Action Tank Service

Our history………

Our company was established in 1984 by Bill McAfee, a Qualicum Beach heavy-duty mechanic who started Action Tank Service as a part-time business to supplement his income. When we purchased the business in 1988, it had a 1971 GMC 1-ton vacuum truck with a 600 IG capacity tank on it. We quickly added a larger vacuum truck, and the business has grown steadily since. Today we offer several trucks with 3,000 or 1,500 IG capacities, as well as equipment to support our work as inspectors, and diagnosticians. Our business is family-owned and operated with (4) full-time and (2) part-time employees.

Our philosophy……..

When we moved to Vancouver Island in 1987 from a much larger metropolitan area, one of the first things we noticed was the tendency of some service businesses to operate on “island time.” This seemed to mean that service personnel would show up at their own convenience (which may or may not have been the day originally promised), or in their own good time, which may well have been hours later than had been arranged. We vowed that if we ever owned a service business, we would make firm appointments with our customers, and then arrive on the promised day and time. We believe that our customers’ time is at least as important – and as valuable to them – as ours is to us.

Our commitment to customer service…….

When we are called to service your septic tank, grease trap, or sewage treatment plant, our office personnel schedule our serviceperson’s time so that they can do a thorough job, plus answer any questions that you might have. If there are problems that need to be addressed, we will suggest solutions that may, or may not, involve work that we ourselves do. Our goal is to clarify and solve problems and give solid, useful advice, whether or not that advice serves to benefit us financially.

We live and work in the area that we service, and many of our customers have become friends. Our customers – our friends - can count on us to be forthright and truthful with them regarding what we see when we visit them, and what they can expect from their systems. We encourage and expect our office and service personnel to spend whatever time is necessary to answer questions and communicate solutions as they see them. We are not a “get done, get paid, get out” sort of company.

We keep complete and comprehensive computer records on all the systems we service – we consider these records to be confidential to the owners of these systems. This includes information such as the address and date of service, what was done, what was charged, and who the serviceman was. It also includes information about the system itself, such as the size and location of the tank and/or dispersal field, and any function issues that we may have observed during the cleaning process. Our records go back some 25 years, and our customers appreciate our ability to fill them in on the maintenance history of their systems, as well as our willingness to discuss our observations.