Tri M Plumbing

This is in a reasonably new house, 12 years old. I put too much down the garburator (skin from a cantaloupe and a pineapple), and the kitchen sink stopped draining. The usual solution of baking soda + vinegar + hot water didn't help. A 25' auger (snake) didn't help either.

The technician came quickly; I told him the story, and the estimate is $275 + tax. I said go ahead. It took only about 30 minutes for the technician to finish the job. The total time, including settling of payment, is less than a hour.

I don't know about anyone else, but to me $275 is a lot of money to charge for an hour of work. Mind you this is not an emergency, nor is it off hours. This is during regular business hours at high noon. I am not a plumber; so, when he gave the estimate I thought it might take him a couple of hours, and the price might be reasonable. But, being a professional, he should have known that this job wouldn't take him more than an hour.

I paid the price that was agreed upon. But I would think twice about calling this company again.

The kicker of the story is that he does not want to fix a dripping leak from the sink when he put things back together. He said he will have to charge me extra for this unrelated work, whereas I could simply fix it myself with some "plumber's putty". He even wrote down the words on a piece of paper for me. Thanks!

I've used Tri-M Plumbing on two previous occasions and I was reasonably happy with their work. They were pricey but very reliable. I even recommended them to my mom. However, I couldn't help but feel disappointed after my third experience with this company where I paid for 6 hours of labour charges to replace a leaking hot water tank. It really seemed excessive to me. Despite my appeals, they were adamant that the job required 6 hours when factoring in travel time required to verify the warranty coverage, haul away the old tank and obtain the gas permit. My research and sources tell me that replacing a hot water tank should take no longer than 4 hours for a professional. It would have been nice if (at the very least) we wouldn't have been charged full rate for the travel time. I still think this is a quality company with very professional workers. However, I will try another company for my next plumbing project.

I was researching several plumbers in Vancouver to help my 91 year-old father with complicated kitchen and bathroom plumbing issues. I spoke with Dave, the owner of Tri-M who offered a seniors discount and a $30 off coupon for the work. Dave dispatched his best plumber, Greg who arrived at my dad's within 30 minutes. Greg was an absolute delight! Fast, professional, efficient, and a great personality. The best part according to my dad; The bill was $100 less than the nearest competitor which is a big deal for a pensioner. And yes...we are very satisfied and will be Tri-M customers for life!

One morning we were leaving for work and noticed pooling water in our front lawn - when we looked, by the panel for access to the water mains there was a bubbling of water - quite a bit. I got on the internet looking for someone to deal with this problem. I found Tri-M on the search that had a promotion to get $25 off a first call for plumbing. I called them and when the guy came it took no time for him to access the problem. We were lucky it was close to the house as if the pipe was longer the cost would be substantially higher. The next thing I knew he had got in the front yard and had dug the trench in order to replace the pipe in less than an hour - very very hard working guy! Another 1 hour and the pipe had been replaced, leak stopped and he had even re-filled the trench. Couldn't have been happier and relieved.