I really detest having to make arrangements for someone to come to my home to repair something. Luckily I do have Doug and he is pretty handy to have around. But occasionally something happens and we have to have someone come out to the house.
Sunday night we had a big storm come through. High winds, heavy rain, and some hail. It lasted all night. Where we live our only choices for television are Direct TV or The Dish Network. We are so far out that even an antenna will not pick up a signal. So satellite we have and have had for years. As most people know when you have heavy rain with a satellite, you will experience “rain fade”. This is when the signal will fade in and out. If you lose the signal completely you get a message on the screen “Searching for Signal”. This will usually last as long as the heavy rain does.
Sunday night our signal never returned once the rain let up. We thought maybe the wind blew the dish off kilter on the roof. When Doug got home Monday he checked it and still couldn’t get a signal. So we called Dish Network for help. That in itself is a long story, Doug doesn’t do well with help lines. He is not a patient man and does not like giving the same information over and over again to different people.
We finally got someone who knew what they were doing. Following their instructions we went through a couple of things with the satellite, none of which worked. Finally they offered to send someone out to repair it for $95.00. Doug politely (surprise!) told the guy “Oh that’s okay. We’ll switch to Direct TV”. So then they scheduled the repair at no charge. Luckily they could get someone out to the house the next day between Noon and 5:00 PM. Doug asked to be scheduled closer to 5:00 and to be called an hour before. No problem they said.
At 10:00 Tuesday morning they called to say they could be at my house in 30 minutes. That won’t work I said. We requested a late afternoon appointment. They told me “If we can’t do it this morning, we can be at your house between 2:30 and 3:00 this afternoon. Otherwise we’ll have to do it another day.” Perfect I told them, someone will be there at that time. Doug couldn’t be there until closer to 3:00, so I called my mother to go unlock the gate and wait for the repairman. I was afraid that even though he told me between 2:30 and 3:00, if they got their a little early they wouldn’t wait.
At 2:20 PM, my mom called because the repairman had a question. He got their shortly after 2:00. So glad my Mom was there. But really, what’s the point of scheduling?? I know good and well if I hadn’t sent my Mom out there early, Doug would have come home to a “Sorry We Missed You” sign on the gate.
We schedule appointments for customers to do work in their home. We offer a two hour window. we call before we go. If no one is there we will call the numbers we have to see if they are on their way. We let them know if we are running before or behind schedule. Its called “Customer Service” and you just don’t find it much any where any more.