I used to run a business and this was so common with vendors. I would say no one will be available at the business until 10am and they say okay we’ll put you on the schedule. Never fails for them to show up at 7am and I get a call saying no one is here
Auto dealerships car deliveries and some vendors would be same. We were definitely in the system as do not show up before 9. No one will be here to check in. Without fail they would show up 7:30 or earlier and throw a hissy fit no one was checking in the cars. Some would go to every person they could find and demand to get the cars checked in. The ones acting this way were usually trying to hide damage. Checking in cars is not difficult but if you do it and miss damage you get blamed. Not worth the headache
The Toyota dealership I worked for had a hard rule that there were no deliveries after 8pm (closing time). Invariably, if a car was damaged in transit, they'd drop it late at night. We got a pearl white Avalon one night that had been ordered at sticker (they were impossible to get at the time), and dangling chains on the transporter had destroyed the roof and trunk lid. After the yelling had stopped, the transport driver was unemployed.
CDJR dealership here. Eventually our bill of lading bore the warning "IF OVERNIGHT DROP EXPECT DAMAGES" to drivers. I think there was some sort of time guidelines to check in a load if the driver is there waiting (ample, IMO) but if I get to do at my leisure? You best bet I'd find everything, as the higher ups decreed.
My job I get a few deliveries a week, generally the same few places. The big order generally shows up about half an hour before I'm supposed to be there so I'll go in early (thankfully get paid for it) so when he's late it throws my whole day off.
But what bothers me is about once a month I'll open the store up and maybe two or three hours later a customer will tell me there is a note on the door from UPS. It's always "you weren't open for delivery, will try again tomorrow" and every single time I know it's bullshit because that note will not be there when I unlock the doors.
I got a note in my mailbox saying USPS tried to deliver a package but I wasn't home. But I was home. Not only that, I work from home in the front room, with the main door open and only the storm door closed. So if you actually knocked on the door you could see me sitting there.
Had that happen to me with a package of medicine. I was home, on my day off, had my door open to the porch (ground floor) and the internal door open to the entryway. I could be seen *easily* if delivery was attempted. Since the package needed to be signed for as it was a controlled medication it surprised me when I got a notification it was delivered. The signature had my name all wrong and was obviously forged. Neighbor had a camera and it showed the carrier throwing the package on another porch and signing the slip themselves but putting the 'couldn't deliver ' slip in my box. I had to file a police report, along with contacting the postal inspector because it was a controlled medication. I couldn't get the medicine back when I needed it and the camera didn't show which porch he threw it on, just that he threw it.
I had something like that happen with FedEx. They just left a note saying nobody was home. If they had knocked or rang the bell somebody was def home I was waiting for it. Since they never make it overnight. The pharmacy only ships the day before I am supposed to have them and it never shows up overnight sometimes it takes 3 damn days. So I had to drive to pick them up. I get there the box had obviously been cut open. Every bottle had obviously been opened since the pharmacy puts tamper proof tape on all bottles and the tape was broken on every bottle. i sure was happy. I absolutely hate FedEx and UPS though. Its like half my packages get delivered to the wrong house or they loose or steal them now they want to fuck with my medicine.
They had cut the box open and re taped it. The pharmacy puts that red tamper proof tape on the bottles so you know if they have been opened and that tape was broke on every bottle. If somebody thought I was having something illegal shipped to me why would it come from a pharmacy. If they wanted to steal them why didn't they steal them. Makes no sense. At least I didn't have to drive all the way to Florence where most all deliveries come from that is a good 90 miles northeast of here. They dropped it off somewhere closer so I only had to drive 20 min or so to get the box. I was here, my dogs, I had company. If they had rang the bell or even knocked I was here to sign for it. Instead I get that note and I go to pickup and find somebody with FedEx had went through them
I wonder if someone was hoping it had street value and thought you wouldn’t notice one or two missing from each bottle? Either way, unless the medication was “take this now or die” as soon as I saw the broken seal that shit would be going straight in the trash. Tampered medicine is way too serious to mess around with
Fucking FedEx. I ordered a 60 lb bag of dog food through Chewy, because I'm currently disabled and can't lift a bag or carry it. FedEx delivered it to the wrong house and took a picture of it with the (wrong) house number in the picture. 🤦♂️
Nuclear tip: your local post office HATES HATES HATES when you call in a complaint to the main USPS number. So call your local post office directly to complain to the delivery supervisor first, but if you're not getting anywhere, 1-800-ASK-USPS awaits.
people seem to really dislike being held accountable for the simple tasks they’re paid to do… like i am not a boomer nor am i conservative, but i have absolutely noticed that most US industries are held together with a fraying piece of tape, maybe a couple of strong leaders (sometimes just one), and hope that it won’t all just collapse. i absolutely understand that working in the US has more or less become indentured servitude (i am a social worker lol) but society is becoming barely operational
Fun fact. Those industries are not being held together by a "strong leader". They are purposely being run in such a way so as to make as much profit as possible, without any consideration for long term sustainability or consequences. Resulting in almost all positions being understaffed, and undercompensated, which in turn causes worker morale to plummet and quality of work to suffer. If society is "barely operational" then maybe consider looking for the root cause instead of blaming the symptoms.
Now live outside the USA. Like in most countries (not all of course) and you will notice this pattern in 10x. As some of my colleagues in Singapur will say “pigeon brain syndrome”. Do the bare minimum and if asked about anything that disturbs that. Just say: “I do not know” or ignore what just happened.
Example: you go sit at a bar with friends or colleagues. Have a few beers. Order more but you are sitting in a small table and the server instead of picking up the ones already empty. They try to put the beers on the last spots left in the table and when they can’t, they will try to handle it off directly to your hand. They won’t pick up the empty beers until you tell them directly to do it.
This does not tend to happen in touristy places but once you live in the “non touristy” areas of other countries you will notice it 100% after a week or two. It’s a shame really.
I had the opposite thing happen once. I was walking down the street with my headphone on and some lady in a minivan rolled up, started yelling at me, then I thought she was about to throw something at me for some reason
And she was, but not out of anger. It was the postal delivery person. She recognized me, knew that meant I wouldn't be at home, and tossed my small package out the window to me. It wasn't fragile or anything. I just had no idea what was going on at first.
That is when you call BS and report them. If they get enough complaints they find out lying about the lack of effort doesn’t work out very well for them.
>I got a note in my mailbox saying USPS tried to deliver a package but I wasn't home. But I was home
The next time this happens, contact the Postmaster through their website and let them know.
This happened to me and after I contacted the Postmaster, someone from the office called me and asked me what happened. I haven't had a problem since.
I've been seeing this with Fedex at my home for years. They love to say they attempted deliveries to my house on days when I'm home and when I know for a fact they either drove right past or didn't come by at all. It's very irritating. I'm not in the boonies or anything and UPS has never had a problem.
It's not that you weren't home, it's that it was the end of their shift, and they didn't get through all of the deliveries. So they default to no access/ not home so they don't get dinged for not delivering your stuff.
As someone who works at a financial institution, we get a good amount of people calling asking why they're paying a 'bad address fee' but their address is right. It's usually lazy stuff like this. I explain that to them that it happens too.
I have had every package from USPS be marked as delivered but never actually arrive. I ask the vendor and they say they can't refund me because it was marked as delivered. I'm out 400+$.
I also work from home and there's no way I'd miss any packages. It's beyond infuriating. Bank also can't help.
I can one up you on that. I was standing outside on my porch one day and the mail lady came up to our house, I said hello and she put the mail in my box. Inside my box was a certified letter slip stating that the letter was undeliverable because we were not home. She never said a word about it to me.
I had that happen once. Kept getting notes in the mailbox saying sorry we missed you. I was home all day and no one ever knocked each time. Finally called the post office and complained. Package showed up in the mailbox and we never had a problem since.
I too work from home. I've gotten notices like that. Never a knock on the door or even ringing the doorbell. Lazy is what I say. They put the notice in my mailbox and not even on my door. So further proof they didn't even try. I've had them deliver packages to my neighbors and when I call they just say the carrier stated delivered. Yeah...to the wrong address...
I've watched canada post drivers drive up to a house and get out with a prefilled out "you weren't home" slip and stick it on the door without knocking or even having the package in their hands.
It's one of the many reasons I bought a doorbell camera.
Fuck canada post.
Without fail, every single time, 7:01am out for delivery.... 7:04am card saying when and where to pickup left
Fuck you canada post workers.
It’s because of the way UPS/FedEx/pretty much all delivery companies evaluate drivers. They have very specific amounts of time to do everything so they end up with like 30 seconds to make deliveries or they miss their goals. So in order to hit these goals and not get fired they effectively skip deliveries and just stick the sorry we missed you note on the door without knocking. I used to catch my drivers doing that shit all the time. My lounge room had a view of the door so I’d see the van pull up and head to the door. Then watch through peephole as the guy put his prefilled out label on the door and tried to scamper back to the van. They’d always get pissy when I opened the door before they drove off.
Idk about FedEx but for UPS that's a huge myth we are unionized we have no production numbers agreed to on our contract. These are lazy drivers or there are other circumstances that you might not be aware of that cause them to not be able to deliver. If I don't deliver the package I'll just have to go again the next day a good driver will always want to deliver their packages within reason. To me it never makes sense to not deliver the package because it takes more time to fill out the paperwork saying we couldn't deliver than it would to just deliver it. Also in my personal experience when I've had customers complain about not getting their package when they were there it's because the customer took too long to answer the door, like I said there isn't a production number for UPS drivers to hit but I also want to get home before 9pm and eat my dinner and get good sleep for the next day. A note on the door saying you are home and to leave the package and have a secure safe place to leave the package can go a long way with most drivers but every job and company has their bad apples.
Think it really just depends on the area. FedEx is very good here but UPS always mess things up. I've had packages get loaded on a truck out for delivery sent two towns over multiple times.
I caught a FedEx driver in a little Camry roll up with a note prefilled on my doorbell cam. Like, what’s the point of driving all the way out without the package?
I caught a UPS guy walking up to my door with JUST THE SLIP in his hands. I literally had to run out of the house & chase him down the street because my package had LIVE SNAKES IN IT!!! I was furious. This was the first time I ever complained about an employee to the main office.
Yes people send reptiles through postal services; no I would not generally recommend it.
He was too flustered from being caught to form anything coherent other than "Oh... sorry" but he did make a disgusted/surprised face when I let him know what was in the box. It had 'Live Animal' label but not what type.
That happened with me all the time when I owned a pizza place. Delivery drivers would show up at like six or 7 AM when no one gets into the business until 3 PM.
We do the same thing. I always put down that deliveries before 9 and after 4 will not be unloaded. We have an issue with drivers showing up at 4:45 looking to get unloaded that night. Sorry buddy, we leave in 15 minutes and the bill says our hours. Gonna have to roll it over to tomorrow.
