Stair Rails And Carpet Woes

In a blog post a while back titled Stair Tape And Skid-Socks, I wrote about the anti-slip tape strips Miss Terry put down after I had a fall on the stairs in my office. They have helped a lot, but something we have talked about several times even before that happened was installing some kind of a rail on the wall where the stairs are. As we get older we’re going to need all the help we can get.

Jesse Bolton, who lives across the street from us, is one of those guys who can build or fix anything, and when I mentioned something about getting a rail installed, he said he could handle that. Now, most people would just run down to a building supply store and purchase a rail of some kind, but not Jesse. No, instead he built a custom rail, stained it to match the steps, and came over yesterday and installed it. Jesse takes pride in his work, as do all good craftsmen. The rail is big and sturdy and beautiful, and I really appreciate all of your hard work, Jesse. You are a good friend.

Unfortunately not everybody does take pride in their work, sometimes even when it is a business that has been around for many years. Back in March of 2018 we had new carpet and laminate flooring installed in the living room, hallway, three bedrooms, kitchen and upstairs bathroom. The cost was over $7,000 for materials and installation.

In a blog titled We Got Floored, I wrote about how the installation crew was far less than impressive. In follow-up blogs over the next few months I mentioned that the carpet was starting to come loose and ripple in the center, and how I made several calls to the business we got it from, trying to get the issue resolved.

That never happened, and then we got busy with Terry’s surgery for her Interstim device, and then the pandemic came around. And all the while, the carpet was developing more and more of a loose ripple in every room. Three weeks ago we stopped in the business again and the owner’s nephew told us that they could come out and re-stretch it, but it would be $150 to $200, since it had been three years since installation.

Now, my wife is a pretty mellow woman most of the time, but if you push her too far you will know about it. She let that guy know in no uncertain terms that his answer was unacceptable and that they had dropped the ball right from the start. And it didn’t bother her that there were other customers in the store and they could hear exactly how dissatisfied she was.

The next day the owner finally called back, but not to apologize for letting us down. No, he wanted to complain that Terry was rude to his nephew. I told him what the situation was, and he said we should have contacted them sooner. I told him I had tried several times, and he said that was impossible because he always returns calls immediately. Eventually he said that he was on vacation and would be back in two weeks, but his nephew would call me that same day or the next to set up an appointment him to come by and look at our problem when he got back to town. I wasn’t surprised that we didn’t hear anything for almost three weeks, but finally, just before the holiday weekend, I got a call saying that the owner would come by yesterday.

He did show up, and immediately started saying that if he had known there was a problem, which he didn’t think there was, he would have dealt with it sooner.

Here’s the thing; as you all know, I write a blog every day. In that blog I talk about everything that’s going on in our lives. I offered to show him four different blog posts talking about the many times we had tried to get the issue resolved. I also offered to show him my telephone call logs showing all the times I had called. He didn’t want to see those and said that he didn’t believe any of that was true.

That pushed my jackass button, and I told him if he was going to stand in my house and call me a liar, he could get the hell out. He said he wanted to see what the so-called problem was. We showed him in every room, and he suddenly decided that it was something that they needed to fix. He still wouldn’t admit, or even acknowledge the fact that I had proof that we had tried to deal with this for the last three years, but supposedly somebody is going to call us within the next week or so to set up a time to come out and re-stretch the carpet. That’s fine, whatever your ego needs to let you sleep at night. All I care about is that the job gets done right this time, and I’m not going to pay for it.

Thought For The Day – A mistake that makes you humble is better than an achievement that makes you arrogant.