Why I Am a Bad Person
The contractors did not show up on Monday as expected.Tuesday afternoon, my wife emailed to let me know that again no contractors had shown up.
Last week I asked the supervisor to call me Monday afternoon to give me an update on the progress. He took my number and said he would call.
I got no call.
And this is where I begin to get upset.
I simply cannot stand it when people I am paying fail to do what they are supposed to do, and then lie, deceive, or otherwise pass blame off on others. I wasn't upset that they didn't show up, especially if they had a good reason, but why didn't they call?
They didn't call because they are afraid to take responsibility for whatever had transpired. They were afraid to be chewed out or questioned or blamed, so they just acted like an 8 year old child and avoided the whole situation.
This happens quite often, usually at the hands of shop clerks, but the most hilarious example took place about 4 years ago when I had to get part of my center console and electrical system repaired because some ass-smelling-shit-head stole my sweet car CD player.
After retreiving my car from the shop on Friday evening, I noticed that the console lights, heat, and air conditioning controls did not work. Basically everything attached to the new console was not working.
Before heading back to the auto shop on Monday, I had a new car stereo installed on Saturday. On Monday at the auto shop I explained what happened in detail, and it turns out that the power cable behind the console was unplugged.
The guy sat there next to me and insisted that the car stereo installer must have unplugged the cable. I repeatedly explained that the console wasn't working a full 20 hours before I had the stereo installed.
Yet he persisted, ...and I snapped.
I told him to just take fucking responsibility for it. I'm not an idiot. I know that heat was not coming out of the vents and lights were not lighting up, and this was mere minutes after I left their shop on Friday. I experienced the same problem all Friday night and all Saturday morning.
I said that I wasn't even pissed about it. So the cable came undone or was never installed right, I dont know, I don't care. No big deal. Just don't tell me that it was working when I was sitting right there watching it not work.
He lowered his head and said, "All I know is that it was working." He still couldn't admit it. He still couldn't let go of his belief that the stereo installer was at fault and that I was lying or so stupid that I could not tell if my heater and lights were working.
Anyway, ...back to the contractors.
I called the service manager on Tuesday afternoon and they told me they had expected the contractor to show up on Tuesday, but not on Monday. (Arrrgh ...then why no call?!??!) They said his wife has some sort of medical problem and was rushed to the hospital for some sort of major surgery.
Ok. But I was still upset that they did not call. Also, they appeared to have very little control over their contractor because he did not show up for work and they didn't know about it.
I explained that we are trying to schedule a time when we can have a new garage door and opener installed, and that we need to know when the contractor will be done.
The service manager reacted to this information with befuddled annoyance. It's as if the magic words "major surgery" gets them off from performing their contractual obligations. I did have sympathy for the contractor, but I did not express it to her, and that seemed to annoy her.
Am I a bad person for expecting to be informed when people aren't going to be where they told me they would be? Am I a bad person for expecting the company to complete their contractual obligations even when a worker has a personal issue to attend to? Does the contractor's personal life trump everything else? I didn't sign a contract with the contractor, I signed it with their company, and now they are trying to "step out of it" and put it all on me and the contractor.
I would have none of that. I instructed her to call him and find out when he's going to make it back to my garage, and she bitterly agreed to do so, but added that she will call me back "when she hears from him."
So, if he never calls, I never heard from her?
As the service manager, it's her responsibility to make sure the job gets done. If she has to assign a new person to finish it up, then that's what she must do. But if I hadn't made a stink over it, nothing would have happened.
No calls, nothing.
Incidentally, she had someone else call me today and let me know that he will be back on the job tomorrow night, and that he will talk to me about his schedule (I guess I'm functioning as his manager now, ...do I get paid for it?).
I'll make sure to express some sympathy to him personally.
See, I'm not so bad.
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