Two More to the List

OK. I forgot about my experiences with FedEx while we were on the run from the fires. That was another customer disservice nightmare. And as of yesterday we can add a local heating company to the mix.

Our furnace has been off since we evacuated. I shut off the gas and the pilot before we left. She-who-is-wise wants to have a professional give it a tune-up and relight it. Unfortunately, the weather is now cold enough at night to need heat. So, I did some searching and found a local guy who got good reviews on Kudzu.com and set up an appointment.

I had to work from home that day because they all give a window of times. Well, he missed the first time, but he called to let me know. I went from 9-1 to 2-4. At 3:50, my phone rang again. He was on an emergency job. He wasn't going to be able to make it. Apparently, it is possible to have a heating emergency in a restaurant that trumps a home with no heat. He wanted to reschedule me to the following day. Grrrrrr. I explained that I had to stay home from work one day already and couldn't really do it again. He felt badly about this and said he would come by when the emergency was over and he would give us a discount. Would 7 or 8 work? Fine. I asked him to call my cell before he came and one of us would bail out of rehearsal and get home to let him in.

At 9 p.m. he still had not called. So, we bundled under the blankets for another night. Had he called, been super apologetic, and offered to do the work for free, I might have given him another shot. But he stood us up three times in one day, the last after finding out he made me miss work for nothing. You'd think he would at least call.

That's the mildest of my bad customer service stories. Tune in next time for FedEx, as that one seems like it is complete. Each of the other three has gotten additional info since I last posted.