The Non-Euclidian Staircase

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August 20, 2007

Speaking Of The Other Guys

I spoke kindly of Apple's customer service (eventually), now I need to mention the opposite.

Two weeks ago, I purchased two garage door openers for the two garage doors of my new house. I paid slightly more for installation than I did for the hardware.

The installers called 2 days later, said they'd come in 3 days and would call first.

Three days later, cell phone in hand all day, and nothing. Eventually, I got a call that claimed they'd called 3 times earlier in the day but gotten no answer and left no message. And also left no trace of a missed call on my phone, which means they probably didn't call. They re-scheduled for today, late (as they'll be an hour and a bit away on another job in Keene, NH, most of the day).

Today, they call at 8 AM and ask if morning is OK (what happened to the job in Keene, I don't know). I say it is. Two hours later, they show up, look at the garage for 5 minutes, and decide there's a problem. No place to anchor the header of the garage door opener. Or, rather, there is a place, but it would require cutting and attaching a heavy piece of wood where there's currently just a gap. Relatively easy carpentry, they agree.

But a call to their boss results in them saying they can't do it. The boss won't allow them to do carpentry as part of a simple install job, and claims its a liability risk (which it might well be).

They call back to the retailer who contracted them, who says they'll find another installer to take a look. But they also tell me there is no other installer in southern NH.

So they leave me their card, some fairly hollow apologies, and two garage door openers still in their boxes.

Not the happy experience dealing with Apple provided.

Posted by ghoul at August 20, 2007 06:42 PM

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