Saturday AM - I noticed the hot water heater leaking. As I am one of those evil renters you guys like to hate, I called the property manager within minutes of their opening and informed them. I got a call from a plumber about half an hour later saying that he'd be out here at 3. Around 5, I called and asked for an update. He stated that he was 1.5 hours away and wouldn't make it here until Sunday.

Sunday - We set a time (between 2-3) and he kept it. He was here for about 2.5 minutes and said, "You need a new water heater." Yeah, I kinda knew that. Actually my landlord needs a new water heater, but I wasn't going to quibble. Because he needed authorization from the property manager, there was nothing he could do today.

Monday - I called the property manager this morning within 5 minutes of them opening. The agent that deals with our place was completely unaware of the happenings this weekend, but she promised to check on it. I told her I needed 1/2 hour lead time to get home. Fifteen minutes later, I got a call from some woman purporting to be with the plumber. She sounded pretty annoyed that I needed a half hour lead time, but she said, "He's on his way to another job. That should take 30-45 minutes, so here's your half hour." It's now 1.5 hours later, and no plumber in sight.

I realize that your time is important. My problem is that you don't seem to think mine is important. I know that you're not making any money off of me if you're on the phone, but would a little common courtesy kill you? Am I being unreasonable? My entire qualification to do my job rests on me being within +/- 60 seconds over the drop zone.

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Where's my dad's America?

Get used to it. Its modern America. Where everyone is selfish and puts their own self interest over every one else. Then they wonder why they're going out of business, no one wants to use what they feel is their excellent service and work. Don't bother bad mouthing them, or wasting your time telling them how to do their job. They know how they want to work, and just because you waste 2 or 3 hours waiting for them to show is of no concern.

Chalk this up to another advantage of being a home owner. You've been paying for water heaters and other appliances every month for years. If it had been your house, you'd have hauled over to Home Despot, bought the one with the prettiest paint, put it in the back of your pickup and headed home. On the way you'd have phoned a buddy or two so they could help you drink that 12 pack. Then moving the new one in and the old one out would have only taken a few minutes each. The solder joints would have been quick, and the gas even faster. Presto, hot water in an hour or two, and for half as much as the plumber would have charged. Maybe less.

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Dick Burg

You get the same runaround as a homeowner, only cutting out the middle man!

Well let me tell you about the service man side of the story. I owned a well pump buisness and 50% of our work was service work. A service truck must have vastly more tools and parts and a far higher skilled technition than a new installer. Second consider the call the service buisness recieves. My water heater is leaking. As a buisness owner I have seen it all more times than I care to mention. I send my very expensive man to the owners home who has not budgeted for this type of repair so IF I get paid I usually have to wait to be paid. When my man drives for say a hour to get there I as a buisness owner I already have $100 tied up in the repair before he opens his door. We walk into peoples lives at this time. Half naked children running wild, smellY cat boxes, angry aggressive dog nipping at my heels. I get to the basement and find the overflow valve is dribbling. A simple repair done in @15 minutes. Now I have to pay for my tech to drive an hour home. The customer hits the roof, why is my bill so high you were here only 15 minutes? When we get to the office in the morning we would have a few service calls, say 3 people out of water. How do you schedule appointment for the day when you dont know if the first service call will be a 15 minute pressure switch change out or the pump itself is burned out and requires a trip back to the shop to get an appropriate pump and 6 hours of labor to change out. I know I would tell my customers why I couldnt guarentee a time and if we could we would contact them 1/2 hour before we arrived and would do our best to be there on a specific day and will try to keep them updated on my previous service job. Give the customer a call, no answer, drive out to the job site, everything locked up. These are some of the problems of a service based buisness.

All I ask if you are going to be late or can not come today a simple, short telephone call--Please?

30-30Remchester;

I have worked in the water supply industry for the past 20+ years: Commercial & residential water well drilling, pumping system installation, service and repair, etc.

That said, your response was highly abbreviated!

We work very, very hard to make our customers happy, but when it comes to scheduling, there are SO many variables that the only customer assured of a specific time . . . is the first one of the day! It should be noted that we also make every effort to communicate effectively with each customer from initial contact thru project completion.

If you are the first emergency service call of the day (must specify emergency and be expecting to pay for expedited service in the bill), you have a good chance the tech will show on time.

If you are a renter, unless you are paying the bill, good luck. They are normally at the bottom of the priority list from what I have seen.

I have been on both sides of the service deal, it isn't fun or very profitable dealing directly with consumers. Gov't contracts are a whole nother story.....

Thanks for the answer. I understand that your time is money. That's why I think 3 appointments and 2 trips out here was excessive and non-productive for both of us. If you have questions about how bad the heater is leaking or where it is leaking from, ask me. If we make a deal for a phone call, and I don't answer (hasn't happened yet), don't come out here. I'm good with that.

Note that I wasn't asking for a time guarantee on Saturday. I understand that 3:00 could be squishy. I changed my schedule to be available. (Life happens. I get it.) However, my irritation comes from not being called when it became obvious that Saturday wasn't going to happen.

Unrelated--I have been told before to be at home for a 4-hour block of time only to have the serviceman be a no-show.

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Where's my dad's America?

My main problem with service, either for the home, the car, the doctors office, etc. is that I always set up for the first appointment of the day even it's 3 AM. I will be at home with the coffee on, at the doctor's office, tire shop, or garage 15 minutes before my scheduled appointment time.

I probably can count on one hand the times that I have seen at before the appointment time in 5 years. I understand that if you schedule other than first for the day you probably will be waiting looong time until you get your service done.

My problem with this is I purposely set up the very first appointment of the day....How, is it good business to be late on your very first appointment??

I was in customer service for 40 yrs. You can blame service mgrs, beepers and cell phones for missed appointments. Service mgrs. seem to feel they know how long every job should take. Every job is just a bit different, some may take quite a bit longer to complete than expected. That slows your time to appear on the next job. Add to that a cell phone call from a dispatcher wanting you to fit in another service call before an appointment because "you're in the neighborhood." I worked for one company for 35 yrs. When I started in '68 there were 120 service people on the road in and around Chicago. Last time I checked as of now there's about 25.

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SOS USA

The simple way to fix the customer service problem is for the contractor to "do what you say your going to do". Customer - pay the man.

If you as a service person can't make the call in the time frame given - call. Don't want to hear about this problem or that or your wifes is giving you a bad time or your kid needs to go to baseball practice or the dog needs to go to the vet - do what you say your going to do, period. You don't want to do that - get out of the business. Don't show up - you lose a customer. If you lose enough customers you don't have to start the truck in the morning and worry about "that first customer." Pretty simple stuff.

I've had service techs tell me they'll be here between 8 and noon and, if no one's home, I'll be charged for a service call. I respond that I'll be here between 8 and noon and, if they don't call and don't show, I'll send them a bill for my time. I'm expensive!

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VIVERE MILITARE EST

Yes, but it isn't their junk that needs fixed, it is yours!

Good luck with your needed repairs.

sounds like dealing with the local cable tv outfit. at least you got to talk to an american,speaking in a language you could understand. also, i totally agree with you.