Ripoff Report | Terry Love Plumbing Complaint Review Bothell .

Users who are viewing this thread

Terry

The Plumbing Wizard
Staff member
Messages
29,942
Reaction score
3,459
Points
113
Location
Bothell, Washington
Website
terrylove.com
My response to some unfounded complaints.

So I take it that there is a web site where office workers review plumbing contractors.
Does that make any sense?
What qualifies someone that works on spreadsheets for the US government in the IT computer field, for judging and rating home building and plumbing?

Its not even close. You would want someone familiar with the construction industry.
Construction, not white collar.
But, then I realize that when you have the number one rated plumbing web site and forum in the United States, you will always have the ankle biters out there trying to take you down a notch.

I love computers too, but my work experience is firmly in the construction field. This is where Im considered an expert among my peers.

When I broke into construction in 70s, I was quickly moved up the ranks, given more responsibility which led to leading crews and being used as an adviser to those working above me. When they needed to know how to lay something out, or make an adjustment to a plan, they knew they could count on me.

By the time I was thirty two, I had been an owner of a plumbing company, and a custom home building business.
In the plumbing end of things, I was a fully licensed commercial master plumber. In the home building business, I was designing and building Street of Dreams quality homes.

Some of my homes were later bought by other builders for their personal homes. I had many innovative ideas that were copied by other builders. It wasnt uncommon to see builders come by on weekends, tour my homes, and then six months later I would see the influence in their homes.

I was the first contractor to turn in a house plan drafted in CAD that the city of Bellevue had ever seen.

You might say I was a white collar mind, in a blue collar body.

If you search the Internet, you will see articles either quoting or about me. Some of these would be Fine Home Building, Lowes for Pros, CNN News, Fox News, BuilderOnline, Plumbing & Mechanical, Bottom Line Personal,

I receive email and phone questions throughout the day from all parts of the United Statesasking me for advice. I also have the leading advice forum where they can ask questions and read answers. Its a vital and active question and answer, DIY and professional discussion that was started in 1998. The old forum had 51,195 posts, and the more recent forum has 499,772 posts.

In the last year, we have added advertising to the web site. It was time for it to start paying its way. Its hard to take as much time out of my work day, without some compensation. I love helping others, but adding some income from the web site does help.

We have the most complete information on toilets on the Internet.

Go figure! Who would have thought there was that much to write about. It was in 1998, just a few years after the switch to low flow, that I abruptly became aware of the problems we were all facing with the new plumbing codes for plumbing.

When I asked my suppliers for information, I wasnt given good answers to the problem.

When I checked the Consumers Reports article on toilets, there wasn't good enough information there. I realized that nobody really had a clue on the new low flow toilet problem. At the time, I was part of a plumbers list, which included hundreds of participating plumbers from around the country. I did a poll, receiving email and phone calls from plumbers, and started a database on the answers I was getting. Based on that, I started buy toilets, and using them to get a first hand look and feel for what was really working. I quickly found out, that the guys testing baby play pens at Consumers Reports werent willing to get their hands dirty when it came to toilets. They even bragged about keeping it clean, wearing white overcoats and using reusable media like baby wipes, (yeah, thats right, back to babies) and sponges. All things you can pull out with your hands and reuse over and over again.

The problem was, when you put soft toilet paper in, some toilets would shred it, and the shreds wouldnt go down with the first flush. They were giving Best Buys to toilets that wouldnt flush. I tried selling their number one choice toilet, but women were complaining that they were getting sprayed from the water that had been in the toilet bowl. Yuck! The women didnt like those toilets. And if you sat on the toilet, and flipped the lever, Oh my Gawd! It was freaking scary to them. Women did not like the toilets, and small children refused to use them.

It was time for a different type of rating system. I needed to start rating toilets that women and children liked. Toilets that men didnt have to plunge when they got home from work. It was a fun project really. I would go out, do some shopping, bring the toilets home and try them out. After a while the manufacturers starting sending me product or dropping by to chat me up and bring even more product. Presidents of large plumbing companies would call when there were in town, and wed have lunch together. It was becoming a very successful report and project. Pretty soon, I was getting phone calls and emails from around the country thanking me for the information, and giving me even more input into the problem.

All in all, all of the posts and information from homeowners have been very good.

One of the problems with any discussion that takes place on the Internet, is the spammers and crazies. The spammers I can understand, they are just trying to make a buck on my dime. I provide the space, they want to fill it.

The crazies are a little tougher. They have a different agenda. For whatever reason, they feel that they have a right to put their mark on every tree they see. And if someone has marked the tree already, that just makes them angrier. Sometimes on forums and discussion boards, a little moderating has to happen, or the crazies will run off with the discussion, by spamming the results. If one comment is good, why not several hundred.

Sometimes you get bored at work people that think that the professional and licensed workers are wrong. Its not that they have any knowledge, but its so easy to post and give an opinion, and it doesnt have to be fact based. Construction is a funny thing. Everyone thinks they can do it. But for example: a plumbing license requires working under a journeyman plumber for 8,000 hours, taking education classes, and then passing a State test. The reason you work under a journeyman? You need to be brought into line, and have years of experience drummed into you. Too many times, Ive seen unlicensed handyman, self taught, doing work that fails, is not up to acceptable workmanlike practices and if inspected with a permit, fails.

I have tremendous respect for those that have gone through the process.

Its easy to be an armchair quarterback, imagining yourself as some sort of superstar, but do you really think you can quarterback the Houston Texans with 350 pound linemen chasing you down?

I think you have to be a little more real then that.

I give my kudos to the experts that populate my site. They have the years, and the experience,
 
Last edited:

MKS

Member
Messages
259
Reaction score
22
Points
18
Location
Illinois
Let's keep race out of it. What race is blue?
It's not about race.
More so of the willingness to learn and put it to use. Learned to use cad in its infancy and put it to use while being in the trades.
If your not in the trades you don't understand.
Look at the hands.
White collar neat, clean, straight, nails trimmed and thin.
Blue collar dirty, busted nails, scars, crooked, arthritic, missing parts, callous, leathered, frost bitten, burned and strong as well.
Either of those hands can be found in any race.
Both have many good people.
 

Terry

The Plumbing Wizard
Staff member
Messages
29,942
Reaction score
3,459
Points
113
Location
Bothell, Washington
Website
terrylove.com
"You might say I was a white collar mind, in a blue collar body." What I meant to write.

How embarrassing. I didn't realize it wasn't collar, but color. I went back and fixed it.
Especially nowadays, you don't want to make that mistake. I did get it right years ago when I used it for a personal ad when they still had those.
I wound up meeting a college professor in the math department at the University of Washington.
 
Last edited:

Sylvan

Still learning
Messages
2,756
Reaction score
689
Points
113
Location
New York
I took one of my cats to the vet. He gave it a shot . Time there was less than 1/2 hr and I was charged $350.00
 
Top
Hey, wait a minute.

This is awkward, but...

It looks like you're using an ad blocker. We get it, but (1) terrylove.com can't live without ads, and (2) ad blockers can cause issues with videos and comments. If you'd like to support the site, please allow ads.

If any particular ad is your REASON for blocking ads, please let us know. We might be able to do something about it. Thanks.
I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks