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    Friday, July 11, 2008

    A Story About A Window

    A long time ago (last winter), our bathroom window shattered in the middle of the night. It was a very cold night, and that bathroom gets very warm when the furnace runs. (We have since found out that the technical term for what happened is "SEAL FAILURE".)

    Only the inside pane broke. We got rid of the mess (it shattered all over the tub and the shower curtain saved us from a much larger mess), secured the existing pane, and said "Gosh, we'd better get that fixed." And then we closed the curtain in the bathroom.

    Probably should have left it open...out of sight, out of mind....

    So fast forward countless months. I finally found the name of the company which the previous owners had paid to install these windows "in 2003". That's what they said on their little disclosure sheet when we bought the place. As it turns out, "2003" in real estate lingo must actually mean "1999" because that's when they were really installed. Assholes. Oh, but that would deserve an entirely separate posting, the level of assholeness achieved by said previous owners. Don't get me started.

    Anyway, so I contacted American Building Supply. "Eric" promised to stop over the next morning to verify the window size, type, etc - "first thing" he said, "around 8 or 8:30" and promised to call on his way.

    He did not come in the early morning. He did not come in the late morning, nor the early afternoon. He neither called, nor emailed. I emailed, and received no response.

    FIVE FIFTEEN. PM. That's when he finally called. Five fifteen. Clearly he was suffering under the delusion that I had nothing to do simply because I am, in theory, home all day. I was LESS than pleasant. I told him that I was busy just that minute, I was getting ready to leave, but Greg said it was fine, he could stop by.

    So he, and his helper of some sort, did finally drop by. With no tape measure. Mull that around around for a sec for me. They stopped by, to check the window size, without a tape measure. Not so much as a wooden ruler. A piece of string, nothing. I was additionally irritated. Greg measured the window for them while I seethed in the kitchen. "Eric" then said he would get the replacement info and let us know.

    That was TWO WEEKS ago yesterday. We emailed good ole' Eric:

    It's been a couple of weeks since you stopped over and checked out the broken window pane in our bathroom at xxxx Our Street. You said you'd need to contact the manufacturer regarding replacing both the broken pane and the existing pane, because the window did not have tempered glass in it as should have been the case when it was originally installed. Have you been able to obtain information regarding the window replacement, and what our cost if any will be to get the correct glass in that window?

    Please advise. Thanks!


    This time I signed Greg's name instead of mine. I did not hold my breath waiting for an answer.

    Today, I got a response.

    Greg;
    Thanks for getting back to us. Eric is no longer with American Building Supply, Inc. I have left his e-mail up to tie up some loose ends that are out there.


    I have found some paperwork with your information on it, although nothing has been done with the manufacturer. I will get in touch with them this morning and let you know what I find out.

    Thanks again for getting in touch with us and I will get back with you.

    Jon XXXXX
    President




    Gee, big surprise - Mr. No Tools Who Can't Show The Fuck Up On Time is no longer with the company. I am shocked. AND he did nothing with our issue? Staggering. It boggles the mind, really. I can't FATHOM why he's no longer with the company.

    Jon has gotten more done for us in 24 hours than "Eric" did in 2+ weeks. He and Greg have spoken, and he has already gotten the answers we need from the manufacturer and is expediting the process to get us taken care of. We expect to be receiving the replacement window, under warranty, very soon. Jon, with his integrity, pride and great customer service, has saved this blog from being similar to my friend Deb's recent Comcast blog (the first one), and has made me reticent to tear them apart - I'm holding out for Jon to see it through and I feel confident that he will, and that I will have a smile on my face the next time I blog about American Building Supply.

    Soon I'll be blogging about Alltel. I think. Right now I'm too irritated. That blog will NOT be pleasant and I do not expect to be smiling. Don't miss it*.

    *Oh, and don't buy an LG Glimmer (or two) from the Walmart Alltel booth and expect to use the rebate form, because they will wait till you waste your time doing their stupid fucked up rebate paperwork dance and then tell you it's "Invalid" because you didn't go see the cocks who work in the actual Alltel stores. If Alltel was a girl, I'd kick her right in the box.

    4 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    Didn't you buy a car from that same guy? Sure sounds like it...

    Crazy Mom said...

    I would just say to tell them what you think and not be nice about it..All they can do is ignore you..the best they can do is give you come credit to your account...I say bitch when bitching is due.

    Worse case scenario is that when they see, they say I don't want to deal with that bitch and then you get someone who already knows not to piss you off..

    Anonymous said...

    I can help you possibly fix that rebate issue lady, you didn't tell me you had a problem!

    And don't feel so alone, they tried to "Invalid" me too...mine is on its way, however! ;)

    -j

    Deb said...

    Note to self: do not buy Alltel products, but do buy American Building Supply. Check. I love that Eric was fired. (I'm going to assume he was fired, because I don't like him.)