It seems that I’ve been dealing with a string of service people lately, just to get our house in tip-top shape. It’s been three years, going on four, since we’ve been living here and it’s time to do a bit of sprucing up. I’d like to start by saying, I will not name name’s to spare the company shame.

First up, a reputable lawn company. I’ve been using their services for a year now and have it set up where they call to let me know when they come so I can unlock the gate. I received the call and the lady let me know that they were coming to provide the service on the specified day. I agreed, led to believe it was part of my package I’ve paid for. When the service person shows up and hands me an invoice for $130, I was in shock. I quickly called them to let them know I had no idea I had to pay extra for this service since the representative on the phone did not specify it was something outside of my standard package. The operator patched me through the person I originally spoke to and told me, “it’s your job to find out if it costs extra.” I was led to believe that this was part of my package, never was it said it was an additional cost or extra service that was provided. Had I known, I would not have agreed to it. I promptly asked to speak with her manager, where he apologized for the miscommunication and gave me the service for half the cost.

Second issue, a large carpet cleaning company. I scheduled for the appointment to be on Friday and was told the window would be between 12 pm and 5 pm. That’s a huge window. Even Comcast gives a shorter window than that. As the day goes on and gets closer to 5 o’clock, I anxiously await the call to let me know that they’re on the way. Finally, at around 4:30 pm, I receive the call to let me know he’s in route and will be at the house in about 45 minutes. I set it up with my neighbor to have Sadie wait there while the cleaning is going on. Forty-five minutes has passed and still no one has showed up. It’s now way pass 5 o’clock and I give them a call to ask the whereabouts of the technician. I’m told he’ll be another twenty minutes and it will take approximately 2 hours to clean the three areas. What?! I had a family dinner scheduled for 7:30 pm so I had no time to wait for him to show up and clean. Therefore I reschedule for the following day, not too happy. Lucky for me, I’m the first in line for the technician and he cleans extra rooms for me, so all is made up and the carpet looks great.

Third and final issue, a bee removal company that rates an “A” with the BBB. Most recently, I’ve noticed a swarm of bees between the first and second story of the house. I mean a huge swarm where I can hear the buzzing from the sidewalk. I start doing my research to find a way to get rid of them because I don’t want a huge hive in the house. After days of researching, I come across one that is fairly priced and rated highly with the BBB, so I schedule an appointment with him for 1 pm. It is now 2 o’clock and I still have yet to see him or hear from him, so I can give him a buzz to see what his ETA is. He tells me he’s in Sugar Land and it’s pouring rain and was going to come after it finished raining, saying he thought I lived in Sugar Land. I inform him, in fact, that it is NOT raining and he could come now. However, a few minutes after I hang up, it starts coming down so I call him back to let him know to wait. After the rain passes, I call him back to let him know he can come and that he should’ve called me at 1 to ask if it was indeed raining on my side. The truth comes out, he tells me he actually forgot that I was scheduled for 1 o’clock and he’ll be heading over soon, this is about 2:30 pm. It is now 4:10 pm and he has yet to show up or call. I am peeved and call another bee remover to try to schedule an appointment. I did not want to waste another minute of my time with the first person if he didn’t have the guts to call me to let me know he was running late. Then suddenly, I hear a ring at the door and it’s the bee remover guy, 3.5 hours late! I step out and state, “You’re a little late.” He gives me an excuse saying he was caught up in something and I tell him, “All you had to do is give me a call and let me know.” He apologizes and gets to work.

How hard or difficult is it for a person to tell the truth or pick up the phone? If your livelihood depends on dealing with people, wouldn’t you want to make sure they are happy so you get referrals and repeat business? It blows my mind how difficult it is for some people to understand this concept.