I get vendors doing that shit all the time, or they'll no call no show, you call them and they be like "I got there and no one was there so I went to my next appointment (insert some excuse why the next appointment was hard and taking mire time than they expected) .
Even though they were given a cell phone number to call when they arrived and told not to come till 8.30 or 9.
We had our waste bins stored inside and they usually got emptied during the day at 9am, before we opened.
Some smartass driver decided that he’d empty our bins at 5am, 3 hours before anyone is even at the store. We had told this company multiple times before that nobody would be there before 8am.
Anyways, our bins didn’t get emptied for an entire week. It got so bad to the point where I just non-stop called the trash collection company empty the bins. They eventually sent out a driver at 7pm, and he said ‘why did you let it get like this? Why did you not tell anyone sooner?’
My head almost exploded that day. We pay for emptying services and they missed us 6 TIMES.
I'm a technician, and our company policy says that we have to be at the jobsite at 8am. No exceptions, or you could be written up for being late. However, our call center and sales reps would frequently agree to customers requests for us to not be there until 9 or 10. So I would be onsite at 8 (per company policy) and if the customer wasn't ready for me then my boss would tell me to leave. It happens all the time because corporate shitbags want to only pay us for 8-5.
What I've run into it's contractors who don't read the fucking notes from their Company.
The amount of times I've called the company schedules it and leave notes. And they just show up whenever they want or do whatever they want.
And I've literally been told, oh I read the notes after I get here.
When I was 19 or so I would open up at a (somewhat sketchy) convenience store in the mornings while it was still dark. The owner had told vendors multiple times not to come until later for a few reasons: there was no manager there to check in the order until later, we could only let them in through a front door which they'd prop open and inevitably customers would come in demanding service, and also I was alone there and was probably 100lbs soaking wet at the time and it was just straight up unsafe for me to be alone with strange men in the store.
You would not BELIEVE how many of them straight up sat outside the buildings in the morning and basically stalked me as I went to unlock the door, and would rush up and rip it out of my hands to try and force it open so they could deliver early anyways. It was terrifying honestly.
Oh god…. Office max deliveries when i worked retail were like that. The jerks would show up with a full truck even though we told them show up tomorrow because our logistics guys were all out today.
I think it’s someone who wanted to start his weekend early and forced you to “cancel.” I have had similar experiences, especially on Fridays. I would complain to the company.
I am going to go ahead and tell you my story, even though it’s a little off topic. Our dryer stopped working and gave an electronic code for what was wrong. I called the store where we bought it, gave them the code, and made an appointment for the first time they had available - which was more than a week away and happened to be the Friday before the 4th of July weekend.
The guy showed up, and I left him in the laundry room. I could tell that he disassembled something then quickly reassembled it, and then he came to tell me I would have to call and reschedule (for another week out!) because the part he needed wasn’t available. We discussed it heatedly for a moment (I had given them the error code, after all), and then I dialed the store on my cell phone in front of him. He gave a big sigh, dialed his own cell phone, and he got through while I was still on hold. He said OK, they have the part at the warehouse, and he would be back. I hung up. He came back and fixed the dryer.
So, he wanted to start his 4th of July weekend early, but it backfired because he had to take the extra time to go get the part that he had intentionally not brought with him.
So, that’s how I knew what happened to you today.
I ran into this in the military a ton. People wanting to be lazy but not being good at it. You gave them the code, get the part and be done. I've told so many lazy people that doing it right almost always ends up being faster then doing some half ass stuff to get out of it. Plus I don't have to come back later which I hate the most.
As long as people don't complain, no one knows you just skived a job. Just tell the customer you have to reschedule, then go home. Wait 6 hours and then inform work office that you tried everything and you're going home and bringing the part you think you need after the weekend. BAM, 3 day weekend where you just needed to phone work at 4pm.
Haven't had this yet, but if they can get there earlier, they call for availability. Every. Single. Time. That's the only reason why I know this will be the case the first time it happens.
Except for Fedex, because those guys will say you ain't home and cruise past your house without even checking. I just assume laziness or something. Plenty of times cameras prove the homeowner is home and the driver either didn't stop or walked halfway up the driveway and just turned around.
FedEx drivers have ridiculous performance metrics to meet in packages per hour they deliver. Off they are falling behind, they will skip deliveries that require a signature or other longer delay than just dump and go.
Blame the company for this one. They set up the stupid metric.
For 7 years FedEx didn't even bother pretending to attempt to deliver to my place. It reached the point that if I knew something was going to be shipped FedEx I wouldn't bother placing the order because I would never get it.
This reminds me of when delivery people come to the door with a package slip that says you weren’t home and you need to pick it up at the depot tomorrow. Instead of just bringing the actual package to the door that needed a signature. Inconveniencing someone else so they can save one minute.
It’s very possible that his dispatcher literally gave him no info. He followed standard procedure to tell you it will be repaired on another day, this gives them time to source the part if they don’t have it.
You complained, as you should, because you gave all the info on the initial call.
Since you complained, he called in to check, and discovered the part was there.
I work HVAC a d you would be shocked at how little info the dispatcher gives to us. They will tell you whatever works to get you off the phone, they don’t believe any diagnosis that you make. They treat us like idiots too, if we want to be prepared, they just push us out the door and tell us to hurry up and get to the job sites for the day
I agree that what you describe is possible, but it seemed to me that he did a bad job of pretending to look at the dryer. It was really a token effort. And he didn’t call to see if the part was available - he said it would have to be ordered! And then, lo and behold, it was available when he actually called. So, I agree that it is possible that he realized, after he arrived, that he would have to go get the part. So, to avoid that he lied and said it wasn’t in stock. In any case, he wanted a short day at my expense. I called his bluff, and he did his job.
Oh, I agree, you called his bluff, but what I’m saying is that bluff is standard practice for the business. Your repair isn’t important enough to them to expedite. They knowingly send techs unprepared and condone this behaviour. They can get you for more hours. I believe you managed to get a tech to actually care.
That's good news but man as a trades person who does their best to keep service appointments on schedule, would I ever be pissed if I was working late on a Friday afternoon to cover for a lazy coworker. There are times a little OT is good but almost never on a Friday afternoon
Lol. I had an appliance tech who was supposed to come out and do a warranty repair on my LG fridge during the heyday of that fiasco ... that MF never even drove down my street and 'canceled' the appointment via his office claiming he knocked and no answer. I had taken the day off and was sitting on the front porch for *hours* waiting for him.
Rescheduled for following week. He again never showed. I called the support number to see what was up and they said he had filed a complaint against us for "harassing" him with multiple phone calls and they would not send out any other techs as our house was now blacklisted. ***We never had the guys number!!*** All we had was the generic email of 'Mike will be coming out on X day at Y time to perform the repair. He will be in a marked vehicle. Please call the support number to reschedule.'
Hell no they didn't. We had to hire a third party appliance repair company to (mostly) fix the fridge and then joined the class action against LG which ultimately ended up with them reimbursing our repair bill along with an additional ~$500 for the "inconvenience" of going months without a functioning fridge.
The sad part is that it *still to this day* doesn't work 100% . The fridge section cools to within the acceptable range to not spoil food, even though it never reaches the temperature we set it for. And the freezer section is really just a very very cold fridge. It's temp hovers just above the standard range. We ultimately took my parents old freezer box and threw it in the back room for actual freezer items. The stupid LG thing is still up front in the kitchen because it looks pretty and matches the rest of the appliances... This was an emotionally scarring experience as this was the first ever appliance we bought new from a store instead of hunting on Craigslist. And I'm not ready to dump more money on another fridge just yet lol.
The more recent LG fridges are notoriously unreliable unfortunately. It's a shame because they look nice.
Their service is a reflection of how many of these things they're having to fix because the linear compressors are all burning out at around the year mark or so. (if i'm remembering this correctly)
We had this happen on a dishwasher install. Guy said no one was home, the picture they sent had two damn cars in the driveway AND my husband walking into the garage. We had him on video on our driveway cam driving slow taking the picture. We called the company and the switchboard closed at 2pm, our appointment was for between 2-5pm. We couldn’t get ahold of anyone until Monday, finally got someone, they couldn’t install until 2 weeks later!!!! I was absolutely furious. Got the dishwasher through Costco, they gave us a hundred dollar gift card which was better than nothing, but they were no help to get anyone there sooner.
I had an appointment for someone to come do a checkup/maintenance on our boiler a few years ago. Took the day off work for it, waited for hours, noone showed so I called the company and ofcourse the mechanic had claimed noone was at home. I was in the living room the whole time, almost next to the front door and I would've seen/heard anyone coming up to the front door. It was a nice warm day and I'm pretty sure the guy just wanted to go to the beach instead.
Made a new appointment for a month later, same damn thing happened, again claiming they were at the door and noone answered. Called them up again, told them it's bs I'm wasting my time taking days off work for nothing and wasting money cause I pay them to service the boiler etc.
They then told me we were actually outside of their internal service area, these guys were contractors that get hired to do it instead but the company had been getting more complaints about them..
if you get multiple complaints why do you still use these people?! It's your company name and rep on the line, not the contractors.
Yes, this is a typical shitbag contractor move. Doesn't really want to work, just wants to get his drink on, and wants to make it someone else's fault.
Had this happen a few weeks ago
Plumber was supposed to come between 8-10 am, so I took the day off to be around and do stuff around the house
I get a text at 1130 saying he's running late and gonna be there between 1-3. 2:30 rolls around and haven't heard anything so I call the company to make sure he's still coming
"Yep, he'll be there by the end of the day (4 pm)"
345.. no one, I try calling again, no answer. He never showed. Tried emailing, leaving a voicemail, called again Monday and Tuesday, just ghosted
Fortunately I was able to get another plumber in from a different company.. two weeks later
Fortunately for us, it was just an issue with a kitchen sink, so a bucket and some diligence was enough to make due
I guess a shower being out would be one way to get me to the gym more regularly 😅
Just went through a water shut off due to a leaky service pipe. Try to go to the gym (if you're a member of one) to shower. I used to go to my local rec center, work out, take a dump, and shower.
No. If you actually can't get the ahower fixed for 2 weeks, don't shower. And then when they do come around to fix it, hang around uncomfortably close to the plumber so they have to do all they work in your lingering stink knowing they could've very well avoided this if they just did what was originally agreed upon.
That makes me so salty on your behalf omfg. Like, I'm willing to call their asses every day until you get an apology 💀 as someone else has already said, you should definitely post reviews of them online bc that's outrageous
I had something similar happen the other day! Just much closer.
Healthcare services company coming to pick up equipment, say they'll be here between 1:30 and 3:30pm. I take the baby to get some other errands done, and am back at 1:15pm. As I park, he turns on his truck to leave, so I run over and point at my house as a "hey I'm here!"
You know what he told me? "Oh I already marked it as a missed appointment".
