Recently, I heard what sounded like a gunshot in the middle of the night. After determining that the house wasn’t under attack, I discovered that one of the torsion springs on my overhead garage doors had snapped. After doing a little research online, I decided that the fix wasn’t too complicated but the time required to do it might not be worth the money saved, and more importantly I didn’t want any more “gunfire” waking the kids if I didn’t do the installation correctly. I had to find a contractor to do the work.
After making about ten phone calls and getting only three responses to my inquiry I finally arranged to meet with someone. When this person arrived, he could barely look me straight in the eye or listen to what I had to say. I was left there with my mouth (and garage door) open, trying to imagine how anyone with such poor interpersonal skills could manage to run a business.
He wouldn’t provide a quote, and instead offered to “try some springs out” to see if they would work. After I insisted on talking price before any work began, he suddenly threw up his hands, said “I’m outta here!” and stormed away, muttering something about having “thousands of jobs” and “I have no time for this”. I was left there with my mouth (and garage door) open, trying to imagine how anyone with such poor interpersonal skills could manage to run a business.
I ended up getting the job done with someone who provided a reasonable quote and completed the work in an efficient manner. I made a point of telling him that I’d recommend him to anyone who asked, and he seemed to greatly appreciate this.
This is how it’s supposed to work, isn’t it? Sometimes I wonder. Feel free to share any interesting customer service horror stories you have. They can be pretty entertaining.
