Saturday, September 08, 2007
...Let The Saga Begin...
Monday morning, the floor installers arrive.
And we've been working like crazy towards this: packing and packing and packing and detaching wires and packing and taking nails off the walls (so no eyes are poked) and filling boxes and moving furniture and packing...
Now, all this, hmm, packing, is stressful enough, and The JohnnyB and I am not at the peak of our friendliness these days. So, the last thing we need is for S&G to screw up, Eh? Which they cannot, right? After all, how can they screw up before they even started?
Ah - never underestimate the potential of anybody!
We are using the baseboards made of MDF (M-something D-something Fiberboard), which can be painted to match the color of the walls. After seeing the insane price of laminate baseboards, and getting scared by the crappy look of plastic baseboards, learning about the existence of these babies made me very very happy.
Now, even I, a highly impractical person, figured out it makes sense to paint them before they are installed, right? Coz then we can just touch up the paint to remove nailing marks and black fingerprints, right? For that, we need the baseboards to be dropped at our house, right? Simple, even?
Nope.
8 days ago, the baseboards finally arrived, accompanied by the chief installer. Nice enough man, who kept telling me how much work we will have to do packing with all the stuff we have (OK, my studio is indeed packed with - wait, no, it's not crap! I prefer to call it tools of the trade, even if I collect old bags of rice for creating texture!). He scanned the house, made sure he understands what needs to be done, gave me one last pitiful look, and drove away, leaving me in a cheery mood.
On Labor Day, we decided to put some labor into it (Ha - sooooooooo funny!). The JohnnyB opened the first pack of baseboards, and sighed deeply, reverting to some juicy Arabic cussing (yeah, I teach him a lot!).
"They gave us the wrong ones".
"What d'ya mean?"
"These are not the ones we ordered", he repeated impatiently (da man hates it when I ask a question that is remotely similar to the one asked within a month before).
"Ah, maybe we can still use them? they can't be that diffe - - - ", and then I choked.
Sweet mother of the baseboards - the ones we ordered were very simple, with a clean profile, on the verge of elegant (well, one can only expect so much from baseboards...). The ones I was gazing at with sheer horror were, well, anything but. They had thingies! Y'know, thingies! Adorned by three or four ornate round thingies, the baseboards gazed at me with garish pride.
The JohnnyB packed them back nicely into their package, making sure to have them neatly put back. 'cause he is a nice guy.
On Tuesday, I called the store.
"Oh yes, I see they dropped the wrong ones", said S&G guy #1. "OK, Ma'am, we'll call you back".
I searched desperately for a filament of apology, a slight notion of regret in his indifferent voice - nothing!
On Thursday, I called the store.
"Ah, but you did not speak to me", replied S&G guy #2 to my complaint. "I will have S&G guy #1 call you in 15 minutes".
3 hours later, I called the store - and got acquainted with S&G guy #3. (Joy, so many new friends!)
"Ah, S&G guy #1 is having lunch now. We do not deliver baseboards. Do you want to pick them up?".
"Well, you apparently do deliver", I educated him, "as you delivered the wrong ones. We need them replaced".
"Can you hold one moment please?", he asked a rhetorical question, and left me with a lot of recorded words of self-appraisal. After I learned everything I could about how amazing S&G is (hey, they say so themsellves!), he got back to me. "OK, Ah, S&G guy #1 said they will bring the baseboards on Monday when they arrive".
"And when are we supposed to paint them?", I crescendoed.
"Ah, well, Ma'am, you see, they are putting the baseboards at the end anyway", he enlightened me, "so you'll have time to do it while they are doing the other stuff".
"No, we will not have the time nor the space to paint them next week", I said through clenched teeth, "I called you about it 2 days ago and today, and yet you never got back to me!".
"OK, S&G guy #1 will call you - he is now with a customer".
"Will he?", I sarcasmed.
"Yes", was the offended reply.
S&G guy #2 (not S&G guy #1) called back in 5 minutes. "The baseboards will be dropped tomorrow between 12:30 and 1pm".
