I called Freddy's Painting to get an estimate on sheetrock damage from a busted air conditioner. The lady at their office took all my information and was very professional, set me up an appointment for the following Wednesday between 1-2 p.m.
Have you ever seen the Seinfeld classic where they're waiting in the Chinese restaurant forever for a table? At one point the host calls out, "Cartwright!" which they all ignore, since the reservation is under George's last name of Costanza. A few minutes later when George checks on the table, the guy tells him he called out "Cartwright!" but no one answered, so he dropped the reservation and moved on. The fact that George's last name is not Cartwright does nothing to persuade him.
I make mention of this because around 12:30 p.m. on said Wednesday, I received a phone call in which the caller said, "Mike?" I responded that there was no Mike here, at which point they said it must be the wrong number and hung up.
About 2:30 p.m. I called Freddy's to ask what was going on, as no estimator had arrived, and the following conversation ensued:
Me: "Yes, I had an appointment for between 1-2 p.m. today for an estimate on some repairs, and they didn't show up."
Them: "What's your name.'
Me: "Nick XXXXXX."
Them: "Oh, wait, what's your phone number?"
Me: "XXX-XXX-XXXX."
Them: "Oh, our inspector called that number and they said it was the wrong number, was that you?"
Me: "I had a wrong number asking for Mike, but they didn't say they were with your company or ask anything about the estimate."
Them: "Oh, well when you told them it was a wrong number, they closed the job because you didn't confirm it."
Me: "I didn't confirm it because they asked for Mike. My name isn't Mike, it's Nick."
Them: "Can you confirm you gave us the right number? Are you sure it's XXX-XXX-XXXX?"
Me: "Yes, I'm calling you from that number right now. You can see it on your caller ID."
Them: "OK, well sometimes it's hard to hear when we take information about an estimate, so we might have gotten confused on whether it was MIke or Nick. You should have maybe been thinking that someone calling you would be the estimator and known that they had the wrong name."
Me: "How am I supposed to know that someone calling me and asking for Mike is actually a person looking for me? They didn't say where they were from or who they were with, they said they had the wrong number and hung up."
Them: "Well, you could have asked them where they were from, but if you don't tell them it's you, they have to close the job."
Me: "I couldn't tell them it was me, because my name isn't Mike. If they had called me by my name, I would have said yes, that's me."
Them: "Oh, well I can call the estimator and see if he's still in the area and call you back."
24 hours later, they have not called back. Makes it easy to scratch them off my list of contractors, though. read more