We have in the blue corner, Sara "Spittin' Mad" Wolfe from St. Louis, Missouri, at 110 pounds (this is my hypothetical boxing match, I can be whatever weight I want) and 23 years of age. She is a personal assistant in Lawrence, Kansas and has been jerked around by the opponent for 5 years now.
In the red corner, say hello to Joe "I never show up when I'm supposed to and then I make it look like your fault" [insert Locksmith/Electric Guy/Repairman here] from the city of Lawrence, Kansas. At 230 pounds and holding a monopoly for his industry in Lawrence, he can do whatever he wants and get away with it because there are no other options!
Let's get it on!!!
(If I lost you with my little set-up there, let's just say that I find it completely unfair that the utility and maintenance companies in this small town have created a reality where their companies are the only choice in town. If you're dissatisfied with their customer service, too bad! You have to put up with it or you go without their services. And I like my cable, I really do. I would hate to see it go...)
If I have already bored you to tears, pretend that there are bikini clad girls walking around holding up the round cards.
In the past 2 days, I have been "knocked out" by the maintenance people in Lawrence twice. The first time was Tuesday when I was supposed to be home for the guy from the electric company to come and fix my security system. I had called at 9am to schedule the time and had to leave a message with my guy. He returned my call around 1pm and we established that he would come after I was off work at 4pm. I thought I would be done with work by then and he assured me that he would be there at that time. What ended up happening is that I had to leave work early... actually I was IN a meeting. I had to leave the meeting early to get home at 4:00 at the agreed upon time for the service to take place. Normally I would never expect a repairman to be there on time, but our phone conversation earlier that day had lead me to believe that he had placed it as a priority. I'm sure you know how this story goes... I get home and wait. and wait. and wait. 3 hours have gone by. It is now 7pm. I couldn't go to the gym, run much needed errands or even shower. I also lost money by having to leave work early (for nothing). I called his cell phone, got voicemail. Left a message. Get a call back around 8pm saying that he is going to come in the morning. Ergo, I got stood up!
Episode 2 begins the next morning when the locksmith was supposed to come. Same story! They were supposed to come between 9:30-11am. Does he show up? No. Never. I waited until almost noon, called the company and got no reason for why they did not show up. I had to go to work so I couldn't waste anymore time. Once again I could not work out or anything! So I got stood up again! My name must be on the blacklist around town or something. What's worse is I call to reschedule the locksmithing and realize that I don't have any other time to wait around this week because of work and since I am going to Kansas City on Friday. So I say that I will have to let them know next week when I am available.
Cut to today at 1:45pm when I get a voicemail from a disgruntled locksmith who is waiting at my house and wondering why I am not here. A) I was at work and could not even answer his call. B) When was it decided that I would be home at that time and that it would be a good idea to come then? C) Why am I getting attitude when I was not even informed of this little impromptu lock changing? D) Am I taking crazy pills?! Oy.
I know my stories are not unique. This type of thing happens everyday. But why did it have to happen to me two days in a row from two different local companies?! I am all about supporting your local business and all that, don't get me wrong (in fact, that is my job), but it pains me to have to deal with being jerked around like this. Being a maintenance guy in a college town must be the pits. I am sure these guys have been screwed over by unreliable college kids time and time again, my own residence even included. But come on people, we're not all 19-year old twits! Get it together!
After this long tirade, I have exhausted all of my hang-ups about this topic and would like to inform you that all of my maintenance has been taken care of. It was just a pain in the ass to get there. 8 hours of waiting for people to show up later, everything is good. So, I'm over it!
And it could have been worse... I did get a couple of really nice couch naps in there.
So I would say that it was a close match, but in the end, the City of Lawrence wins. It always wins!!!
One final word to the wise... mess with me and you have to answer to my rabbit. And you know you don't want to go up against this little badass.
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