Gimmie a crisis, I can handle it. Bucket of blood, fine. Toxic chemical spill, I'm on it.
Whole lotta little stupid things, I'm on the floor in a weeping ball.
Work continues to be a problem remotely.
The contractor didn't quite finish the kitchen job, but doesn't want to come back to do so.
The rat room is full of ants.
The network connection died. (Work is more of a problem remotely.)
One funny thing happened: when I first saw the ants, I didn't realize the invasion had spread through all the cages. I saw them in the frat boys' cage first, so I took the boys into my bedroom so I could clean their cage. Unsupervised, the boys like to gnaw on my cherry Queen Anne dresser, the only nice piece of furniture I own. So I grabbed a bottle of Fooey and gave the dresser a coating of denotonium benzoate, the most bitter substance in the known universe. Then I washed my hands three times, because this stuff is pervasive.
To my rats, denotonium benzoate must taste like pumpkin pie. They went right for the dresser.
Later, as I was freaking out over the ants and the computer and the contractor, it struck me that I oughta eat something...that maybe my lack of coping mechanism was blood sugar-related. I had a piece of fruit.
It tasted like denotonium benzoate.
Update:
The contractor saga isn't an epic horor story like most contractor sagas. It's another small thing. The guy from the Corian fabricator came today to make the template for the counter. He said we needed a wood frame all around the perimeter of the cabinets. All it's going to take to do this is some 1x2s and some screws; if I borrowed a saw, I could do it. But the whole reason I'm shelling out the bucks for contractors is that I don't like doing work like this.
Anyway, when I called the contractor this morning, I was really expecting them to say "Oh, we'll have someone come by and take care of that this afternoon," or maybe, "We're jammed today, but we can do it tomorrow," or something accomodating like that. Now, I didn't talk to the owner today, I talked to the guy I'm thinking is his XO, and I learned something important when my ex was in the Navy: the XO's job is to be the asshole. So maybe he was just doing his job, and if I talk to the boss tomorrow everything will turn out fine. But I'm not going to set myself up by hoping for that.
XO wouldn't actually call the boss about this, he only said he'd give him the message. This was at 9:45. When I called back in the afternoon, I tried to explain why I'm being the Customer from Hell: I need to know when they can come fix this, because I can't take off work at the drop of a hat right now. I need advance planning. I wasn't demanding they finish the stuff today, I just wanted to schedule it, not leave it up in the air. XO did not understand my position at all.
When XO called back a couple of hours later, he said he'd talked to the boss, and the boss doesn't think I even need this extra perimeter support. I read XO exactly what the Corian guy wrote on the papers he left (i.e., "needs full support around perimeter") and gave XO the name and number of the Corian fabricators. When XO called back, he said that they and the Corian people would resolve it and he'd let me know, but that he wasn't back in the office until next Wednesday.
At that point, I was really getting pissed that the contractor seems to be trying the weasle out of finishing the work. And the more people I moaned to about this this afternoon, the more they started saying things like "Make sure they don't do anything that violates your warranty for the counter" and "Wasn't meeting the fabricator's specs part of the contract?"
My contract is with a Big Box Chain Hardware Store. I'm paying a Big Box Chain Hardware Store. In fact, BBCHS called me this morning (about five minutes after I'd left the first message with XO) to find out when I'd be paying for the cabinet install, and at least I had the foresight to say "When they finish the job."
So I called BBCHS late this afternoon, got a person with an actual name and title, and explained the situation. She said she'd be in touch with the contractor and the fabricator and let me know tomorrow what is going on. I've been somewhat underwhelmed by the BBCHS's customer service so far, though.
I think the thing that bums me out the most is that when the job started, I really liked the contractor. He seemed efficient, he was friendly; on Monday the workers got farther along than they expected and were even sweeping up the hallway before they left. I asked for an extra business card for someone my mom knows who needs some remodeling work. Now I'm afraid that I am, in their eyes, Customer from Hell, and I still need not only this job, but the reconnects after the counter is installed. Can I trust them to finish the job right if I've had to bitch?
Plus, of course, it destroys my faith in humanity that the contractor I thought was so good turns out to be as slackass as everyone else I've had to deal with lately. And as I sat in the half-finished kitchen crying this afternoon, I know it's stupid, but I'm crushed that something that I was counting on to make me happy, a bright spot, is turning into the same huge stress and disappointment that the rest of life is right now.
Posted by Nic at May 26, 2005 03:42 PMDon't worry about being the customer from hell, just let the hardware chain know in no uncertain terms that you're not paying a cent until it's done to your satisfaction. And since the corian guy put it in writing, it's a neccessity, not a 'nice to have' thing.
You're paying a lot of money to have this work done. They better act like it. What's with the crappy customer service everyone's getting lately?
Posted by: Ted at May 27, 2005 06:37 AM