Back in September, we noticed plumbing issues in our apartment. It took video evidence of the taps at full blast with no water coming out, a kidney infection, and six months for them to start looking at it. This is on top of about six years of our heater breaking down every winter. Needless to say, “emergency” is not a word in the maintenance crew’s vocabulary.

It hit a new peak when I noticed that my brand-new carton of ice cream was soup. At first, I thought that maybe the freezer’s door was stuck open just enough to let the cold out over the day, but when it was duct-taped shut for a day and everything began melting, there were no doubts that the freezer was dead. I called the emergency maintenance line and was told that because it was Sunday, nothing could be done about it until sometime Monday and that I should get a cooler full of ice.

H*** no.

All our meat for the week was thawing in the freezer and the fridge was at a nice, cool sixty degrees F. Salmonella likes to say, “Hello!” at forty. I have had food poisoning so bad I had to be hospitalized because I was blacking out while vomiting. I was not going to stand for this. I screamed, cussed out, and did everything short of threatening violence or having the guy fired.

Monday morning came and we were told that we would be getting a new fridge Tuesday, most likely at noon. Great! I mean, it sucked that we had to throw everything we had in terms of food away right when rent was due, but we’d have a freezer and fridge.

Yet Tuesday at four, it still hadn’t been delivered. Half an hour later, there was a knock on the door. The maintenance guy who I had been screaming at, who had let us down time after time, had important news. The fridge was on its way! Yay! He was done at 4:30, though, so he was leaving for the day, but he’d be back Wednesday morning to unbox the new one, set it up, and wheel away the old one.

So, we went from having a fridge with a dead freezer to a dead fridge and freezer to two fridges that we couldn’t use at all, and we had to rely on fast food because maintenance wouldn’t do any emergency work.

Meanwhile, my autoimmune-compromised roommate had E. coli all weekend and I couldn’t use my only toilet.

Our store is offering a $20 gift card to anyone who completes a survey. It’s five questions plus contact details. A customer approaches.

Customer: “I’d like the $20 gift card.”

Me: “Certainly! Here’s the survey you need to complete.”

The customer stares blankly at the form.

Customer: “What do I do with this?”

Me: “You have to answer the questions and provide your contact details.”

The customer stares blankly at the form again for what I think is a worryingly long time to process such a simple piece of information. The customer then takes the pen I am holding out, completes their name, and then hands it back.

Me: “We’ll need the rest of your contact information… aaaaand for you to answer the questions.”

The customer stares blankly at the form yet AGAIN, for an even longer time.

Customer: “F*** this. I’ll just spend the money.” *Walks away*

When my husband and I moved into our new home, I contacted the only Internet provider available in our area to get set up. Everything went smoothly until I received our first bill and saw they misspelled my first name by adding in an E — for example, Sareah instead of Sarah.

I called in to have it corrected.

Me: “Hi, I noticed my name was misspelled on my statement and would like to have it corrected.”

Internet Company: “Unfortunately, we cannot correct it over the phone. You will need to drive to one of our store locations and show your ID to prove it is spelled wrong.”

Me: “But you guys just put in an extra E. It should be Sarah, not Sareah.”

Internet Company: “Sorry, there is nothing I can do. Would you like me to look up a location closest to you?”

Me: *Still confused* “Ugh, sure.”

They told me the closest store was one hour away in the opposite direction I usually travelled in.

Me: “Okay, so just let me get this all straight. When I set up my account, your company misspelled my name, and now, due to your company’s mistake, I need to take time out of my day and drive an hour out of my way to correct it?”

Internet Company: “Yes.”

Me: “Thank you. Have a nice day.”

I will be Sareah now until the day I die.

I deliver a website to a client, and after one month, he starts sending me angry emails that the contact form on his website doesn’t seem to work.

I check the contact form, I test it again and again, and I don’t find any problem. I send them an email through the contact form.

Client: “Thank you! Now it works!”

The very next day, they sent me again another angry email that the form had stopped working again. I ran a bunch of tests but could not find any problem, much less a solution. The form seemed to be working with all the different emails I tested it with.

Long story short, the form had always worked. They hadn’t tested it and assumed that, because no new clients came in through it, it was broken.

A buddy of mine owns his own electrical contracting company. He has many customers that have been his for decades. One Friday night at about midnight, he got an emergency call from an old client that converted his bar into a topless bar which required an increase in electricity use. The lights were flickering on and off, certain outlets stopped working, and others were sparking. My buddy showed up and went to the electric panel box. The pipe coming out of the top was glowing red! That meant it was heated up to an incredibly dangerous level.

Buddy: “You gotta shut this down now! This is about to burn down!”

Client: “I can’t! It’s Friday night! Do you have any idea how much money I make on Friday and Saturday nights? I will shut it down on Sunday and you start working on it then.” 

Buddy: “No, you don’t understand. This will not make it another hour, much less the night. This is a huge safety and fire issue. This is beyond dangerous, and you are putting your employees and customers in extreme danger if you don’t shut this down now.”

Client: “No, I can’t afford to do that.”

My buddy took pics with his cell phone and left. He called the fire chief’s office but didn’t get anyone, so he left a message. About three in the morning, he got a call back asking him to get back to the bar. Yep, it burned to the ground. Thankfully, everyone got out okay. A few had to go to the hospital for smoke inhalation but were released a few hours later.

Fire Chief: *To my buddy* “So, the owner said you were the electrician that worked on this just a few hours ago. What happened?”

My buddy figured they had the idea HE did something to cause this fire. He explained everything and showed him the pics.

Buddy: “Look, Chief. I knew this would go up in flames. I told him. I even called your office when I left here and left a message for you. I did no work on this because I knew this was dangerous. I tried to tell him to shut it down.”

The chief immediately had charges brought against the owner who later had to pay all the hospital bills. Plus, insurance refused to cover the loss because of the negligence. The sad thing is that this was not the only case of someone not listening to my buddy and their business or house end up burning down.

Always listen to the professionals you hire. They know what they are talking about.