Allow me to vent for a moment (or close this page and move on to something else). Today just wasn't a good day. The weather has been cold and the mornings have been dark and the days have been gray, which makes it really hard to feel rested and find motivation, which means I end up with not that much done at the end of most days. And that's frustrating.
We have the ongoing leak between the master bathroom and the laundry room, STILL. After 3 visits from the first plumbers that American Home Shield sent out, they decided upon the 4th call to send another plumbing company. Those plumbers determined that we had no leaks in our pipes or connections and were fairly certain that we have a hairline crack in our bathtub or surround, and recommended replacing both. I'm pretty sure that they are both original to our 32-year-old house, so I guess that's a good amount of usage, but it stinks that this happened after we took ownership so that it became our problem.
So we got a recommendation for a contractor who could take care of replacing the bathtub and shower surround, replace the bathroom floor, brace the damaged truss underneath in the laundry room ceiling, and redo and finish the drywall in the ceiling. The estimate was more than we hoped it would be, but probably a fair price for the work we're having done. The cost of the tub and shower was on top of the estimate. Ouch. We hadn't been planning to redo the bathroom any time soon, so this is a bit financially painful.
The contractor came in the daytime on New Year's Eve (a Friday) to take a look at what needed to be done so that he could give us an estimate. He asked how soon we'd like the estimate and mentioned Mondayish, and we said that would be fine. On Wednesday, I called him, and he called me back to give me the estimate. He asked if I wanted it in writing, and I asked him to please send it in an e-mail just so that I had it on hand. I also mentioned that we had a pediatrician's appointment for Monday and asked if he could start on Tuesday instead, since we'd discussed starting on Monday. He said that their current job was running into some complications, so he wasn't sure if they could start on Tuesday, and that it might be Wednesday or Thursday. I asked him to give me a call and let me know once he knew when they would be able to start.
That was 5 days ago, and I still haven't heard from him. No phone call to give me a start date, and no estimate in e-mail. This is a man who was recommended by a very reputable man from our church who works in construction. He also replaced all of the windows in the house of our friends, and they were really happy with him and his work. So I'm left to wonder what on earth is going on that the only time I've spoken with him is when I've contacted him. He did come on time for the estimate; everything else has been initiated by me. I don't know when (if?) he's going to get started on our project, and this makes me nervous about how things will go once he does get started. Am I going to be stuck with no working bathroom and a gaping hole where the tub once was, looking down into the laundry room, for days or weeks or if turns flaky? Is there some reason why he has been slow to get back to me? I suppose it's up to me to once again get ahold of him to see what's happening.
I hate dealing with home repair stuff as it is, and when people put the burden on me to have to do the legwork or be the one to initiate everything, it just gives me a giant ball of stress in my stomach. I don't need the uncertainty of whether or not I'll be able to depend on the person who's charging us a sizeable amount to do an unexpected repair. I want to know that the people I hire for services will actually offer me good customer service. Why is that such a problem?
No comments:
Post a Comment