$300 for a hole
That's what my family paid today.
All for a stupid hole.
This is what happened. Today is my father's off day. So he was doing maintenance work around the house. He was trying to unclog the drain in the kitchen bathroom when part of the concrete that was beneath the hole gave way.
The resultant hole was big enough so that water could flow from our bathroom into the bathroom of our neighbours below. Obviously the neighbours were furious. They argued with my father for an hour. My father suggested that they call HDB to come down and take a look. The neighbours didn't want to. They got this guy from a nearby plumbing shop who quoted in excess of $1000 for the repairs.
Downright daylight robbery I tell you! My father could gauge from the extent of the damage that it was hardly near the price that the plumber quoted. We figured that it was a conspiracy by the neighbour and the plumber to rip us off. I am not saying that without any basis. You see, my neighbour was a pirated VCD seller. That says a lot about his character. He got arrested before and was fined quite heavily. I don't know whether he still engage in such illegal activities now but judging from the response we got when my father suggested calling HDB, it is obvious that he didn't want any government officers anywhere near his flat.
And to think that a hole is going to cost us more than $1000? I guess even a 3 year old kid can figure out that there was something fishy going on. My father refused to let that plumber do the repairs. He argued with the neighbours for another hour. They finally came to a compromise. My father will pay for all the repairs but he will find another person to do it.
We found a repair man through the papers who quoted $100++ through the phone. When the repair man came down though, he said that it would cost about $200+ but that was still way below the $1000++ that the plumber that my neighbour found quoted. We decided to accept this more reasonable price and let the repair man do the work.
The repair man then said that they might have to do something to the neighbour's other bathroom too. But that had nothing to do with the hole! It was just that their pipes were old anyway and it would be better to change them. It would cost $300 to do both bathrooms. In the end my father paid for those services too even though we didn't really need to.
The neighbours were grinning. But of course they should be! They got new pipes for both their bathrooms and they didn't pay a dime. We were obliged to only pay for services related to the hole but for the sake of harmony and peace and out of good will, we did their other bathroom for free.
So much drama because of a stupid hole.
All for a stupid hole.
This is what happened. Today is my father's off day. So he was doing maintenance work around the house. He was trying to unclog the drain in the kitchen bathroom when part of the concrete that was beneath the hole gave way.
The resultant hole was big enough so that water could flow from our bathroom into the bathroom of our neighbours below. Obviously the neighbours were furious. They argued with my father for an hour. My father suggested that they call HDB to come down and take a look. The neighbours didn't want to. They got this guy from a nearby plumbing shop who quoted in excess of $1000 for the repairs.
Downright daylight robbery I tell you! My father could gauge from the extent of the damage that it was hardly near the price that the plumber quoted. We figured that it was a conspiracy by the neighbour and the plumber to rip us off. I am not saying that without any basis. You see, my neighbour was a pirated VCD seller. That says a lot about his character. He got arrested before and was fined quite heavily. I don't know whether he still engage in such illegal activities now but judging from the response we got when my father suggested calling HDB, it is obvious that he didn't want any government officers anywhere near his flat.
And to think that a hole is going to cost us more than $1000? I guess even a 3 year old kid can figure out that there was something fishy going on. My father refused to let that plumber do the repairs. He argued with the neighbours for another hour. They finally came to a compromise. My father will pay for all the repairs but he will find another person to do it.
We found a repair man through the papers who quoted $100++ through the phone. When the repair man came down though, he said that it would cost about $200+ but that was still way below the $1000++ that the plumber that my neighbour found quoted. We decided to accept this more reasonable price and let the repair man do the work.
The repair man then said that they might have to do something to the neighbour's other bathroom too. But that had nothing to do with the hole! It was just that their pipes were old anyway and it would be better to change them. It would cost $300 to do both bathrooms. In the end my father paid for those services too even though we didn't really need to.
The neighbours were grinning. But of course they should be! They got new pipes for both their bathrooms and they didn't pay a dime. We were obliged to only pay for services related to the hole but for the sake of harmony and peace and out of good will, we did their other bathroom for free.
So much drama because of a stupid hole.