When Cliff died, the business was taken over by Armondo (aka "Mondo"), who has run the business into the ground. Mondo is not a business man and is not even a good worker, but somehow, seemingly against his will, has assumed ownership as he works to pay off Cliff's family for the business. My store first started doing business with Cliff's Glass shortly after Cliff died. I have well over 14,000 pounds of glass in my place of business and needed a local business I could count on.
When asked the hours of operation of Cliff's Glass, Mondo said, "We'll, we're open for Neil 5:00, but we stop work at 4:00 to drink a few beers at the end of the day."
The office was a shambles, and the work area was filthy with dusty and broken glass, as well as haphazardly lain glass propped up against all sorts of places creating a dangerous environment.
Our initial engagement was quick and satisfactory--a small job to cut glass shelves for a display case--but even then, Mondo seemed very disorganized, lackadaisical, and surprisingly unenthusiastic about landing a potentially lucrative business account.
mover the next couple of years, that lackadaisical attitude continued each and every time I tried to patronize his business. When we had an emergency where one the storefront windows was smashed, Mondo was noncommittal on a response time and wouldn't quote a price--we were forced to engage another glass business who, although they were a little pricy, responded to our emergency immediately and professionally.
On another occasion, when I needed six sliding glass doors cut for a 3 unit display case, Mondo, upon sending his men to measure, cut the doors too short. After leaving messages for him for over a week, I had to disassemble the cases and shim the tracks so that the doors would slide without falling out of the case on my customers.
Because of Mondo's unreliability, indifference, and down right incompetence, we began using a number of different local glass companies, but I felt bad for Mondo and his struggling business, who was basically just a worker thrown in to the deep end of the business world. I wanted to help him out where I could so he might eventually learn how to swim. To that end, I sent customers his way (I have over 65 dealers in my store who often need glass) and even sent him a job for my neighbor who needed 4 sets of sliding glass patio doors replaced. Somehow he messed up that job too.
Most recently, I wanted to have a custom piece of glass cut for an antique liquor cabinet I personally have in my home. I painstakingly measured and produced a cardboard template of the design. When I took the template to Cliff's Discount Glass, Mondo was not there, but the girl in the office was able to get him on the phone. I told Mondo what I wanted and that I had made a template. Mondo said he should be able to have it done within a couple of days. I left my number (yet again) and told him to call me with any questions that might arise.
After almost two weeks, I had not heard a word from Mondo. I began leaving messages, both on the answering machine and with anyone who answered. When I got through to someone last Friday (two months after dropping off the template) they said they would give me Mondo's cell phone number, which he was sure to answer. Since I was driving at the time and couldn't write it down, the person I was speaking to said they would text me the number--they never did.
Yesterday, I called again and surprisingly Mondo answered. He told me that the place he sends the job out to gave him a price of over $200 (his price), which he ASSUMED I wouldn't want to pay. I knew this wouldn't be a cheap piece of glass, and my budget on this project was $1000. We argued about why he hasn't returned my phone calls...I told him we could have had other options--I could have used regular glass instead of plate glass and doubled it up, or I could have supported the shelf in the middle, or I could have made the shelf in two sections, etc.. But in not even calling me, he didn't even give me any of those options. First he said that he couldn't find my number. Then, when I told him I had left my number every time I left a message with his people or his machine, AND that the girl wrote my number on the template, he told me he couldn't find my template. Then he argued that *I* didn't call *HIM* for almost 2 weeks after dropping off the template. Then he told me "What I have begun to tell my other customers is for them to call me." I told him I didn't care what he told his other customers, he should honor what he told me. Then, true to his predictable indifference, he said, "Well go somewhere else then." (Great customer service)
hiI said I intend to and that I was coming to get my template. He said he would have to look for it. I said he should start looking because I was coming right now so I could take to another glass business before they closed at 5:00. He said, "I'm closed." it was 4:02 His beer drinking time read more
