3.06.2007

Torture Me Tuesday.

Have I made it clear yet how much of a nightmare this floor/fridge situation has been? The saga continues. It was easy as pie to get our first estimate. They were friendly and punctual. They sent two copies of the estimate on letterhead-one for me to keep, and one to send to Frigidaire. They followed up with a phone call. The second estimate? Not so easy.

The first guy I called I could barely understand. His street slang was so thick I felt like I was standing on a corner in Harlem. I knew it was a mistake to continue with the estimate request, but it was one of those situations where I was in too deep and felt stupid for backing out. I figured I'd give him a chance. Perhaps I was being judgemental. Perhaps behind his bad English was a degree in hardwood flooring from Stanford. Who was I to judge?

He never showed up and never called.

The second guy was a bit better. He actually showed up. He did, however, inform me that he might have to rip apart the whole kitchen to fix the small area in front of the fridge. He took measurements of the kitchen, hall, AND bathroom. "Just in case," he said as I raised my eyebrows. I wrote my email address down for him to send me an estimate. "Will that be on letterhead?" I inquired. "Of course!" he said quickly. I then noticed him jot down "letterhead" next to my name in his notebook. Uh oh. He promised the estimate later that day or the next. It never came. We called and left messages, but got no return call. Finally, I reached him yesterday. He assured me he sent it. I asked him to resend it to me and he agreed. This morning I found this in my inbox:

Take up water damaged floors,furnish and install new glue down prefinish hardwod floor in kitchen 105sq.ft.@$10.00 per sq. ft. Total $1,050.00

Thank you,
Larry (919)369-xxxx


I wrote back and told him this was supposed to be on letterhead, but I suspect his company does not have letterhead. I did not mention that it should also be free of grammar and spelling errors. Strike two.

Attempt number three just occurred. I spoke to a woman on the phone yesterday to schedule today's appointment. I explained our situation and that I needed an estimate to get Frigidaire to pay for the damage. She asked what kind of Mohawk flooring it was. My reply of "hardwood" was not specific enough. She wanted to know details that I could not comprehend. It was apparently an issue that I didn't know the exact type of floor it was. "So, do you only deal in a specific type of Mohawk flooring?" I asked. "No, we deal with it all," she replied. "So, won't you know what type it is when you come and look at it?" I again inquired, puzzled. "Hopefully!" she exclaimed. Things were not looking good.

I came home to meet the guy at 12:30. As I explained the situation he stopped me mid-sentence. "Most estimates are free, but if you want one to send in for a claim, it's fifty dollars." I looked at him blankly. "All I need is an estimate on letterhead," I said. No one else has charged me." At this point I was just tired. "Yeah, but that's how our company does it. We do the estimate on the computer and it takes over an hour to do it." I kindly showed him the door.

So, three strikes and we're out? NEV-AH! I called around to a few other potentially incompetent businesses and made some more appointments. Mary Davis at Frigidaire will not defeat me!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I actually can't blame them for asking for $ for an estimate, only because I've seen Teague spend lots and lots of time on them only to have the client use it to go buy their own materials or forget about the project immediately. That said, they certainly should have told you that BEFORE they had someone at your doorstep!

What a fiasco. After all this work and hoop jumping, Frigidaire better get you some fixed floors!