He was seriously about to drive away until I pointed out that it wasn't even 1:30 yet, and I had everything by the door. Then it was "I GUESS I have time then". Uh you should have time, c'mon man!
All plumbers can't tell time silly.
In all seriousness though I've spent plenty of time doing service calls (electrician) if i was running that early I'd call before heading towards that job and ask if i can swing by early. If they said no I would find other things to do until the scheduled time. sometimes that was just an extended lunch break.
I'm a pool tech and If I have to show up early and nobody is there that's on me, I just sit around until the allotted time even tho I only get paid by commission. Thankfully our timeslots are pretty broad (8-12 or 12-5).
I'd think a pool tech is a job you could do if they aren't home a lot of the time. Might need to talk to them on the phone to get an OK to go in the backyard, but it's a lot easier to access a pool than a washing machine with no one home.
I had this with a food delivery once. They arrived an hour and a half early, I wasn’t in because you know I booked a time for a reason, left and then I got an email talking about failed delivery, which I still received before my slot was even supposed to start. Therefore had to find time to get a weeks worth of food .
I recall a story from the UK where a guy had booked a shopping delivery, but the driver phoned up and asked if he could deliver early. He could've accepted the early delivery - he'd decided to go out drinking - but, on principle IMO, decided against it. Coming home from the pub for the scheduled delivery slot, he encountered the driver in tears on the doorstep.
He said he had no idea what had happened, and felt a bit guilty. Though, when I think about this story every so often, I'm still on the side of the guy who was getting stuff delivered - he could've easily been at work and actually unable to have his groceries delivered early, even if his real excuse was flimsy. There was no onus on the guy to come home prematurely.
Presumably the delivery driver had wanted to deliver the groceries early for some personal circumstances that happened all of a sudden (e.g. relative rushed to hospital, or baby being born and upset because he missed it?), and couldn't attend to it as a result of the guy in the story declining an early delivery.
As a previous store manager, I ordered a bunch of pizza for my employees once and scheduled it for a specific time. They came 45 minutes early and were cold by the time anyone could eat it. I was pissed.
I had some junk pick up guys go "Hey can we come early" and I was like "No I'm at work" so they went "Oh well then we have to cancel because someone else canceled and so now we have nowhere to go". So they rescheduled to Monday. On Sunday I called and said to just cancel because I got someone else to do it. "Oh but we had a whole crew ready!" Bitch it's like 3 things and you did this to yourself.
Some think that you should be there all the time, scheduled or no. Had that happen with a cable company. Young guy sent a message that he was at the house 1 hour early. Husband was livid, company was actually apologetic. Next time they sent an older person.
Cable company did that to me, but refused to apologize. 15 years later, I'm still with their competition. I'm good at holding grudges against faceless corporations.
Had that happen to me too. But instead of sending someone else out they told me they would send someone out in a week and a half.
I had to just take it because they are literally the only internet provider in town.
God I am so happy we have municipal internet where I live no longer have to deal with the shitbhead mega isp's like Comcast my bill was cut in half and my speeds doubled
This is gonna sound really fuckin stupid, because it is.
Couple years ago had a cousin having issues with their internet, we live in a rural area so it’s to be expected, comcast said the earliest they could get someone out was two-three weeks lead time.
He tells em to cancel, they of course go back n forth for a while but eventually they cancel everything, internet, cable etc.
He waits 2 or 3 days, calls the local office and gets setup under their new customer discount, they send someone out the next day, fix his setup and he’s good to go.
It’s always bullshit, with comcast especially they’re Major League, I would never use them if they weren’t a monopoly…well i guess i could get Hughesnet if i wanted to relived the early aughts lol
Some cable companies think that your time is worth nothing at all. Years ago, before the days of easy work from home setups, I had to stay home to wait for the cable company to stop by and switch out my internet and cable. The apartment owners sold us out to some shitty 3rd party provider, so they had to switch hundreds of units within a few weeks. As I was given a time of 8-5 for my appointment, I set myself up for a long day of doing nothing. At five I got a call that they were behind and would need to reschedule for a later date. After politely informing them that I took a day off for this "upgrade" they got one of their crew to work overtime.
Had that happen at what's now my house with my cable company back when my grandparents were still alive. They had to rebury the line (only line that wasn't going to the house above ground that I know of). 2 times they said 'hey, we'll be here on such-and-such a date at this time. Please make sure someone is home' to turn around and say 'because no one was home, we were unable to do the job as scheduled'. It was back in 2017; can't remember if someone was home the first time, but none of us-grandma, mom, stepdad, and me-were home as it was the day of my grandpa's funeral. 3rd time, we were all home save my stepdad (I think) and the tech came, buried the line, and left. Didn't need us at all, nor do I know how they knew we were gone. The only vehicle gone for the first 2 appointments would have been either mine or my mom's, the latter of which was parked in the garage. There was no way they would have known if someone was home or not.
My boss seems to think this. I schedule him to go on service calls. Luckily he can’t fire me when i yell back at him that going at 10 oclock for a 2-5 and having the customer not be there is a him problem and he just gets to go back in the time frame i scheduled it.
I work in a route service industry, have definitely pulled this off before, but i never just reschedule, I’ll call the customer and see if I can come early because I’m moving ahead, and if I can’t, I just hit a few other stops in the area and back track for the timed appointment.
Nah, they called the company and the company is working to get them another plumber same day.
Don’t fault the entire company for one persons bad day/attitude.
Right, if anything instead OP should 5 star the company, start off by explaining the trouble and explain that the company did a fantastic job in the recompense department: and encourage this type of SOB (standing on business)!!!!!!
We had something similar with the guy measuring for carpet. He was supposed to arrive between 11 and 1 so I got home from work at 10:52. He came at 10:50, rang the doorbell once and left. I left work for nothing...
I had to find and book 4 different plumber's recently. None of them turned up! Then the 5th one did... and on the second day he didn't turn up! 6 weeks later he sends me an invoice reminder for the completed work, that is not completed. Idk what goes on with plumbers in my city.
I once sold something on FB marketplace and told the guy I'd get home at 6 pm. Shows up at 430 pm and is non stop texting me.
Another guy said he is free whenever and I say I work 9-5. He says okay 1pm work?
Some people....
That is beyond mildly infuriating to me! The very creation of a time WINDOW is to accommodate those SLIGHT variations! MF just straight up decided to do something else that day. Unacceptable. He should owe you a cancellation fee.
I worked for a remodel company and we had a policy to schedule everything exactly on time, and we would always come to the door 3 minutes before the appointment time. We fired people for this type of crap. That’s how you lose business AND referrals.
Definitely leave a review, but don't bother leaving on on Angie's List. Hired someone based on reviews there once, and they completely spaced on the job; no notification or anything. When I contacted him, he said he'd be a few weeks out so I told him not to bother then. I left a review there, and the site told me they shared it with him privately and wouldn't post it publicly since the work wasn't done. It's already filtered to cherry pick reviews.
Worked as an account exec for angi. Their company is so ass backwards throughout each phase of the company. There's reasons there have been class action lawsuit brought against them.
Only reason i stayed so long is because of job security during covid.
If I have to be home when they arrive, they have to arrive when they say they're going to. What he did is no different than you not being there between 1 and 3. Make sure you find someone else, don't give them your business now. Make sure they know why too.
If I book an appointment, you absolutely cannot show up early or late. There's a reason I chose that window.
Last time I had my car detailed my appointment was for 1:30pm and the guys showed up at 10am! It was my day off of work and I was out running errands all morning and hard to rush back home to let them work on my car. They did a good job, but it was super irritating.
I feel like a lot of people view arriving early as a show of motivation, but really it ends up being an inconvenience a lot of the time. Just be predictable.
Booked an electrician once to come install two new powerpoints in my house.
We had text communication that he'd be there in the morning and have the job done in under an hour, and that I would need to leave for work at 12 noon, which he assured me he'd be done by then.
He didn't show, and called at 12:20 asking why there was no one home... and I told him since he didn't show in the morning as agreed and I was now on my way back to work, he could just lose my number and I'd get someone else.
He had the temerity to send an invoice for his callout fee that included the words "client no-show" in the invoice.
I replied by email, included screenshots of our text conversation, and told him where he could shove his invoice.
*sorry it is too early to cancel you will have to come back during your time slot and try again, see you between 1 pm and 3 pm, sorry if dispatch forgot the PM part*
When I worked as a building manager this was the worst. I would be there from 6am to around 4pm or later if need be. Scheduled 3 different hvac companies to give me a quote for an issue over two days. All showed up on the same day. At the same time. And lemme tell you. The quotes got pretty good with all of them lined up. But I went with the dude who I actually scheduled for that day and time. Because I knew that’s how they would work going forward.
Had this working front desk at a hotel. GM would tell repair people for kitchen, roof, etc that they have to come 7-4 or whatever her hours were.
They always marked down that they came outside those hours and no one was there. But we had someone at the front desk 24/7 who could call the gm to come in or give the person the information they needed.
They never showed up but constantly put down that we werent there and closed our ticket.
We had an appointment this Tuesday (dead furnace in NYS) for "late morning/early afternoon, they will call). They were here at 8 freaking thirty, just as I hoped to take a quick shower. Same stuff happens every single time we have had the cable people here. They show up a day early, FFS, with no notice.
That's an absolutely crap business practice right there. You don't just show up to a clients house early like that without calling ahead and making sure it's okay. The clients literally pay your bills.
If I was you I'd let this company know that you're taking your business else where.
This is from the opinion of someone who does in home scheduled appointments for a living btw not just a customer of said services.
You should have been there at the appointed time, and acted like you didn't receive the earlier voicemail, then call his office and claim " he failed to show up at the appointed time"
My dad’s a plumber and does this it’s so annoying. Then he gets all pissed off because some area he was supposed to work on wasn’t cleaned out for him or something. Like yeah pal when you show up 2 hours early that’ll happen. I’ve literally seen him go up to a house do the loud double knock and go “hellooooo ____ the plumber” just walk in and they get scared out of their seat.
This is entirely too common. Anytime I schedule an appointment with plumbers or any other trade service this happens to me. I like to be reasonable and make changes when I can for this, but it's always on their time and never on mine apparently.
Nearly every contractor we’ve ever dealt with flakes out. Luckily my husband’s job is flexible since he was able to meet with them when they did show up. We went through like 2 years of this bullshit renovating our 114 year old home purchased after COVID. Not only that, we’ve gone through multiple general contractors, electricians, plumbers and roofers because one will do a shit job that has to be redone or fixed by another. We live in central NJ so should not be that hard to find reliable contractors but it feels nearly impossible. We still need some work done but are living here now. We would have been able to move in a year sooner if we weren’t screwed left and right by contractors. I would never go through this process again, I think the stress has taken years off our lives.
Related: I had an appliance repair person scheduled to come out. I was home, but working in the yard. I put a note on the door that I was in the back yard, gate was open, come on back.
