Sewage hell (non) update

[cimorene]

The plumber who said, "Send me an email about it, we'll see about some kind of plan" to Wax several weeks ago has not replied at all to her email. She decided he probably won't and we have to start trying to find a different plumber who will again.

Remember when I found the contact for the city pipe people and sent an email asking whether the pipes under our street belong to us or to the city? Which I thought was a pretty basic question? No answer from them either in several weeks. Out of office without an answerer? Lost in the chaos? Rejected as spam? Who knows. I have to try to call one of their phone numbers today, but they don't have like "Enquiries", so I guess I just start with the department boss and go down the list! Awesome...

It's been warm all weekend and our sump pump has been working as intended, but it will have to be removed tomorrow because it can't freeze and it's supposed to get down to freezing again tomorrow night. Also tomorrow I have an appointment with the employment bureau people and I'm afraid I have no prospect of getting prepared or putting thoughts in order in advance of that.

ETA: I found a form to leave a contact request for the city government's general information secretary. I have chatted with them before and found them very helpful in my work hat, so hopefully they will be able to give me the correct contact information to whomever I really SHOULD reach out to, but I will have to wait for an answer until they come back to work tomorrow morning, because their hours are reduced to three per weekday now. At least I think that in THIS instance I can expect a response tomorrow, from my previous experience of them, even if it's only a notification that they have to look some more. That means not calling the next plumber on the list until tomorrow too.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

YIKES

[cimorene]

It never fucking stops!!!

[1empress]

So many plumbers just don't reply or get back to people even after making arrangements. It's crazy making! I was told it's because they get busy or have more lucrative jobs come up, but at least have the courtesy to tell people? It's so rude!

[cimorene]

I guess it's a global problem and it's kinda maddening. I mean I guess they can't afford a full-time office manager or secretary, or that whoever does their paperwork has too much to do with taxes and payroll to handle correspondence. But OTOH if they are SO BUSY that they have twice as much work as they could ever do how is that they cannot afford support personnel?????

[spark]

Just in case it might be helpful, when I recently went through some exciting multiple septic tank adventures of my own, the trades person who helped me was a septic tank professional rather than a plumber, although unsurprisingly he knew a good bit about the relevant plumbing. No idea whether it's different in Finland, but might be worth checking if someone in that category is more responsive and available? Plumbers here are always hard to get too.

[cimorene]

We love the guy who empties the tank and the guys who blast them clean and photograph them, and they have given us many good suggestions... but they can't help us when what we need are actually new pipes (from/through the tanks) connecting to the city sewers🫤 alas, for that we need plumbers who build and install, and those guys are more popular than Beyonce.

[spark]

Ah that's too bad. Hope you get a responsive plumber soon!