We had a pool installed in our back yard last month. Everything is done except for restringing the fence. We are fortunate enough to live in the county where our original 42" chain link is high enough. I’ve called a couple of places to get estimates and finally connected with one company. We set an appointment for noon. This was about 9:00 am the same day.
I rearranged my schedule so I could be at home at noon. Its 20 or 25 minutes each way, so if I want to eat anything I wind up being out of the office a minimum of 90 minutes. That’s 90 minutes I cannot get paid for. As an independent consultant time is literally money. This year’s rate is $80/hour. So the extra 30 minutes tacked on to my lunch “Costs” me $40. Not a lot in terms of my annual income. And I’m not really too upset about that.
What chaps my ass though, is the rudeness of the company representative to show up 35 minutes early and not even be there when I arrived. Normally on a Tuesday my wife wouldn’t have been home at that time, but we were fortunate that she was home this day. I just don’t understand the thinking that says its okay to make an appointment and then not honor it. I don’t really care if you are early. I made decisions, plans and expended some effort to meet the agreed upon time. You did not. You therefore are rude.
The icing on this particular cake is that the person representing the company tried to argue with my wife about whether we lived inside or outside the city limits. WE have tax papers and permits from the county clearly stating we live in the county and not the city. But this idiot knows more than the county or us.
I am going to enjoy calling them up and iterating the reasons why they aren’t going to get one dime of my money on this project.