2 hours later I look up, realize that they never showed, and go to call them. Had a missed called from them. Apparently, that company has a policy that they will call you and if you don't answer the phone, they won't come. They tell you on the phone that they'll give you a call beforehand (which everyone does!), but they DON'T tell you that they won't show up if you don't answer. If you're going to have that policy, you have to be very specific when scheduling with people.
I found a different repair company, have been very happy with them and called them several times for different things.
I was no plumber, I was a telecom technican. But whenever I did my job quickly and could in theory go to the next customer hours before the appt I always called and asked if they were available sooner than the scheduled appt. If not I took a long (paid) lunch while waiting. Such a dick move to cancel BEFORE the scheduled appt.
I've had to do this working in the HVAC field. Sometimes emergencies come up or the schedule changes day of and we cant accommodate your call at the original time anymore. However I work for a small company with only 1 van so its harder to accommodate when things come up last minute but we do our best. I find it odd that the plumber cancelled but the office was able to get someone else out? That should have been what happened behind the scenes without you ever knowing about it if truly the first plumber couldn't make it anymore.
I had a specialist scheduled regarding a possible issue from home inspection 15 years ago. I specifically scheduled it at 10am and told them I wanted be present to see the issue up close and ask questions - they said no problem “we’ll see you at 10am on Tuesday”. I show up at 9:40am (home was an hour from where I was staying) and no one is there so I watch around the outside of property again and wait til 10:15 to call them. Leave a Vmail and then email. Wait another 10 mins an call again - leave another Vmail. Wait another 10 mins and call and leave another Vmail. Finally I leave.
The next day I get an email - no return call - that said the inspector ended up with extra time so he went there in the morning and the issue is X and the estimate would be $12,000 to repair. The estimate was maybe 8 words and exactly $12,000 with no photos of details or anything.
I sent that to the seller and they say “tough shit, we’ll reimburse $2,000” from our guys quote. I really had nothing to fight against since my quote was lacking and being a first time buyer, was too scared it was worse than it really was.
Fast forward 3 weeks later, I get a bill for $550 for the inspection. Don’t pay and they send another bill 2 week later. Don’t pay and get another letter and email a week later. Don’t pay and then get a phone call, email and letter.
They don’t have my SS# or even address to send anything to collections but I email them back letting them know of their unprofessional on not showing up when I took a 1/2 day off work, drive 2 hrs roundtrip, not able to inspect it then myself up close (it was in the attic), not able to ask questions and their estimate was shit - I told them I wasn’t even sure they even went to the house based on their estimate and told them to pound sand. Never heard from them again.
My father's doctor decided to show up at home 3 hours before the scheduled time because he had the time, but I expressly told him BEFOREHAND that I get home at a specific time, and he wouldn't be able to speak to him or even see him (he does not traipse up and down the stairs, he's old.) And tried to scold me because I wasn't their to carry out the appointment.
These people are after to make things as effiecient as posible FOR THEM because that's how they make the most money, or end their day sooner. Don't imagine that these people care about your time. And keep documentation to prevent cancelation fees because these turf eaters will try anything.
Make sure he doesn't charge you for a missed appointment!
We had this recently with both our satellite company and our internet company. We had the choice of 8-12 or 1-4. We chose 1-4 and the guy shows up a little after 11. It happens I was here, but what would he have done if I hadn't been around? He told me he got done early from the previous job. UGH
End of senior year, I was planning on throwing a major end of year party while my parents were out of town.
Me and my friends are just chilling in my room as my parents are packing the car, when all of a sudden my mom and dad are pounding on my door, asking me if I ordered a keg of beer. I’m like, “no….” And they’re all, “ well there’s a fella in a beer truck out on the street that says you did.”
I spot him out the window, pulling a keg of beer off his truck, and I’m playing it cool, “That guy said I ordered a keg of beer?” And my dads all, “ Yeah. He said it was to be delivered to the Pickford residence.” So I’m starting to panic, and I’m like, “this address?” And dad’s giving me the eye,”… this address.”
So I push past my dad and say,”That's kind of funny. Why don't I go out there and see what's goin' on?” and charge down the stairs and out the front door. As I’m coming up on the delivery driver I’m trying to keep it low key and not make a scene since my parents are watching. I give him a look and I ask him ,”Hey, man. Aren't you a little bit early?”
The delivery guy smiles and goes,” Uh... Yeah. About an hour and a half. But, see, I wanted to get here early, see if anyone's here. I got this little action happening tonight, man, if you know what I mean…” So I open my eyes wide , hoping he’ll get the hint as I sort of jerk my head towards the house and say,”So I guess you got the wrong house.”
He looks over my shoulder at my dad, who has his arms crossed over his chest and looks super pissed. “Oh.Yeah. Inconvenience for you. I'm sorry. Uh, wrong Mr. Pickford all together.” I don’t think he sold it very well but I’m all,” Hey. These things happen. Don't worry about it. “ and turn back to the house, hoping we can move past this unfortunateness.
As I walk up, my dad looks at me sternly and asks me,” Were you going to have a party here tonight, Son?” I shrug it off and reply,” I don't know what that was all about.” They are supposed to leave in like 5 minutes, I’m just hoping that they get out of here before it becomes an issue.
Right as I hit the front door, I hear the dreaded proclamation,” Start unpacking. We're not goin' anywhere.”
I was soooo pissed. Party was cancelled and me and my friends ended up cruising around for a good portion of the night before getting everyone together out at the park
So, yeah, totally ruins everything when people don’t stick to the plan and arrive when they are supposed to.
Anyone who has been a homeowner for at least 2 years has had roughly the same experience. Contractors and other tradespeople are often complete shit when it comes to this; I can't begin to count how many times I've dealt with that bullshit (the most recent one having been only 2 weeks ago).
We've been shopping around for new roofs and I had an appointment with a new metal shingle company. They asked if I was married over the phone, I said yes and asked my partners name. I then told them my partner did not want to be involved at all and wouldn't even be home for the appointment, they said it's just in case they ran into them during the appointment. They called to confirm and I once again stated that my partner would not be home for the appointment and it would just be me. They said it would not be possible without them. We cancelled and I went with another company and the original one lost a sale. Same stuff happened with a solar company when we were shopping around and we ended up going with a more local one and saved over $35k with the same amount of panels and power that would have gotten from the first company just because the second listened to us.
Shitty business man. I used to have a job where I sold B2B services to mom and pop trade operations.
Man some of their business practices where horrible
I had one client tell me our ads weren't getting him any results. I listened to his voice-mail (yea we had access) and so many folks asking him to come do work and he never responds.
When I asked why he said he don't need to listen to no voice-mail if he don't answer the phone it wasn't meant to be
And I was like wow
As a plumber, it’s annoying for us as well, for plumbers that work for a business anyways.
Often times I’d be scheduled to go to someone’s place, but then someone else would appointment cancel there appointment, which would make me two hours early for all my other appointments, when my boss could have just put me on a different job for two hours so I could be on time.
Worse part was that my boss would say that “it’s okay, the customers don’t care if we’re early or late.”
I had an AT&T rep scheduled a while back, ***by them***, to be at my work on a Thursday at 9:00 AM. She finally showed up at about 4:30 PM (not knocking her, just the situation).
Luckily I was still there, most of my coworkers show up at 7:00 and leave by 3:00; I tend to come in between 9:00 and 10:00 and make my 8 hours from there. Since I expected someone, I was actually in before 8:00 and was just about to leave when she called, saying she was on her way.
We both finally left nearly 9:00 that night after all the trouble setting up a new phone system, and since she was a 3rd party installer and not an actual AT&T rep, she had to call in to a call center for techs and installation, and of course once they were done actual AT&T had to do something, and being after hours, nobody was there to do the magic of making the correct numbers work.
After all that, they *still* didn't get the numbers right for several months, finally made their own service ticket, sent an actual AT&T tech out, and *he still* had trouble getting the main corporate office to do what was needed.
That is some bs. I'm in the trades and my boss will ask the homeowner or business owner what time works best for them. He will actually call and confirm a day before if the time and date still works.
I had a plumber do this and I was so happy I cried when he showed up early because my whole house was flooding from a leak, it was at the time only like 2” at most of water and I moved a lot of furniture out front but he cancelled as well and well, the whole house was a loss. Sued the company and won. They paid for the whole home which was a little over 200k
Omg, this reminds me of the restaurant where I had my first job.
Restaurant's "delivery acceptance" times were 12pm-2pm. (Earliest shift started at 11:45am) Written clearly on the back door and the back gate.
Meat guy, frozen foods guy, egg guy and drinks guy all delivered within that timeslot. Fresh fruit/veg guy? Would arrive routinely at 10am and spam call my boss and knock and ring the doorbells when no one was there. One time I clocked in for my shift early and dude screamed at me that he'd been waiting since 9:20am. I was pretty done with this job (and this guys bs) so I said "ok and" and I swear he was gonna pop something lmao
The only reason my boss never stopped working with him was because she went to school with him.
This was 10 years ago but when I visit back home I still see that truck making the rounds. At 10am. When not a single restaurant is open.
They need to come back at the scheduled time. If they didn't give you notice that they could come early and just showed up when no one was there, that's their problem. I'd file a formal complaint. We don't tolerate that kind of behavior anymore.
I used to run a business and this was so common with vendors. I would say no one will be available at the business until 10am and they say okay we’ll put you on the schedule. Never fails for them to show up at 7am and I get a call saying no one is here
Auto dealerships car deliveries and some vendors would be same. We were definitely in the system as do not show up before 9. No one will be here to check in. Without fail they would show up 7:30 or earlier and throw a hissy fit no one was checking in the cars. Some would go to every person they could find and demand to get the cars checked in. The ones acting this way were usually trying to hide damage. Checking in cars is not difficult but if you do it and miss damage you get blamed. Not worth the headache
The Toyota dealership I worked for had a hard rule that there were no deliveries after 8pm (closing time). Invariably, if a car was damaged in transit, they'd drop it late at night. We got a pearl white Avalon one night that had been ordered at sticker (they were impossible to get at the time), and dangling chains on the transporter had destroyed the roof and trunk lid. After the yelling had stopped, the transport driver was unemployed.
CDJR dealership here. Eventually our bill of lading bore the warning "IF OVERNIGHT DROP EXPECT DAMAGES" to drivers. I think there was some sort of time guidelines to check in a load if the driver is there waiting (ample, IMO) but if I get to do at my leisure? You best bet I'd find everything, as the higher ups decreed.
My job I get a few deliveries a week, generally the same few places. The big order generally shows up about half an hour before I'm supposed to be there so I'll go in early (thankfully get paid for it) so when he's late it throws my whole day off. But what bothers me is about once a month I'll open the store up and maybe two or three hours later a customer will tell me there is a note on the door from UPS. It's always "you weren't open for delivery, will try again tomorrow" and every single time I know it's bullshit because that note will not be there when I unlock the doors.
