I'm a small-business finish carpentry contractor with one carpenter employee, and we recently needed to obtain two lites for a built-in hutch we constructed for a client. My employee called Windows and Glass Plus this morning for pricing and availability on the glass and spoke with Will, the owner. Will said he had the glass in stock and could cut the lites if we wanted them this morning. My employee said it would take him around 15-20 minutes to drive to Windows and Glass Plus' shop, and he left the job we were on immediately.
Common with the Denver Metro area, my employee hit some traffic and road construction, and it ended up taking him 35 minutes to get there. When he arrived, the shop was locked with a "closed" sign on the door. My employee called Will who proceeded to blame everything on my employee and said, "We waited for you but left since it took you longer than 15 minutes." Seriously? Who runs a business like this? I had my employee drive over to another shop who took care of us on the spot and only charged us half the price Will wanted, so I guess things happen for a reason.
The issues with Windows and Glass Plus from this experience:
1) Will never once explained to my employee that he was under a serious time crunch, had to leave the shop at a specific time, and that if my employee couldn't make it exactly in the 15-20 minute estimate we should plan on picking up the lites at another time. Instead, he told my employee to come on over, waited around 30 minutes, and just bailed on a customer.
2) Will never had the courtesy to call my employee and explain he had to leave. Instead, he waited until my employee got all the way to the shop and had to call him. I'm not sure where Will learned how to run a business, but businesses cater to their clients, not the other way around. If he wanted our business, he should have done the leg work to ensure we wouldn't feel swindled when we showed up to a closed business. If our business was too small for him to bother, he shouldn't have offered his services to us in the first place.
Conclusion: I understand that Will runs a small business, as do I, and that he has jobs to perform, but that's no reason to persuade a customer to drive across town just to then bail on him without notice simply because Will didn't find our business important enough. He wasted my money paying my employee to drive all the way there, he slowed down the job we are on, and he wasted our time. If his schedule was so tight that he was forced to leave, he never should have told us he could sell us the product this morning. We didn't ask for the product this morning--he offered it. In the end, Will upset a potential customer, and we now know not to do business with him in the future since we can't trust he will keep his word. I suggest you find another glass shop, especially if you have a smaller order, since Windows and Glass Plus will likely give you the runaround and find your business inconsequential. read more
