Not pleased with the way this company does business, and I didn't even do business with them!…read moreHowever, I can tell you from my only interaction with the owner Mike Hicks that the business is ran by someone who lacks integrity, ethics, and a sense of community.
Because the weather finally hit spring, I took my vehicles to a car wash. And I didn't just get the wash that would take off the road grime, I did the $12 wash that would wax them. I went all out, which I normally don't do.
I came home one afternoon, and my neighbor's rental house was having the front steps refinished. The wind was blowing toward my house. The driveway is on the right-hand side of our house, only 20 feet away from the neighbor's front steps. The worker was sanding down the old steps. All the concrete dust was flying toward my house and it was sitting thick on both my cars parked there. I was ticked.
There was a CTI trailer sitting there. It had the phone number listed. I went and asked the worker if that number belonged to the owner. He said it did. He asked if there was a problem. I told him I wasn't pleased that all the concrete dust ended up on my cars. The kid was younger, maybe just a few years removed from high school. I told him he probably hadn't even considered the situation, that I wasn't mad at him... perhaps he hadn't been trained on this, but that I'd be talking to his boss about the need to add into the company protocol that, AS A COURTESY, neighbors could be advised so that they could move their cars. He apologized. Again, he probably didn't even know.
I called and left a message for the company.
Later that evening, about six hours after I called, I hadn't heard back. I wanted a resolution, so I called again. A man answered. I asked if he was Mike. He said he was. I introduced myself and said I was calling to try and resolve something. I mentioned that they were doing work next door, hadn't ever advised us as the neighbors that any work was going to be done, and as a result, our cars were covered in concrete dust. I was extremely polite, AT THIS POINT.
"I just figured I'd be remiss if I didn't call you and instead just let this fester," I said.
"What do you expect me to do about it?" he rudely replied. It wasn't just the words, it was the way he said it. Honestly, I was taken aback.
"Well, truth be told, I thought it would be important for you guys to know so you could add this to your procedures, as a courtesy to neighbors," I said.
"That's fine, what do you expect me to do about it?" he asked again, very curtly.
"Well, you know? I was just trying to be nice about things," I answered. "But I spent $24 on these car washes, and because of you guys, they're filthy. I think having my cars washed would be a nice gesture."
Not even a split second went by. "Well, you can forget about me giving you $24 worth of car washes, but what I can do is send someone over and blow off the cars."
I said I didn't think this would clean the cars very well.
"Sure it will. Most of it will come off if you just drive 20 miles per hour down the road. We get things off the sidewalks when we're done by blowing them off!"
WHAT PLANET IS THIS GUY FROM?!?!?
I countered by pointing out that if you blow concrete off a sidewalk, you're not going to see small residue anymore. But if you blow it off a car, that has nice glossy paint and a wax, you're going to see stuff that is still embedded, which you won't see if it is on the ground.
"Well, that's all I'm willing to do... " he stated matter of factly.
And that's when he put me over the edge...
"... it seems to me," he said, "that this just isn't my problem.
That's when I got pretty testing.
"You know what? You know what makes the difference between a good community and a bad community? A good community has people who step up to their commitments and own up to things they do that are wrong. A bad community doesn't have that. I came to you in good faith, and because of your response about this whole situation, I now feel as though I'm living up to what a bad community is, because all I can think about is the phrase "proportional response."
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked. "Is that a threat?"
"Yes, it is," I said. "Because of your piss-poor attitude, I'll be rewashing my cars, because the blower won't work, and then, I plan on going online and letting everyone know what kind of experience this has been."
"You just go right on ahead and do that, see if I care," he said.
"I can tell you don't care about much, thanks for nothing," I said, and then hung up.
Just for fun, I took the blower to my cars. Yeah, took off top layer but none of the other concrete. Before it could set, I ended up rewashing my cars (the cheap-o washes this time).
That night, the trailer sat there. Because I'm a bigger man then he is, I didn't let the air out of his tires. I didn't spray paint the side of it. I didn't do anything vindictive. I wanted to. But THIS is my proportional response.