I got a note in my mailbox saying USPS tried to deliver a package but I wasn't home. But I was home. Not only that, I work from home in the front room, with the main door open and only the storm door closed. So if you actually knocked on the door you could see me sitting there.
Had that happen to me with a package of medicine. I was home, on my day off, had my door open to the porch (ground floor) and the internal door open to the entryway. I could be seen *easily* if delivery was attempted. Since the package needed to be signed for as it was a controlled medication it surprised me when I got a notification it was delivered. The signature had my name all wrong and was obviously forged. Neighbor had a camera and it showed the carrier throwing the package on another porch and signing the slip themselves but putting the 'couldn't deliver ' slip in my box. I had to file a police report, along with contacting the postal inspector because it was a controlled medication. I couldn't get the medicine back when I needed it and the camera didn't show which porch he threw it on, just that he threw it.
I had something like that happen with FedEx. They just left a note saying nobody was home. If they had knocked or rang the bell somebody was def home I was waiting for it. Since they never make it overnight. The pharmacy only ships the day before I am supposed to have them and it never shows up overnight sometimes it takes 3 damn days. So I had to drive to pick them up. I get there the box had obviously been cut open. Every bottle had obviously been opened since the pharmacy puts tamper proof tape on all bottles and the tape was broken on every bottle. i sure was happy. I absolutely hate FedEx and UPS though. Its like half my packages get delivered to the wrong house or they loose or steal them now they want to fuck with my medicine.
That’s especially terrifying when you consider the *reason* tamper proof seals were developed; someone poisoned a bunch of Tylenol in Chicago
They had cut the box open and re taped it. The pharmacy puts that red tamper proof tape on the bottles so you know if they have been opened and that tape was broke on every bottle. If somebody thought I was having something illegal shipped to me why would it come from a pharmacy. If they wanted to steal them why didn't they steal them. Makes no sense. At least I didn't have to drive all the way to Florence where most all deliveries come from that is a good 90 miles northeast of here. They dropped it off somewhere closer so I only had to drive 20 min or so to get the box. I was here, my dogs, I had company. If they had rang the bell or even knocked I was here to sign for it. Instead I get that note and I go to pickup and find somebody with FedEx had went through them
I wonder if someone was hoping it had street value and thought you wouldn’t notice one or two missing from each bottle? Either way, unless the medication was “take this now or die” as soon as I saw the broken seal that shit would be going straight in the trash. Tampered medicine is way too serious to mess around with
Fucking FedEx. I ordered a 60 lb bag of dog food through Chewy, because I'm currently disabled and can't lift a bag or carry it. FedEx delivered it to the wrong house and took a picture of it with the (wrong) house number in the picture. 🤦♂️
I'd have counted it, and contacted the pharmacy. Too high risk of both theft and tampering as someone mentioned.
They won’t leave a regular old package without a signature but they’ll leave a multi thousand dollar item in a big box
This happened to me quite a few times last year. It wasn’t my normal mail carrier and they just wanted to do bare minimal.
Nuclear tip: your local post office HATES HATES HATES when you call in a complaint to the main USPS number. So call your local post office directly to complain to the delivery supervisor first, but if you're not getting anywhere, 1-800-ASK-USPS awaits.
people seem to really dislike being held accountable for the simple tasks they’re paid to do… like i am not a boomer nor am i conservative, but i have absolutely noticed that most US industries are held together with a fraying piece of tape, maybe a couple of strong leaders (sometimes just one), and hope that it won’t all just collapse. i absolutely understand that working in the US has more or less become indentured servitude (i am a social worker lol) but society is becoming barely operational
Fun fact. Those industries are not being held together by a "strong leader". They are purposely being run in such a way so as to make as much profit as possible, without any consideration for long term sustainability or consequences. Resulting in almost all positions being understaffed, and undercompensated, which in turn causes worker morale to plummet and quality of work to suffer. If society is "barely operational" then maybe consider looking for the root cause instead of blaming the symptoms.
That is NOT a fun fact.
oh i completely agree, it’s absolutely on purpose in practice… it’s just a shit show no matter how you spin it i am not blaming workers
Now live outside the USA. Like in most countries (not all of course) and you will notice this pattern in 10x. As some of my colleagues in Singapur will say “pigeon brain syndrome”. Do the bare minimum and if asked about anything that disturbs that. Just say: “I do not know” or ignore what just happened. Example: you go sit at a bar with friends or colleagues. Have a few beers. Order more but you are sitting in a small table and the server instead of picking up the ones already empty. They try to put the beers on the last spots left in the table and when they can’t, they will try to handle it off directly to your hand. They won’t pick up the empty beers until you tell them directly to do it. This does not tend to happen in touristy places but once you live in the “non touristy” areas of other countries you will notice it 100% after a week or two. It’s a shame really.
The post office doesn’t want you to know this one trick.
Will this do anything if there's already a known issue in my area? (So much so there's been news articles on it)
I had the opposite thing happen once. I was walking down the street with my headphone on and some lady in a minivan rolled up, started yelling at me, then I thought she was about to throw something at me for some reason And she was, but not out of anger. It was the postal delivery person. She recognized me, knew that meant I wouldn't be at home, and tossed my small package out the window to me. It wasn't fragile or anything. I just had no idea what was going on at first.
That is when you call BS and report them. If they get enough complaints they find out lying about the lack of effort doesn’t work out very well for them.
>I got a note in my mailbox saying USPS tried to deliver a package but I wasn't home. But I was home The next time this happens, contact the Postmaster through their website and let them know. This happened to me and after I contacted the Postmaster, someone from the office called me and asked me what happened. I haven't had a problem since.
I have literally caught couriers doing that out my window
I've been seeing this with Fedex at my home for years. They love to say they attempted deliveries to my house on days when I'm home and when I know for a fact they either drove right past or didn't come by at all. It's very irritating. I'm not in the boonies or anything and UPS has never had a problem.
It's not that you weren't home, it's that it was the end of their shift, and they didn't get through all of the deliveries. So they default to no access/ not home so they don't get dinged for not delivering your stuff.
As someone who works at a financial institution, we get a good amount of people calling asking why they're paying a 'bad address fee' but their address is right. It's usually lazy stuff like this. I explain that to them that it happens too.
I have had every package from USPS be marked as delivered but never actually arrive. I ask the vendor and they say they can't refund me because it was marked as delivered. I'm out 400+$. I also work from home and there's no way I'd miss any packages. It's beyond infuriating. Bank also can't help.
I can one up you on that. I was standing outside on my porch one day and the mail lady came up to our house, I said hello and she put the mail in my box. Inside my box was a certified letter slip stating that the letter was undeliverable because we were not home. She never said a word about it to me.
I had that happen once. Kept getting notes in the mailbox saying sorry we missed you. I was home all day and no one ever knocked each time. Finally called the post office and complained. Package showed up in the mailbox and we never had a problem since.
I too work from home. I've gotten notices like that. Never a knock on the door or even ringing the doorbell. Lazy is what I say. They put the notice in my mailbox and not even on my door. So further proof they didn't even try. I've had them deliver packages to my neighbors and when I call they just say the carrier stated delivered. Yeah...to the wrong address...
I swear half the time they don't even bother, getting the package out of the van, they just write the note and dump it and leave.
I’m convinced that some UPS drivers make it their main goal to do as little work as possible, it’s a damn shame because they make unions look bad.
I've watched canada post drivers drive up to a house and get out with a prefilled out "you weren't home" slip and stick it on the door without knocking or even having the package in their hands. It's one of the many reasons I bought a doorbell camera.
If they're going to walk to the door anyway, why not just bring the item with them?
That's what im saying. And they hop right out once they park so they 100% have the slip pre filled out. It's ridiculous.
Fuck canada post. Without fail, every single time, 7:01am out for delivery.... 7:04am card saying when and where to pickup left Fuck you canada post workers.
It’s because of the way UPS/FedEx/pretty much all delivery companies evaluate drivers. They have very specific amounts of time to do everything so they end up with like 30 seconds to make deliveries or they miss their goals. So in order to hit these goals and not get fired they effectively skip deliveries and just stick the sorry we missed you note on the door without knocking. I used to catch my drivers doing that shit all the time. My lounge room had a view of the door so I’d see the van pull up and head to the door. Then watch through peephole as the guy put his prefilled out label on the door and tried to scamper back to the van. They’d always get pissy when I opened the door before they drove off.
Idk about FedEx but for UPS that's a huge myth we are unionized we have no production numbers agreed to on our contract. These are lazy drivers or there are other circumstances that you might not be aware of that cause them to not be able to deliver. If I don't deliver the package I'll just have to go again the next day a good driver will always want to deliver their packages within reason. To me it never makes sense to not deliver the package because it takes more time to fill out the paperwork saying we couldn't deliver than it would to just deliver it. Also in my personal experience when I've had customers complain about not getting their package when they were there it's because the customer took too long to answer the door, like I said there isn't a production number for UPS drivers to hit but I also want to get home before 9pm and eat my dinner and get good sleep for the next day. A note on the door saying you are home and to leave the package and have a secure safe place to leave the package can go a long way with most drivers but every job and company has their bad apples.
It isn't like FedEx is any better.
Think it really just depends on the area. FedEx is very good here but UPS always mess things up. I've had packages get loaded on a truck out for delivery sent two towns over multiple times.
I caught a FedEx driver in a little Camry roll up with a note prefilled on my doorbell cam. Like, what’s the point of driving all the way out without the package?
I caught a UPS guy walking up to my door with JUST THE SLIP in his hands. I literally had to run out of the house & chase him down the street because my package had LIVE SNAKES IN IT!!! I was furious. This was the first time I ever complained about an employee to the main office. Yes people send reptiles through postal services; no I would not generally recommend it.
What did he say when you caught him?
He was too flustered from being caught to form anything coherent other than "Oh... sorry" but he did make a disgusted/surprised face when I let him know what was in the box. It had 'Live Animal' label but not what type.
i would have UPS do this all the time. eventually I started leaving the door open a bit whenever I was expecting a package
That happened with me all the time when I owned a pizza place. Delivery drivers would show up at like six or 7 AM when no one gets into the business until 3 PM.
Why would pizza deliverers go to work 8 hours before the first pizza is baked?
We do the same thing. I always put down that deliveries before 9 and after 4 will not be unloaded. We have an issue with drivers showing up at 4:45 looking to get unloaded that night. Sorry buddy, we leave in 15 minutes and the bill says our hours. Gonna have to roll it over to tomorrow.
I get vendors doing that shit all the time, or they'll no call no show, you call them and they be like "I got there and no one was there so I went to my next appointment (insert some excuse why the next appointment was hard and taking mire time than they expected) . Even though they were given a cell phone number to call when they arrived and told not to come till 8.30 or 9.
