What Happened to Taking Pride in Your Work?

Why don’t people have pride in their jobs anymore? What happened to common courtesy? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TELEPHONE?

The fun began last Saturday. We live in Southeast Alabama where all the rain and storms have been coming through. We had a creek in our backyard where there really shouldn’t be one and a raging river in the front where again there shouldn’t be one. Then I noticed some water spots on the kitchen ceiling. Panic sets in, we need a new roof.

On Monday I called the guy who had inspected our house before we bought it and he came out to check things out for us. He said the roof looks fine but there could be a few possibilities where the water came from.

1. The area around the vents on the roof may have some wind damage and need to be resealed

2. The duct work in the attic isn’t insulated well and there is some bare metal. Since we’ve had the AC on for a couple of weeks the duct work could be sweating and causing some damage.

3. For some reason when they installed the refrigerator icemaker they ran the tubing (copper) from the kitchen sink up to the attic and down the wall to the refrigerator which is also in the kitchen not too far from the sink. The copper tubing is corroded and there is some corrosion showing on the wood it’s resting on which could be from condensation.

His suggestions: Have someone look at the roof and reseal the vents. Have an AC guy insulate the duct work where there is no insulation. Replace the ice maker tubing and re-it through the back of the cabinets to the freezer.

The Roof:

This one actually went smoother than we expected. We called a roofer to request an estimate. I was told they’d have someone out sometime that week if the rain stopped. On Wednesday the roofer called and said he was coming. About 10 minutes later he was here and had someone up on the roof before we answered the door. He went up on the roof and was back in about 15 minutes. They sealed around all 4 vents and they guy was walking away when Don asked about payment. He said we’d get a bill. Don asked how much and he said, just the service call. We were mildly surprised and very happy about that one.


The Duct Work and the Problems Begin:

The woman who sold us the house had a service contract on the furnace and AC and we felt they knew the system so we called them. I told them we wanted an estimate for wrapping the duct work and to also do a system check while they were here. On Tuesday the guy comes out when he’s suppose to but he finds a wire in the furnace has the coating removed in some areas and the wire and coating is singed black. This same company was her replacing a capacitor on the AC in November before we made the purchase so why didn’t they notice the wire back then? The guy then goes into the attic and tells us we should have the duct work replaced. He can’t give us an estimate but will put in his recommendation and someone will call us around noon. Noon comes and goes and we haven’t heard anything. Finally around 3pm we get the call. He’ll be here on Thursday at 10am. You guessed it, 10am comes and goes and no sign of the guy and no phone call. Now we’re having severe storms again so I can understand someone being delayed or having to cancel all together but a phone call would be nice. After waiting 4 hours I’ve had enough and called another company who was to have someone out today. He said he’d call this morning to set up a time. I called the first company back and told them I was canceling the appointment and why. The owner calls back a few minutes later. He can send the guy right out if we want. Sorry, if he’s available to come right out, why isn’t he already here?

By 11:30am this morning we haven’t heard anything from the 2nd AC company. I call them to inquire what was going on and I’m told someone will call us back. About 40 minutes later we get the call, the person who was supposed to come out had medical emergency. I’m not that cold hearted I know emergencies come up and in those situations you may not be thinking clearly or thinking about work so I can ignore the fact that we didn’t get a call. I could even understand them having to reschedule since they were shorthanded today but the person on the phone says he’ll be out this afternoon. It’s now 9pm. We held dinner because we didn’t want to be in the middle of eating when he showed up.

When does “this afternoon” end? At what point do we realize nobody is showing up and call yet another company. How many companies do we have to go through before we realize they’re all alike? Is there a company out there that cares about their customers?