The day after (AKA tomorrow), at 2:30pm, I called the store. Dunno which S&G replied, and I couldn't care less at that point.
"Oh, he is on his way, he'll be there before 3pm!".
At 3:45, a truck backed into the driveway, and a new guy started unloading 2 packages of nicely packed baseboards. Then, he took 2 additional ones that were shoved on top of a bunch of carpet samples, and apparently had a rough ride.
"This one is chipped", I showed him.
"Ah, you can sand and caulk and prime and paint them", he said with joy. "Nobody'll see it. By the way, why did you need them today?".
"So that we can paint them!?", I informed him with an emphasized Duh! intonation.
"You want to paint them before they put them in???", he asked, apparently shocked by the mere idea, looking at me as if I were the most insane person on this galaxy.
"No, we want to paint them after they are installed, so I can lie flat on the brand new floor and get a chance to spill paint on the new laminate and the new vinyl", I replied (but alas - only in my mind).
At 5:30, The JohnnyB came home, to a very angry lovely wife. (yes, I can be both at the same time).
"OK, now it's your turn to talk to them!", I exclaimed.
This time, a woman answered. The JohnnyB informed her that we got a chipped baseboard, and that yes, we can try to sand-caulk-prime-paint it, but hey, we are paying them, so why should we do all that?
"S&G guy #1 is not here", she said.
"OK", said The JohnnyB, somewhat defeated, "have him call me tomorrow".
We spent the evening painting baseboards, avoiding the chipped one. A series of 12 baseboards. Two coats. Fascinating project, obviously... Today, in between frantic packing, I reminded The JohnnyB to call S&G guy #1 (who, surprisingly, did not call back!). He called, but S&G guy #1 was just out to lunch (hmm... that guy eats a lot, and very often), and will call him back.
2 hours later, The JohnnyB called S&G, informed them that they need to make sure the installers bring a brand new unchipped baseboard with them on Monday, and feedbacked them "you know, you are not very good on returning calls".
He was quiet for a while, listening to a bunch of excuses coming from the other side of the line, and proceeded to let them know it's important to, like, call back, when they promise to do so.
And you know what's amuses me the most?
While they put you on hold, they have this recorded phone message that informs you with a deep radiophonic voice, "S&G has been exceeding or meeting customers expectations for over 40 years" .
Hmm... no wonder they say "Has been", and not "is".
I am now working hard on myself to detaching all that from the installers. I truly hope the installation itself will not yield a whole new bunch of venting blogposts.
Just for the record, I did my share of the painting as well, fair and square. However, The JohnnyB does not believe in mixing business and photography, hence he's the only one who got digitally documented.
Labels: This Old House, Venting
# posted by Nava @ 2:51 PM 
Comments:
oh boy Nava
this sounds like the beginning of, do I dare say, a nightmare!
I'm frustrated for you.
Just try to imagaine how lovely it'll all look when it's done!
:)
# posted by 
: 9/09/2007 8:13 PM
"S&G has been exceeding or meeting customers expectations for over 40 years"
So the trick is for the customers to have very low expectations... and it's easy to see how that can happen!
Just for the record, I'd like to point out that I recommended Carpet Club. I did not recommend S&G. I have used both.
Thanks for the support, Rhonda, and the practical advice, Blueberry.
As for the 'told ya so', CherkyB, let's first see how the installers do, before writing S&G off...
Not to detract from your other posts or commemorate your hardship, but this has to be my favorite post you've ever written.
Daniel, Hmm... not sure you actually read every post I've ever written, but - I am flattered (and fluttering my eyelashes). :-)
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this sounds like the beginning of, do I dare say, a nightmare!
I'm frustrated for you.
Just try to imagaine how lovely it'll all look when it's done!
:)
# posted by : 9/09/2007 8:13 PM
: 9/09/2007 8:13 PM So the trick is for the customers to have very low expectations... and it's easy to see how that can happen!
As for the 'told ya so', CherkyB, let's first see how the installers do, before writing S&G off...
