No Southern Hospitality

I had a lovely day on Wednesday--until I talked to Clay's former company. This is the HVAC firm I directed Ms. Betty to call for service, as Clay--who absolutely ROCKS--was busy installing a brand-new unit on my Fultondale home.

I have used this company for years. They have been to a good portion of my homes. When I call them, they have always stepped up.

It had been two days and I hadn't heard anything about the air conditioner from anyone. Nobody called me asking for payment. Ms. Betty, surprisingly unavailable for the first time since she started renting from me, hasn't responded to my e-mails, phone calls and the carrier pigeon I sent out.

My imagination was starting to feed me bits of negativity. What if the Betty's just skipping on me, instead of getting this fixed? What if I had another trashed home without a working air conditioner on my hands? I wasn't sure I was up to any more drama this early in the month. After a final attempt at Ms. Betty, I opted to call the AC company to verify the work had been done.

What a relief! It turns out this company went out to Ms. Betty's home. And, they managed to put a new thingy-gizmo on the unit for a beyond reasonable price. However, they hadn't called me for authorization or payment. If they had called me, I certainly would have authorized it. However they didn't. They took upon themselves just to fix it.

Because the AC company and I worked together for this long, I wasn't really bothered by the lack of communication for this particular incident. However, I wouldn't want this to happen again, lest next time it is a more expense thingy-gizmo or--Heaven forbid--a gadget, that breaks. So, in a proactive move with the person I was on the phone with, I opted to ask if there was some note that could be put in my file saying there must be authorization first, so there wouldn't be a "next time."

The person, obviously not the authority figure du jur, quickly put me on hold and put on the office manager instead. The office manager, completely misreading the situation, greeted me with a gruff: "So you are unhappy we fixed your air conditioner? How about if just go back out there and take it back off your house instead?"

Though I wasn't unhappy with the company until that very moment, my tolerance for BS is currently at an all-time low. Completely startled by this guy I replied with an equally snotty, "Why don't you just cut the sarcasm and actually listen to why I am calling? I wasn't annoyed with anyone until you got on the phone."

This got his attention and a few softened, "This is certainly not the way we do business.... We are so sorry ma'am, we should have called you first. I will speak to the technician..." type of responses. Too late, one annoying HVAC office manager later and I am through.

Looks like Clay made the right choice to jump ship. I think I will too.