or … well, you can do the math.  To be brief, I saw that finally I could be of real service to ‘ol Gaia rather than simply give lip service.  That feels good, that’s what I want to do now that I’m not involved with the day to day running of my biz, and that has become my new passion … and without passion life’s relegated to bein’ simply a bit of a bore. 

Best,

Ed