Here is a small story from this week. A lesson that I will remember for a while.
We had an electrical issue at home and many of the switches. These are GFE switches. So we have a few of these around the kitchen. When one resets we lose power in all of them. Well, the story is really not about these switches. It’s one about truth and honesty. After trying a few times, I figured it’s time for my call for help.
Scene 1: The Complaining handyman
So I called in one of the handymen who happens to be of Indian origin ( Not sure if this data is really related). He kept hanging the phone on me. And After waiting for two days, I told him I will go with something else, he got upset and put back the blame on me, instead of telling me upfront that he is not interested as he has other things to do. So I had to bid goodbye to him and resorted to Scene 2
Scene 2: The expensive Local Electric company, Beacon Plumbing. They were extremely responsive to the call. They told me that the visit just to check with be so many dollars, then there is the hourly fee for the electrician. I got a prompt appt for two days. However, I got a call that evening saying they have a free appt that evening. So Late in the night, i got an electrician home. He checked, opened up the entire kitchen switches, an hour or so later he told me he is not able to pinpoint the problem. The initial cost itself for the service was quite low.
After an hour it was clear he was tired as well as he had no clue. Or did he know the problem could be fixed but wanted to get a lot more out of me?
He told me that the only way to fix this is to run a new wiring two lines from the switchboard, and this would cost me an insane amount of dollars I got sticker shock. But then the next thing he said caught my attention. He said you have to pay 50 percent upfront ( I am talking lots of dollars), and if I don’t pay at the same time I may lose their schedule
With that, I decided to just pay for that one hour fee, and their default fee. So when he left I was staring at a bill that did not resolve my problem and a large
Total time spent – 2 hours
Total Amount Spent – $$, The proposal to fix was a lot more.
Frustrated with this experience I called up a dear friend who saves my life every time I have called him.
Scene 3:
I got this friend at 1 in the afternoon. He said he will try to recommend a handyman. In 15 minutes he got a name of a Handyman who spoke only Spanish, but had a translator with him. In an hour or so they showed up. and to my surprise showed me that in one Switch there was an internal loose contact and less than 15 minutes I got the supply back.
What a wonderful person his handyman was. I am surprised when our new president called them Bad Hombres. I saw honesty, truth and credible work. After the work was done he gave me an amount which I felt was worth paying.
Personal Lesson Learnt:
Always trust your close friends, don’t trust these big companies. In this case, the electrical company clearly had a bigger agenda of making $$$ from me. Bad choice
When a simple person shows up, does what you ask them to do within minutes without any know that there is still truth and honesty in the world. I know now for any next project what not to do.
End of Story
Be Different... 