It is one of those homeowner nightmares: You wake up and discover that you've got a massive leak, and water is pouring out of your ceiling. But your regular plumber is busy and can't come to your house for at least another day.
What do you do?
Well, if you were living in 1995, you'd probably call your neighbors and friends for recommendations for a trusted plumber. And if this plumber turned out to overcharge you or do shoddy work, you might argue with him, take him to small claims court, or register your complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
But, in 2008, you have much better options, thanks to the power of social networking. Let me tell you what I did when it started to rain my house last week.
After discovering that my regular plumber couldn't come until the next day (and seeing the ceiling plaster crumbling), I logged onto two local, online message boards. One was started by a Newcomers club and is a free list serve for working moms, in which members post questions and answers. The other is a town web site in which anyone can post messages on the boards. I did a quick search for plumbers and found a few names that were strongly recommended and began calling.
Finally, one plumber agreed to come over. After opening up my ceiling and spending two hours looking into it, he told me that he was unable to find the source of the leak, but he turned off the water to the bathroom so no more water would be pouring out of my ceiling. The bill was $250. He told me that I had three options, each costly than the next. I could either have him come back and look some more, which would probably cost another $700 or $800; have him replace the pipes in the bathroom ($1600 or $1700), or just renovate the entire bathroom (thousands...).
The next morning, my regular plumber came over and within five minutes announced the leak was coming from the toilet. Needless to say, this is a relatively inexpensive fix.
When the first plumber called me to ask if I'd decided which of those three options I was going to pursue, I told him what happened when my regular plumber came the next day.
Then something surprising happened. He told me he was reducing his fee to $119. "I have a good reputation in this community, and I know you heard good things about me from other people," he said (before he went on to suggest, darkly, that my usual plumber was up to no good.)
Why did he do this? He is a smart businessman. He remembered that I'd told him I'd gotten his name from a few women on the working mom list serve. He wisely assessed that if I felt ripped off, I might complain on the board about him.
Chalk up another one, for the power of the consumer in the Web 2.0 economy.
So what does this mean for people who don't live in my community? Fortunately, there are many online recommendation services, including Yelp, Angies List, and the new Loladex, a new Facebook application in beta testing.
And you always could consider starting your own online message board. Yahoo, Topica, and Google all make it very easy to start list serves.

Labels: personal finance

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