I've told my story before on HomeStars.com. I'm a semi-invalid who has to depend on tradespeople to come to my home and keep it in livable shape for me. I treasure getting a needed tip on a trustworthy tradesperson who I know I will be using every few years. And now I can add A.M.S. Plumbing to that list of people I can trust to do a good job in a timely manner at a cost that won't make me put off calling for future work until the problem has turned into a crisis.
Nevil from A.M.S. was recommended to me by a Bridge partner who was familiar with Nevil's father. She had made use of his services and was happy. Paying a plumber's bill is never cause for celebration, but she was impressed with his work. And she wasn't off-put by the bill either. So, I called in Nevil to fix a problem I was having with a 'running' toilet. It wasn't generating unneeded serial flushes. But it was constantly overflowing into the tank of my upstairs bathroom.
LAST February, I was greeted by a bill from Brampton Water for about FIVE TIMES what I normally pay. A gentlemen by the name of Greg appeared when asked for and he couldn't have been nicer. He asked me, "Do I have permission to make a slight tweak the guts of your toilet?" It was the presumed villain. He did, and for the next three bills, all was normal.
Then weeks ago, I got my winter water usage bill. It was TWENTY FIVE TIMES my normal bill. I paid it, but getting kicked for over 600 bucks is not my idea of Brampton Water doing it's job. I was never alerted (as I have been told others have when a monthly check reveals a potential problem) that something was awry with the toilet again. I detected no new noises. There HAD been a noise, evident when the light and fan were turned off, but that noise had endured through three reasonable bills. I asked for Greg again.
THIS time, he re-iterated the toilet was problematic but that my bill was made significantly worse by a humidifier running amok. While I still have issues in believing the humidifier was running through a SWIMMING POOL's worth of water in three months, nearly 71 THOUSAND gallons, a rate of about 800 GALLONS a DAY, Greg assured me it was within the realm of possibilities. I think it was a faulty meter and told him that a similar result NEXT winter, with the humidifier turned off permanently, will result in my appearance at the steps of City Hall with lawyer in tow. The City will TEST a meter, but the penalty is 300 bucks approximately if the third party testing process finds the meter WITHIN the limits of performance. Just enough weaseling capabilities to make my protest invalid. So, I skipped the legal proceedings. Next year, if the meter goes crazy in the cold AGAIN, then there will have been no root causes for the bump and I think a lawyer will be well within reason.
I know the toilet won't be an issue. Nevil took some time getting to me although he did contact me immediately upon my friend asking him to call me. It was nine day before he had an opening in his obviously busy schedule. He called me 45 minutes before he was going to arrive and that was within the originally-agreed upon time frame. He hit the mark promptly.
He ascertained the issue immediately and went right to work. Sorry to disappoint devotees of cliches, but he wasn't a large man wearing a large tool belt prone to showing a cheeky side. Nevil wasn't ANY of those things. He quickly replaced a tube leading to the toilet and the inner workings of an American Standard toilet and was done as quickly as I could have wished for. He COULD have lolly-gagged and extended his payday by fussing around for five minutes. He didn't. I really appreciated his forthrightness in not milking the clock for his benefit.
Everything's fixed. The toilet now refills to a mark a good 10-15 percent lower than it has in years. That alone might save me his bill over the course of a year, let alone stopping that water-running sound that would pierce the silence of a post-flush, lights/fan-off bathroom.
Would I recommend Nevil to anybody needing smaller plumbing help? Unequivocally. Bigger jobs? I don't see any reason to believe he wouldn't or couldn't do them either. He DID have one condition that I was aware of before hiring him. He doesn't carry heavy equipment up stairs. Other people have to be hired to do that. With that small caveat, I give A.M.S. Plumbing the full ten stars.
