Sunday, June 6, 2010

Well, Someone Isn't Getting His Bonus This Month

I may have mentioned buying a new wall unit.

Here's what you were supposed to get today:  A picture of the old wall unit; a picture of the empty space where the wall unit used to be; and a picture of the new wall unit.

Here's what you actually get:  Some bitching about the absence of the new wall unit.

The new wall unit was supposed to be installed yesterday.  Because of this, I hired someone (that's what the bids were for) to remove and haul away the old unit on Thursday.  The wall unit is home to, among other things, my desk.  So I didn't want to remove it until the last possible moment.  I moved my computer to the dining room table -- where it cannot possibly work as the outlets in there aren't grounded -- and am operating from the netbook on my coffee table.  I've got piles of bills, and my phone (which needs a computer, since I use magicjack) on a little folding table standing between my computer and the sofa -- and wires running all over to reach the powersquid I have behind the sofa.  What I'm saying here is that the situation isn't ideal, but could work for a couple days.

And the installers brought the wall unit yesterday.  And installed about a third of it when they realized it was too big.  Their salesguy had mis-measured a 17-foot space by an inch.  (Which does mean he's losing a bonus -- when he sold me the unit, we had a lovely conversation about how they've changed the pay structure and he gets bonuses based on accuracy.)  But it also means that they couldn't install the unit.  They could plane the pieces down if they had to get 1/2-inch out of it, but a whole inch was just out of the question.

So, they called the shop, figured which piece they would re-build to get the inch back, left a bunch of it here under cloths, and took the rest back.  So, I have a one-third built wall-unit in my living room, a random stack of pieces, wires for the new lighting taped to my wall, and a promise that they'd move the job to the front of the line and that rather than the usual six-to-eight weeks, I should get it in two.

Weeks.

I was very understanding with the installation guys.  I mean, they were very nice and doing their best -- and it sure wasn't their plan to work only an hour and a half and then load pieces back on the truck.

I am, however, a bit ticked at the inconvenience.  The no-desk thing is going to be pretty annoying for two weeks -- not to mention that I'd kept this weekend empty for installation and for putting all my stuff away in the new unit.  (And my parents are visiting two weekends from now -- and while I have been pondering the issue of what sort of fun things I can do with them for Father's Day, I'm pretty sure "sitting in my living room and watching guys install my wall unit" isn't high on anyone's list.)

Yeah.  Annoyed.  We'll see what happens when they call me on Monday to reschedule.  I'm sure not taking another day off work so they can install it mid-week.  Maybe I can make 'em pay overtime and do it some evening, because this is getting inconvenient.

I'm fast becoming Grumpy Customer.

1 comment:

peg said...

What a pain. I guess they don't come with the big tools.