Local News Recap
posted in General |The Good
Miss B scored the highest of her class in a geography bee, sending her to the school-level round. She bounced out quickly, but the taste of success seems to have stuck in her mouth like milkfat from real whipped cream on an iced mocha. Also, Lindsey at the Jantzen Beach Barnes and Noble was terrific- she remembered us, what we were looking for, and then when she found something else, she tracked us down and showed it to us. Initiative and enthusiasm; something you don’t see every day this season.
(venting below…)
The Bad
We had a piece of Mrs B’s artwork framed by Joann (in Tanasbourne). It was supposed to be ready on the 9th. I mislaid the slip, (ok, that’s my fault), so when I was out running errands, we stopped by to see if it was done. They claimed they had called us (not true) and that it wasn’t done yet (apparently… true) because there was a question about the glass. We hadn’t ordered any; which is their clerk’s fault because what kind of maroon would get something framed without looking at glass. I mean … duh. They promised it’d be done in a few days. I went home and Mrs B found the slip. A week later, I called back to find out the status; they said that it was in the done pile but they couldn’t find it, and could they please call me back because there was only one person there and they were very busy. They never returned that call to my cell phone, but the next day they called and left a message on the machine; the artwork was done and ready to be picked up. I drove out there (half an hour or more), and found out that it wasn’t yet ready; it needed to be blocked or stretched or something arcane. It wouldn’t be ready until the next day, and didn’t I get the call ? (no, no I hadn’t, you bas….err…nm. ) No, I don’t remember their individual names, because it’s freaking pointless; next time I’m either going to a different Joanne or to Michael’s.
The Downright Ugly
I’ve had it with John’s Waterproofing. I’ll pay this invoice from them, but no more. Here’s the story. You may remember that we had sunhouses installed by them. When our home was erected in 1942, they poured the basement window wells as part of the basement. The construction crew had to remove those- so they jackhammered them out. Now we have a horizontal crack running between two window wells, and through the rotten wood around one of the craptacular basement windows. I called them to have them come out and see it, they acknowledged that it was a problem. I spoke with Larry and then with John, the owner; Larry wanted his general manager to see it (Robin) but Robin was apparently too busy for me. Honestly, I think this was a misleading tactic; it established a plausible deniability on the part of the next person to come out. And I had to call twice to get someone to come out. When the owner (John) came out, he acknowledged that this crack “was a problem” and sketched out the details, and said they’d send someone out to seal it. He asked about the rotten wood around the window (letting in a lot of water in this weather) and I told him that I was just concerned about the crack. He also “strongly encouraged” us to get a de-humidifier. He was a likeable guy. His minion came out, dug down in the dirt and patched the outside, then came inside and patched it too. He recommended some caulk for the remaining crack bits (which I thought was part of the job). And then we got an invoice for $200. I called them and spoke to John, and his stance was “oh no, the horizontal crack wasn’t the jackhammerring.”
So in my book, not only did they break my house, they denied responsibility after the fact; when I was left to believe from Larry’s attitude (”That’s not right. I need my general manager to see this.” ) that they agreed with me on the cause of this crack, and they surprised me with a bill ( especially during the Christmas season, where I have better uses for $200 ).
