Jan 08 2009
Scheduling blues
How many times have you ordered a service or an item that you have to be home to receive or to let in the plumber? Not a tough question as I am sure most of us have had the experience and probably within the last year. Now for the million dollar question….
How many said deliveries or services gave you a time of day on that delivery? I mean a real time, not “sometime in the afternoon”? And the real kicker, did they come when they said they would?
My first example is one that happened today. The company we ordered our windows from called yesterday to tell us that they would deliver them today in the afternoon. Now that would not normally be a big deal, except, I had to remove one of the kitchen windows to send it back… leaving a four foot square, gaping hole in the wall until “sometime” rolled around in the afternoon. They called early this morning with “He’s on the way!”….
I was on my first cup of coffee and only slightly awake. I was not a happy camper.
Luckily the driver had some trouble finding us, as we expected, this was not our first rodeo…. It seems our house hides in plain sight and every driver that needs to find us will eventually call, from the wrong part of town, after they tell us they know where it is. I managed to compose myself, knowing the driver had nothing to do with the scheduling and did not deserve an up close and personal rant!
All the years I spent working, I don’t recall ever telling a customer “sometime”, I do remember several bosses who would have taken a great deal of offense to me saying anything of the kind, and probably would have seen fit to cause a job search over the phrase. What happened to the words: “Between the hours of two pm and four pm?” a question needing approval, not a statement daring a response.
We have in the last year had several no shows, setting an appointment for “sometime” during a specific day, making us wait around for no reason without the benefit of a simple phone call, telling us they were sorry, but could not make it that day. Few things can improve an attitude like calling a cell number repeatedly, only to get ignored by an answering device. There was a certain plumber that it took several days of chasing to decide that his services were in need of being replaced.
I understand being late, life happens, things get in the way, but please use a phone and have the courtesy to let us know. If you’re afraid of the response you may receive to that call, just think how much fun it will be in a day or two.
Thomas H. Forthe