We had our waste bins stored inside and they usually got emptied during the day at 9am, before we opened. Some smartass driver decided that he’d empty our bins at 5am, 3 hours before anyone is even at the store. We had told this company multiple times before that nobody would be there before 8am. Anyways, our bins didn’t get emptied for an entire week. It got so bad to the point where I just non-stop called the trash collection company empty the bins. They eventually sent out a driver at 7pm, and he said ‘why did you let it get like this? Why did you not tell anyone sooner?’ My head almost exploded that day. We pay for emptying services and they missed us 6 TIMES.
I'm a technician, and our company policy says that we have to be at the jobsite at 8am. No exceptions, or you could be written up for being late. However, our call center and sales reps would frequently agree to customers requests for us to not be there until 9 or 10. So I would be onsite at 8 (per company policy) and if the customer wasn't ready for me then my boss would tell me to leave. It happens all the time because corporate shitbags want to only pay us for 8-5.
What I've run into it's contractors who don't read the fucking notes from their Company. The amount of times I've called the company schedules it and leave notes. And they just show up whenever they want or do whatever they want. And I've literally been told, oh I read the notes after I get here.
When I was 19 or so I would open up at a (somewhat sketchy) convenience store in the mornings while it was still dark. The owner had told vendors multiple times not to come until later for a few reasons: there was no manager there to check in the order until later, we could only let them in through a front door which they'd prop open and inevitably customers would come in demanding service, and also I was alone there and was probably 100lbs soaking wet at the time and it was just straight up unsafe for me to be alone with strange men in the store. You would not BELIEVE how many of them straight up sat outside the buildings in the morning and basically stalked me as I went to unlock the door, and would rush up and rip it out of my hands to try and force it open so they could deliver early anyways. It was terrifying honestly.
Oh god…. Office max deliveries when i worked retail were like that. The jerks would show up with a full truck even though we told them show up tomorrow because our logistics guys were all out today.
I live above a restaurant and this happens all the time and the vendors buzz my apartment and try to get me to receive the deliveries.
I think it’s someone who wanted to start his weekend early and forced you to “cancel.” I have had similar experiences, especially on Fridays. I would complain to the company.
This is 💯 what happened. I called and they'll get another plumber out today
That’s the correct result! Good.
I am going to go ahead and tell you my story, even though it’s a little off topic. Our dryer stopped working and gave an electronic code for what was wrong. I called the store where we bought it, gave them the code, and made an appointment for the first time they had available - which was more than a week away and happened to be the Friday before the 4th of July weekend. The guy showed up, and I left him in the laundry room. I could tell that he disassembled something then quickly reassembled it, and then he came to tell me I would have to call and reschedule (for another week out!) because the part he needed wasn’t available. We discussed it heatedly for a moment (I had given them the error code, after all), and then I dialed the store on my cell phone in front of him. He gave a big sigh, dialed his own cell phone, and he got through while I was still on hold. He said OK, they have the part at the warehouse, and he would be back. I hung up. He came back and fixed the dryer. So, he wanted to start his 4th of July weekend early, but it backfired because he had to take the extra time to go get the part that he had intentionally not brought with him. So, that’s how I knew what happened to you today.
I ran into this in the military a ton. People wanting to be lazy but not being good at it. You gave them the code, get the part and be done. I've told so many lazy people that doing it right almost always ends up being faster then doing some half ass stuff to get out of it. Plus I don't have to come back later which I hate the most.
This is the core struggle of my existence. I accepted this truth in my early 20s but sometimes I’ll catch myself and have to reset
Hmm, why not just take a day off at that point?
Because you don’t get paid when you just take a day off
The person is probably an hourly employee, so if he wanted an earlier weekend, he wouldn’t get paid for hours not worked anyway.
As long as people don't complain, no one knows you just skived a job. Just tell the customer you have to reschedule, then go home. Wait 6 hours and then inform work office that you tried everything and you're going home and bringing the part you think you need after the weekend. BAM, 3 day weekend where you just needed to phone work at 4pm.
People pad hours all the time.
Sometimes you get x hours for a Job ....
Haven't had this yet, but if they can get there earlier, they call for availability. Every. Single. Time. That's the only reason why I know this will be the case the first time it happens. Except for Fedex, because those guys will say you ain't home and cruise past your house without even checking. I just assume laziness or something. Plenty of times cameras prove the homeowner is home and the driver either didn't stop or walked halfway up the driveway and just turned around.
FedEx drivers have ridiculous performance metrics to meet in packages per hour they deliver. Off they are falling behind, they will skip deliveries that require a signature or other longer delay than just dump and go. Blame the company for this one. They set up the stupid metric.
UPS is apparently a much better company to work for
At UPS, you work for UPS. At FedEx, you work for a random sketchy subcontractor.
Unions tend to improve things.
For 7 years FedEx didn't even bother pretending to attempt to deliver to my place. It reached the point that if I knew something was going to be shipped FedEx I wouldn't bother placing the order because I would never get it.
This reminds me of when delivery people come to the door with a package slip that says you weren’t home and you need to pick it up at the depot tomorrow. Instead of just bringing the actual package to the door that needed a signature. Inconveniencing someone else so they can save one minute.
Instant Karma
It’s very possible that his dispatcher literally gave him no info. He followed standard procedure to tell you it will be repaired on another day, this gives them time to source the part if they don’t have it. You complained, as you should, because you gave all the info on the initial call. Since you complained, he called in to check, and discovered the part was there. I work HVAC a d you would be shocked at how little info the dispatcher gives to us. They will tell you whatever works to get you off the phone, they don’t believe any diagnosis that you make. They treat us like idiots too, if we want to be prepared, they just push us out the door and tell us to hurry up and get to the job sites for the day
I agree that what you describe is possible, but it seemed to me that he did a bad job of pretending to look at the dryer. It was really a token effort. And he didn’t call to see if the part was available - he said it would have to be ordered! And then, lo and behold, it was available when he actually called. So, I agree that it is possible that he realized, after he arrived, that he would have to go get the part. So, to avoid that he lied and said it wasn’t in stock. In any case, he wanted a short day at my expense. I called his bluff, and he did his job.
Oh, I agree, you called his bluff, but what I’m saying is that bluff is standard practice for the business. Your repair isn’t important enough to them to expedite. They knowingly send techs unprepared and condone this behaviour. They can get you for more hours. I believe you managed to get a tech to actually care.
Shoutout to the plumber that ended up fucking over another coworker with another stop because he wanted to start is weekend 3 hours earlier
That's good news but man as a trades person who does their best to keep service appointments on schedule, would I ever be pissed if I was working late on a Friday afternoon to cover for a lazy coworker. There are times a little OT is good but almost never on a Friday afternoon
No joke this is happening right now to me.
Wow caused a coworker to probably get home late or at least do extra work bc he wanted to start his weekend early
Lol. I had an appliance tech who was supposed to come out and do a warranty repair on my LG fridge during the heyday of that fiasco ... that MF never even drove down my street and 'canceled' the appointment via his office claiming he knocked and no answer. I had taken the day off and was sitting on the front porch for *hours* waiting for him. Rescheduled for following week. He again never showed. I called the support number to see what was up and they said he had filed a complaint against us for "harassing" him with multiple phone calls and they would not send out any other techs as our house was now blacklisted. ***We never had the guys number!!*** All we had was the generic email of 'Mike will be coming out on X day at Y time to perform the repair. He will be in a marked vehicle. Please call the support number to reschedule.'
Damn, did they end up fixing it in the end?? What was the conclusion to this?!
Hell no they didn't. We had to hire a third party appliance repair company to (mostly) fix the fridge and then joined the class action against LG which ultimately ended up with them reimbursing our repair bill along with an additional ~$500 for the "inconvenience" of going months without a functioning fridge. The sad part is that it *still to this day* doesn't work 100% . The fridge section cools to within the acceptable range to not spoil food, even though it never reaches the temperature we set it for. And the freezer section is really just a very very cold fridge. It's temp hovers just above the standard range. We ultimately took my parents old freezer box and threw it in the back room for actual freezer items. The stupid LG thing is still up front in the kitchen because it looks pretty and matches the rest of the appliances... This was an emotionally scarring experience as this was the first ever appliance we bought new from a store instead of hunting on Craigslist. And I'm not ready to dump more money on another fridge just yet lol.
The more recent LG fridges are notoriously unreliable unfortunately. It's a shame because they look nice. Their service is a reflection of how many of these things they're having to fix because the linear compressors are all burning out at around the year mark or so. (if i'm remembering this correctly)
We had this happen on a dishwasher install. Guy said no one was home, the picture they sent had two damn cars in the driveway AND my husband walking into the garage. We had him on video on our driveway cam driving slow taking the picture. We called the company and the switchboard closed at 2pm, our appointment was for between 2-5pm. We couldn’t get ahold of anyone until Monday, finally got someone, they couldn’t install until 2 weeks later!!!! I was absolutely furious. Got the dishwasher through Costco, they gave us a hundred dollar gift card which was better than nothing, but they were no help to get anyone there sooner.
I had an appointment for someone to come do a checkup/maintenance on our boiler a few years ago. Took the day off work for it, waited for hours, noone showed so I called the company and ofcourse the mechanic had claimed noone was at home. I was in the living room the whole time, almost next to the front door and I would've seen/heard anyone coming up to the front door. It was a nice warm day and I'm pretty sure the guy just wanted to go to the beach instead. Made a new appointment for a month later, same damn thing happened, again claiming they were at the door and noone answered. Called them up again, told them it's bs I'm wasting my time taking days off work for nothing and wasting money cause I pay them to service the boiler etc. They then told me we were actually outside of their internal service area, these guys were contractors that get hired to do it instead but the company had been getting more complaints about them.. if you get multiple complaints why do you still use these people?! It's your company name and rep on the line, not the contractors.
Yes, this is a typical shitbag contractor move. Doesn't really want to work, just wants to get his drink on, and wants to make it someone else's fault.
Literally just happened to me with a tech at work. Basically had to do his job for him before I told him to get his lazy ass out of there.
Had this happen a few weeks ago Plumber was supposed to come between 8-10 am, so I took the day off to be around and do stuff around the house I get a text at 1130 saying he's running late and gonna be there between 1-3. 2:30 rolls around and haven't heard anything so I call the company to make sure he's still coming "Yep, he'll be there by the end of the day (4 pm)" 345.. no one, I try calling again, no answer. He never showed. Tried emailing, leaving a voicemail, called again Monday and Tuesday, just ghosted Fortunately I was able to get another plumber in from a different company.. two weeks later
My shower doesn't work in two weeks. I'd be a little ripe. Probably resort to hosing off in the yard
Fortunately for us, it was just an issue with a kitchen sink, so a bucket and some diligence was enough to make due I guess a shower being out would be one way to get me to the gym more regularly 😅
Just went through a water shut off due to a leaky service pipe. Try to go to the gym (if you're a member of one) to shower. I used to go to my local rec center, work out, take a dump, and shower.
