Thoughts in the USA

Jimmy Scott

And now I understand what she was saying.

We first experienced it with the S&G screw-up. While the installers themselves were hardworking, caring and truly professional, the sales guys at S&G never bothered to apologize for their mistake and the total lack of caring. Their way of showing any kind of remorse was to assure us over the phone, "Ah, we'll give you a lot of free stuff for cleaning and protecting your floors". Yeah... They did give us one mop, which I now realize we should have rejected with disdain. (Yes, I shamefully admit, we took it. Big, HUGE mistake on our account).

Now, it's - the electrician. I am so pissed at him that he shall not even get a blog name!

After several times of calling him for an estimate, and having been blissfully ignored by him, he finally arrived at our house on Friday morning (well, closer to noon, and not before a cranky were-are-you call made to him by The JohnnyB). He was armed with what I still think is an outrageously high estimate, but I am told that "this is how it is here". Whatever.

He came with 2 helpers. Let's all go back to elementary school, and count together: one electrician plus two helpers - that makes three. Three people, several hours.

We clearly asked them to do certain things first.

The guy clearly said "Sure, sure, we'll do it first, Ha Ha Ha".

We clearly believed him.

They clearly didn't finish even one damn thing!

They ran under and around the house, making busy sounds. The electrician with one helper spent a couple of hours under the house (I wonder if they didn't go down under with a portable TV and just sat there, watching it), while the second helper leisurely drilled and cut holes into our walls in between conversations on his cellualr. They left for a lengthy lunch, and came back.

In the afternoon, I was starting to wonder, as nothing seemed to be in progress.

Around 4pm, we got a report that they need to resolve one problem in the bedroom (one open hole), and that the hole they cut for the cables was in the wrong place. About 1 foot wrong, so the wire cannot be fished through it.

"WTF?", I turned my wondering eyes to The JohnnyB.

"They are not walking away", he reassured me. "They still have 3-4 hours to finish up".

Ah, sweet optimism...

As soon as he finished his sentence, they started to take off their Ninja work suits and got back to looking presentable.

And as they were leaving, The JohnnyB and myself gazing at them with astonishment, the electrician kept walking around, saying "Looking good!". We walked through the house to see if anything was even remotely close to being finished in my studio (4 open holes), but the walls gazed back at us, full of holes for switches and jacks, all open to suggestions. "Looking good!", he shined again like an idiot, as I stared at my studio floor, that was half covered with all their equipment. I was almost in tears - both fury and frustration.

Now, The JohnnyB, who often gets very assertive and impatient at work, bashing into big idiot managers and giving everyone large pieces of his mind, becomes very nice when it comes to people who actully deserve to get a taste of assertiveness. Especially when it comes to people who take advantage of his niceness.

As for me...

One of the things that really get to me is to be stepped on or played with, while having my intelligence disregarded.

I was pissed. Nice, but pissed.

"So, the television is not going to be hooked today?", I asked.

"No", muttered the electrician, losing some of his enthusiasm. At least he was decent enough to say, "Oh, yes, you asked that we do it today".

"Yes, we did", I assured him.

"Oh yes", he showed an amazing ability to recover back to his cheery self, "so John can watch his football game" (The JohnnyB never watches football, but I wasn't going to point that out to the genius). Turning to The Johnny, he smiled, "Ah, yes, football, you can go to B.J.'s and watch it on full screen Ha Ha Ha".

"And", I added through my teeth, "You are not going to close any of the holes in the studio wall today?".

"No", he admitted, scratching his head and looking at me as if I were the greatest nuisance on earth.

He was starting to get the notion that we might be, like, maybe, not so very happy with him, Ha Ha Ha.

"It's getting dark", he said, "our flashlights are only good for one hour, so we cannot work under the house now".

I gave up. After all, what could I do? Force them under the house and close the lid to the crawl space until they are done? (tempting, I admit, but not quite acceptable, I presume).

He followed the disappointed The JohnnyB and me to the living room (2 open holes and mess on the new floor).

"Maybe you need an extension cord?", he said hopefully. "I can give you one for free. Fancy one, Ha Ha Ha".

"No", said The JohnnyB coldly. (Finally!)

"Fancy one! You sure you don't need?".

"No!".

And then I understood.

That's how tradesmen say "I'm sorry for messing up". They offer you free stuff, mostly of minimal nominal value, hoping it will atone for screw-ups and make people think they are generous. Everyone likes a freebie, right?

Nope.

And this is someone recommended by Angie's List to be highly professional and good!

The scary thing is that, when I complained to a couple of American friends here, and to The JohnnyB (lengthily), I got this: "Ah, but this is how it is. There are so few tradesmen in this area, that even if they do crap job, they will still get a lot of work. You should be thankful that they even come back!".

How encouraging to realize that the road to mediocrity is one big mutli-lane freeway, with no speed limit.

They are coming back tomorrow.

Ha Ha Ha.