Joseph the fridge repairman

Day before yesterday ie 16 Jul 2009 as I popped into the kitchen for a drink, Wife said there’s a burning smell round about here, gesticulating centre of kitchen. Aiyah! kitchen in HDB flat is so small, no need to point here or there. Here is there, what!? Right?

She was telling me about a burning smell; so it must be there, or she wants me to do something about it, or she’s quickly saying it’s not my cooking, the burning smell you’re smelling.

What smell? I don’t smell any smell.

Nowhere in kitchen, or whole house, but just there hanging in the air, she went on.

So I went sniff-sniff here and sniff-sniff there, everywhere, here, there .... oops sorry, back to story. And I soon found the likely crisis source.

Hot here, the side of the fridge, touch it.

Cut long story short. Must call someone. A contractor, a repair man, lah. A fridge repair man. Evertech? I asked. They replaced the compressor almost two years ago. But Not Evertech! They have the worse service in the industry, in Singapore, in the world! Won’t go into that. But will never forget their name. I understand many ministeries, departments and government agencies have them on contract. Mmmm, perhaps I should drop an email to Lim Soo Ping to keep an eye open for those contracts. Nice guy, damned sharp eyed guy. Was in his Commission of Enquiry team in the collapse of Hotel New World.

So who? Ended up calling Rennie Loh. Rennie, ah, can you recommend me a fridge repairman? You recommended a very good aircon repairman last year, so i’m wondering if you know one for fridge? Silence. Aiyah .... cannot remember his number now; mmm, call me ten minutes!

Ten minutes later, called her, hello .... 96681682 (in Cantonese). Wow, fierce fast service, Rennie Loh. I confirmed the number and name in Canto and English, thanked her, and called Joseph.

Called him. Aaargh! That sickening song again. You know the one that comes on when you’re put on hold at ToyotaUbi Service Centre, or SingTel mio.

Joesph sounded hassled. He was on a job, I could hear him concentrating, turning a screw, perspiring and breathing hard, all at the same time and trying to speak to me on his mobile phone. Naturally, within 15 seconds the line was cut. Dropped phone most likely, or pressed a phone button while trying to turn a screw at the back of a fridge, or kenah electrocuted.

But, 2 seconds later, the phone rang. Wow! Great service again. He returned call before I could re-dial his number. Told him about the smell, the hot sides of the fridge, but everything’s still cold inside. He said he has another job later. Will see if he could come after that.

It was then around 4pm.

At about 6pm, Joseph called. He couldn’t make it, everything alright? how’s the fridge? Blah blah .... and he’ll be here 9 or 10 tomorow morning. Not bad, still good service. He called back, he didn’t forget, or leave it to us to call him.

Smack at sometime between 9 and 10, he called. How’s the fridge? Same symptoms and ice cream melted I said. Can I come now he asked.

He came. Nice young man. Didn’t look fishy ie didn’t have that sneaky look. Come in, bring your shoes in, someone may steal them. Then he set upon his job at hand.

Twenty minutes later, he gave progress report. Fan’s burnt out; checked your compressor and it’s still in fine shape so no worries there; the sides heated up ‘cause the fan didn’t dissipate the heat. That caused compressor thermostat to go on and off more frequently. Hence no cooling at all. Have to replace fan. How much Wife asked. About $160. OK? OK. He went down to see if he had a suitable fan in his van. He did.

Fifteen minutes later, he reported job completed. He had also wiped floor clean with the rag we provided earlier, picked up the old newspapers (provided to work on) into the rubbish bin, pushed the fridge back into its cubicle, etc, etc. Everything tidied up. Wow, good service.

All in about an hour (so, call out at $60 and fan cost $100; Wife said she heard him answer a call on his handphone saying it would cost $60 to check the fault). And if we didn’t have cash, he would take a cheque he said. Not a problem.

So that’s how it ended. Great service from a nice repairman. Not cheap, but a pleasant transaction in all.

If you need a nice pleasant good fridge repairman, give him a call. Say you were recommended by the old couple in Block 149 Tampines whose fridge fan he replaced.

But if he can’t repair your fridge, or if he’s not nice to you, don’t hold it against me, k?