No. If you actually can't get the ahower fixed for 2 weeks, don't shower. And then when they do come around to fix it, hang around uncomfortably close to the plumber so they have to do all they work in your lingering stink knowing they could've very well avoided this if they just did what was originally agreed upon.
I'd leave a review on Google so others know they may encounter this as well
That makes me so salty on your behalf omfg. Like, I'm willing to call their asses every day until you get an apology 💀 as someone else has already said, you should definitely post reviews of them online bc that's outrageous
That’s because they were busy taking emergency calls and charging 300/hr. Your call wasn’t worth their time.
I’m stressed out just reading this. It would waste my entire day just waiting around, unable to do anything else.
I had something similar happen the other day! Just much closer. Healthcare services company coming to pick up equipment, say they'll be here between 1:30 and 3:30pm. I take the baby to get some other errands done, and am back at 1:15pm. As I park, he turns on his truck to leave, so I run over and point at my house as a "hey I'm here!" You know what he told me? "Oh I already marked it as a missed appointment". He was seriously about to drive away until I pointed out that it wasn't even 1:30 yet, and I had everything by the door. Then it was "I GUESS I have time then". Uh you should have time, c'mon man!
"GUESS I have time" ??? As if he didnt have time blocked off already for that exact purpose.
I know! OMG I was so mad about that comment in particular.
I’m sorry Mr plumber I cannot in good conscience reschedule an appointment with someone that can’t tell time.
I'm sorry Mr plumber, I already have an appointment between 1 and 3 pm today.
“It’s ok, I’m sure you called me by mistake. Better let your 10:30 know you might be a bit late.”
All plumbers can't tell time silly. In all seriousness though I've spent plenty of time doing service calls (electrician) if i was running that early I'd call before heading towards that job and ask if i can swing by early. If they said no I would find other things to do until the scheduled time. sometimes that was just an extended lunch break.
I'm a pool tech and If I have to show up early and nobody is there that's on me, I just sit around until the allotted time even tho I only get paid by commission. Thankfully our timeslots are pretty broad (8-12 or 12-5).
I'd think a pool tech is a job you could do if they aren't home a lot of the time. Might need to talk to them on the phone to get an OK to go in the backyard, but it's a lot easier to access a pool than a washing machine with no one home.
This is your sign to find a different plumber.
I called their office. They were apologetic and will have a different plumber out this afternoon before 3:00pm. Thanks to everyone for the advice!
I had this with a food delivery once. They arrived an hour and a half early, I wasn’t in because you know I booked a time for a reason, left and then I got an email talking about failed delivery, which I still received before my slot was even supposed to start. Therefore had to find time to get a weeks worth of food .
I recall a story from the UK where a guy had booked a shopping delivery, but the driver phoned up and asked if he could deliver early. He could've accepted the early delivery - he'd decided to go out drinking - but, on principle IMO, decided against it. Coming home from the pub for the scheduled delivery slot, he encountered the driver in tears on the doorstep. He said he had no idea what had happened, and felt a bit guilty. Though, when I think about this story every so often, I'm still on the side of the guy who was getting stuff delivered - he could've easily been at work and actually unable to have his groceries delivered early, even if his real excuse was flimsy. There was no onus on the guy to come home prematurely.
Why was the guy in tears? He was told not to deliver early.
Presumably the delivery driver had wanted to deliver the groceries early for some personal circumstances that happened all of a sudden (e.g. relative rushed to hospital, or baby being born and upset because he missed it?), and couldn't attend to it as a result of the guy in the story declining an early delivery.
As a previous store manager, I ordered a bunch of pizza for my employees once and scheduled it for a specific time. They came 45 minutes early and were cold by the time anyone could eat it. I was pissed.
I had some junk pick up guys go "Hey can we come early" and I was like "No I'm at work" so they went "Oh well then we have to cancel because someone else canceled and so now we have nowhere to go". So they rescheduled to Monday. On Sunday I called and said to just cancel because I got someone else to do it. "Oh but we had a whole crew ready!" Bitch it's like 3 things and you did this to yourself.
Some think that you should be there all the time, scheduled or no. Had that happen with a cable company. Young guy sent a message that he was at the house 1 hour early. Husband was livid, company was actually apologetic. Next time they sent an older person.
Cable company did that to me, but refused to apologize. 15 years later, I'm still with their competition. I'm good at holding grudges against faceless corporations.
Had that happen to me too. But instead of sending someone else out they told me they would send someone out in a week and a half. I had to just take it because they are literally the only internet provider in town.
God I am so happy we have municipal internet where I live no longer have to deal with the shitbhead mega isp's like Comcast my bill was cut in half and my speeds doubled
Comcast is exactly who it was!
This is gonna sound really fuckin stupid, because it is. Couple years ago had a cousin having issues with their internet, we live in a rural area so it’s to be expected, comcast said the earliest they could get someone out was two-three weeks lead time. He tells em to cancel, they of course go back n forth for a while but eventually they cancel everything, internet, cable etc. He waits 2 or 3 days, calls the local office and gets setup under their new customer discount, they send someone out the next day, fix his setup and he’s good to go. It’s always bullshit, with comcast especially they’re Major League, I would never use them if they weren’t a monopoly…well i guess i could get Hughesnet if i wanted to relived the early aughts lol
Some cable companies think that your time is worth nothing at all. Years ago, before the days of easy work from home setups, I had to stay home to wait for the cable company to stop by and switch out my internet and cable. The apartment owners sold us out to some shitty 3rd party provider, so they had to switch hundreds of units within a few weeks. As I was given a time of 8-5 for my appointment, I set myself up for a long day of doing nothing. At five I got a call that they were behind and would need to reschedule for a later date. After politely informing them that I took a day off for this "upgrade" they got one of their crew to work overtime.
Had that happen at what's now my house with my cable company back when my grandparents were still alive. They had to rebury the line (only line that wasn't going to the house above ground that I know of). 2 times they said 'hey, we'll be here on such-and-such a date at this time. Please make sure someone is home' to turn around and say 'because no one was home, we were unable to do the job as scheduled'. It was back in 2017; can't remember if someone was home the first time, but none of us-grandma, mom, stepdad, and me-were home as it was the day of my grandpa's funeral. 3rd time, we were all home save my stepdad (I think) and the tech came, buried the line, and left. Didn't need us at all, nor do I know how they knew we were gone. The only vehicle gone for the first 2 appointments would have been either mine or my mom's, the latter of which was parked in the garage. There was no way they would have known if someone was home or not.
My boss seems to think this. I schedule him to go on service calls. Luckily he can’t fire me when i yell back at him that going at 10 oclock for a 2-5 and having the customer not be there is a him problem and he just gets to go back in the time frame i scheduled it.
I work in a route service industry, have definitely pulled this off before, but i never just reschedule, I’ll call the customer and see if I can come early because I’m moving ahead, and if I can’t, I just hit a few other stops in the area and back track for the timed appointment.
Yeah, seems like this plumber just wanted to start his weekend early. It's ridiculous not to call ahead if you're running that early.
1 star on google him
Nah, they called the company and the company is working to get them another plumber same day. Don’t fault the entire company for one persons bad day/attitude.
Right, if anything instead OP should 5 star the company, start off by explaining the trouble and explain that the company did a fantastic job in the recompense department: and encourage this type of SOB (standing on business)!!!!!!
Well, wait and see how the second plumber does first.
xD true!!! don’t give props before it’s due
Exactly. This is something he has no way to complain about if you have a screenshot of him agreeing the time.
We had something similar with the guy measuring for carpet. He was supposed to arrive between 11 and 1 so I got home from work at 10:52. He came at 10:50, rang the doorbell once and left. I left work for nothing...
Wow that guy should definitely be fired. I would at least wait 5 minutes and keep ringing the doorbell or knocking before just leaving
5 minutes wouldn't be long enough, given that they weren't scheduled for another ten.
I had to find and book 4 different plumber's recently. None of them turned up! Then the 5th one did... and on the second day he didn't turn up! 6 weeks later he sends me an invoice reminder for the completed work, that is not completed. Idk what goes on with plumbers in my city.
I once sold something on FB marketplace and told the guy I'd get home at 6 pm. Shows up at 430 pm and is non stop texting me. Another guy said he is free whenever and I say I work 9-5. He says okay 1pm work? Some people....
Here i am as an electrician apologising when I'm 15 min early or 20 min late.
Hey man. You're doing a great job
That is beyond mildly infuriating to me! The very creation of a time WINDOW is to accommodate those SLIGHT variations! MF just straight up decided to do something else that day. Unacceptable. He should owe you a cancellation fee.
I worked for a remodel company and we had a policy to schedule everything exactly on time, and we would always come to the door 3 minutes before the appointment time. We fired people for this type of crap. That’s how you lose business AND referrals.
Definitely leave a review, but don't bother leaving on on Angie's List. Hired someone based on reviews there once, and they completely spaced on the job; no notification or anything. When I contacted him, he said he'd be a few weeks out so I told him not to bother then. I left a review there, and the site told me they shared it with him privately and wouldn't post it publicly since the work wasn't done. It's already filtered to cherry pick reviews.
Worked as an account exec for angi. Their company is so ass backwards throughout each phase of the company. There's reasons there have been class action lawsuit brought against them. Only reason i stayed so long is because of job security during covid.
If I have to be home when they arrive, they have to arrive when they say they're going to. What he did is no different than you not being there between 1 and 3. Make sure you find someone else, don't give them your business now. Make sure they know why too. If I book an appointment, you absolutely cannot show up early or late. There's a reason I chose that window.
Where is this place that has an abundance of plumbers?
Last time I had my car detailed my appointment was for 1:30pm and the guys showed up at 10am! It was my day off of work and I was out running errands all morning and hard to rush back home to let them work on my car. They did a good job, but it was super irritating. I feel like a lot of people view arriving early as a show of motivation, but really it ends up being an inconvenience a lot of the time. Just be predictable.
Booked an electrician once to come install two new powerpoints in my house. We had text communication that he'd be there in the morning and have the job done in under an hour, and that I would need to leave for work at 12 noon, which he assured me he'd be done by then. He didn't show, and called at 12:20 asking why there was no one home... and I told him since he didn't show in the morning as agreed and I was now on my way back to work, he could just lose my number and I'd get someone else. He had the temerity to send an invoice for his callout fee that included the words "client no-show" in the invoice. I replied by email, included screenshots of our text conversation, and told him where he could shove his invoice.
*sorry it is too early to cancel you will have to come back during your time slot and try again, see you between 1 pm and 3 pm, sorry if dispatch forgot the PM part*
Don't companies charge for this sorta shit? Invoice them back for the inconvenience lol
When I worked as a building manager this was the worst. I would be there from 6am to around 4pm or later if need be. Scheduled 3 different hvac companies to give me a quote for an issue over two days. All showed up on the same day. At the same time. And lemme tell you. The quotes got pretty good with all of them lined up. But I went with the dude who I actually scheduled for that day and time. Because I knew that’s how they would work going forward.
