Perez who? That was my first reaction when I was asked what I thought about some ridiculous thing going around IG. I couldn’t believe it myself until I actually looked up this Perez Hilton person when told that he had posted on his Instagram account that “Plumbers in Los Angeles are the biggest SCAM!!!”
See for yourself, here’s a screenshot of his post for all of his 800K plus followers to see.
It should be known that I didn’t even know who this guy (Perez Hilton) was until yesterday, so I may not be the best person to judge his actions. Apparently he makes his money *blogging celebrity gossip and outing alleged closeted celebrities; sounds like a real peach. Nonetheless, I am however a self employed plumbing and heating contractor, not working in L.A. but, I wouldn’t have to dig deep from experience to say there are a lot of people that would probably agree with such an asinine, uneducated statement such as his.
When faced with a plumbing problem today most people approach the challenge knowing they’ve likely got two options; the first being to hire a professional to take care of it, second would be YouTube and plenty of misinformed ideas from non-pros willingly tutoring in hopes of counting another view for their channel. I guess you could add option 1.5 in the case of the c-list celebrity and turn to your audience of many and lie and cry your way through it.
The tables soon turned on Hilton in the comment section of the post though and some were not pretty. My close friend John Thompson [@ogplumbgod] chimed in pretty quick with the “Have you ever sacrificed time away from your family to pay the bills?” and “Have you ever dug a trench full of shit?” questions that were just a part of his longer comment. If you want to see John’s and the over 1700 comments on the post click here. While you’re there give my friend John a follow!
I don’t want to get into the depths of what it takes to run a successful business as it pertains to pricing structures for service work. That’s something I admittedly continue to learn every day. I will say this though, this guy’s tantrum is just louder than the similar conversations being had every day by homeowners, general contractors and building owners. Plumbers are not inexpensive, nor should we be. If you want your problem fixed by a professional, the right way the first time then you’re going to have to pay the going rate. I joked in my comment to this idiot that $260 for a plumber was cheap, asking if he had a Groupon or something. When is the last time that dweeb’s Dr. told him upfront what a visit and procedure was going to cost? Maybe if said doctor did we’d be talking about the high price of medical care instead of the seemingly normal price for a plumbing service call in Los Angeles?
Here’s what I posted in response to this great big bucket of idiocy. Shameless plug, if you’re not already please give us a follow too! @mechanicalhub
*Source: Wikipedia
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