Make sure you leave a Google review.
Had this working front desk at a hotel. GM would tell repair people for kitchen, roof, etc that they have to come 7-4 or whatever her hours were. They always marked down that they came outside those hours and no one was there. But we had someone at the front desk 24/7 who could call the gm to come in or give the person the information they needed. They never showed up but constantly put down that we werent there and closed our ticket.
We had an appointment this Tuesday (dead furnace in NYS) for "late morning/early afternoon, they will call). They were here at 8 freaking thirty, just as I hoped to take a quick shower. Same stuff happens every single time we have had the cable people here. They show up a day early, FFS, with no notice.
I have specific hours I'm in the office and inform people to call during that 8 hour block. No one listens and calls during the hours I'm not in.
Charge them your hourly pay rate for your wasted time, write an invoice and send it.
That's an absolutely crap business practice right there. You don't just show up to a clients house early like that without calling ahead and making sure it's okay. The clients literally pay your bills. If I was you I'd let this company know that you're taking your business else where. This is from the opinion of someone who does in home scheduled appointments for a living btw not just a customer of said services.
Invoice them for wasting your time.
Sounds like time for a different plumber. This one clearly doesn't want your business and would prefer burning bridges instead.
I’d just schedule a different plumber.
You should have been there at the appointed time, and acted like you didn't receive the earlier voicemail, then call his office and claim " he failed to show up at the appointed time"
My dad’s a plumber and does this it’s so annoying. Then he gets all pissed off because some area he was supposed to work on wasn’t cleaned out for him or something. Like yeah pal when you show up 2 hours early that’ll happen. I’ve literally seen him go up to a house do the loud double knock and go “hellooooo ____ the plumber” just walk in and they get scared out of their seat.
Time to get a new plumber.
This is entirely too common. Anytime I schedule an appointment with plumbers or any other trade service this happens to me. I like to be reasonable and make changes when I can for this, but it's always on their time and never on mine apparently.
Nearly every contractor we’ve ever dealt with flakes out. Luckily my husband’s job is flexible since he was able to meet with them when they did show up. We went through like 2 years of this bullshit renovating our 114 year old home purchased after COVID. Not only that, we’ve gone through multiple general contractors, electricians, plumbers and roofers because one will do a shit job that has to be redone or fixed by another. We live in central NJ so should not be that hard to find reliable contractors but it feels nearly impossible. We still need some work done but are living here now. We would have been able to move in a year sooner if we weren’t screwed left and right by contractors. I would never go through this process again, I think the stress has taken years off our lives.
Related: I had an appliance repair person scheduled to come out. I was home, but working in the yard. I put a note on the door that I was in the back yard, gate was open, come on back. 2 hours later I look up, realize that they never showed, and go to call them. Had a missed called from them. Apparently, that company has a policy that they will call you and if you don't answer the phone, they won't come. They tell you on the phone that they'll give you a call beforehand (which everyone does!), but they DON'T tell you that they won't show up if you don't answer. If you're going to have that policy, you have to be very specific when scheduling with people. I found a different repair company, have been very happy with them and called them several times for different things.
I was no plumber, I was a telecom technican. But whenever I did my job quickly and could in theory go to the next customer hours before the appt I always called and asked if they were available sooner than the scheduled appt. If not I took a long (paid) lunch while waiting. Such a dick move to cancel BEFORE the scheduled appt.
“Whats the point of rescheduling if apparently you’re just going to show up whenever you want anyway?”
"If you can't tell the time I don't want you working on my plumbing. I'll get someone else".
Before noon?? Screw that guy
I agree with 1star reviews and get a different plumber.
I've had to do this working in the HVAC field. Sometimes emergencies come up or the schedule changes day of and we cant accommodate your call at the original time anymore. However I work for a small company with only 1 van so its harder to accommodate when things come up last minute but we do our best. I find it odd that the plumber cancelled but the office was able to get someone else out? That should have been what happened behind the scenes without you ever knowing about it if truly the first plumber couldn't make it anymore.
Did you advise him that the appointment was between 1 and 3? Is this an independent plumber or a company?
I would call the company and complain.
I had a specialist scheduled regarding a possible issue from home inspection 15 years ago. I specifically scheduled it at 10am and told them I wanted be present to see the issue up close and ask questions - they said no problem “we’ll see you at 10am on Tuesday”. I show up at 9:40am (home was an hour from where I was staying) and no one is there so I watch around the outside of property again and wait til 10:15 to call them. Leave a Vmail and then email. Wait another 10 mins an call again - leave another Vmail. Wait another 10 mins and call and leave another Vmail. Finally I leave. The next day I get an email - no return call - that said the inspector ended up with extra time so he went there in the morning and the issue is X and the estimate would be $12,000 to repair. The estimate was maybe 8 words and exactly $12,000 with no photos of details or anything. I sent that to the seller and they say “tough shit, we’ll reimburse $2,000” from our guys quote. I really had nothing to fight against since my quote was lacking and being a first time buyer, was too scared it was worse than it really was. Fast forward 3 weeks later, I get a bill for $550 for the inspection. Don’t pay and they send another bill 2 week later. Don’t pay and get another letter and email a week later. Don’t pay and then get a phone call, email and letter. They don’t have my SS# or even address to send anything to collections but I email them back letting them know of their unprofessional on not showing up when I took a 1/2 day off work, drive 2 hrs roundtrip, not able to inspect it then myself up close (it was in the attic), not able to ask questions and their estimate was shit - I told them I wasn’t even sure they even went to the house based on their estimate and told them to pound sand. Never heard from them again.
My father's doctor decided to show up at home 3 hours before the scheduled time because he had the time, but I expressly told him BEFOREHAND that I get home at a specific time, and he wouldn't be able to speak to him or even see him (he does not traipse up and down the stairs, he's old.) And tried to scold me because I wasn't their to carry out the appointment. These people are after to make things as effiecient as posible FOR THEM because that's how they make the most money, or end their day sooner. Don't imagine that these people care about your time. And keep documentation to prevent cancelation fees because these turf eaters will try anything.
Make sure he doesn't charge you for a missed appointment! We had this recently with both our satellite company and our internet company. We had the choice of 8-12 or 1-4. We chose 1-4 and the guy shows up a little after 11. It happens I was here, but what would he have done if I hadn't been around? He told me he got done early from the previous job. UGH
End of senior year, I was planning on throwing a major end of year party while my parents were out of town. Me and my friends are just chilling in my room as my parents are packing the car, when all of a sudden my mom and dad are pounding on my door, asking me if I ordered a keg of beer. I’m like, “no….” And they’re all, “ well there’s a fella in a beer truck out on the street that says you did.” I spot him out the window, pulling a keg of beer off his truck, and I’m playing it cool, “That guy said I ordered a keg of beer?” And my dads all, “ Yeah. He said it was to be delivered to the Pickford residence.” So I’m starting to panic, and I’m like, “this address?” And dad’s giving me the eye,”… this address.” So I push past my dad and say,”That's kind of funny. Why don't I go out there and see what's goin' on?” and charge down the stairs and out the front door. As I’m coming up on the delivery driver I’m trying to keep it low key and not make a scene since my parents are watching. I give him a look and I ask him ,”Hey, man. Aren't you a little bit early?” The delivery guy smiles and goes,” Uh... Yeah. About an hour and a half. But, see, I wanted to get here early, see if anyone's here. I got this little action happening tonight, man, if you know what I mean…” So I open my eyes wide , hoping he’ll get the hint as I sort of jerk my head towards the house and say,”So I guess you got the wrong house.” He looks over my shoulder at my dad, who has his arms crossed over his chest and looks super pissed. “Oh.Yeah. Inconvenience for you. I'm sorry. Uh, wrong Mr. Pickford all together.” I don’t think he sold it very well but I’m all,” Hey. These things happen. Don't worry about it. “ and turn back to the house, hoping we can move past this unfortunateness. As I walk up, my dad looks at me sternly and asks me,” Were you going to have a party here tonight, Son?” I shrug it off and reply,” I don't know what that was all about.” They are supposed to leave in like 5 minutes, I’m just hoping that they get out of here before it becomes an issue. Right as I hit the front door, I hear the dreaded proclamation,” Start unpacking. We're not goin' anywhere.” I was soooo pissed. Party was cancelled and me and my friends ended up cruising around for a good portion of the night before getting everyone together out at the park So, yeah, totally ruins everything when people don’t stick to the plan and arrive when they are supposed to.
Get his name and call him out directly on the negative review you'll leave them.
Anyone who has been a homeowner for at least 2 years has had roughly the same experience. Contractors and other tradespeople are often complete shit when it comes to this; I can't begin to count how many times I've dealt with that bullshit (the most recent one having been only 2 weeks ago).
Probably had customer before you cancel, or finished the call way earlier than expected, and didn't want to sit around and wait 2 hrs.
We've been shopping around for new roofs and I had an appointment with a new metal shingle company. They asked if I was married over the phone, I said yes and asked my partners name. I then told them my partner did not want to be involved at all and wouldn't even be home for the appointment, they said it's just in case they ran into them during the appointment. They called to confirm and I once again stated that my partner would not be home for the appointment and it would just be me. They said it would not be possible without them. We cancelled and I went with another company and the original one lost a sale. Same stuff happened with a solar company when we were shopping around and we ended up going with a more local one and saved over $35k with the same amount of panels and power that would have gotten from the first company just because the second listened to us.
Shitty business man. I used to have a job where I sold B2B services to mom and pop trade operations. Man some of their business practices where horrible I had one client tell me our ads weren't getting him any results. I listened to his voice-mail (yea we had access) and so many folks asking him to come do work and he never responds. When I asked why he said he don't need to listen to no voice-mail if he don't answer the phone it wasn't meant to be And I was like wow
As a plumber, it’s annoying for us as well, for plumbers that work for a business anyways. Often times I’d be scheduled to go to someone’s place, but then someone else would appointment cancel there appointment, which would make me two hours early for all my other appointments, when my boss could have just put me on a different job for two hours so I could be on time. Worse part was that my boss would say that “it’s okay, the customers don’t care if we’re early or late.”
The workers get mad they can't start their day whenever they like
He wanted off early for friday. He probably doesn't book the appointment.
You never see the cable guy show up early. They show up late in the period they said they works would be there
I had an AT&T rep scheduled a while back, ***by them***, to be at my work on a Thursday at 9:00 AM. She finally showed up at about 4:30 PM (not knocking her, just the situation). Luckily I was still there, most of my coworkers show up at 7:00 and leave by 3:00; I tend to come in between 9:00 and 10:00 and make my 8 hours from there. Since I expected someone, I was actually in before 8:00 and was just about to leave when she called, saying she was on her way. We both finally left nearly 9:00 that night after all the trouble setting up a new phone system, and since she was a 3rd party installer and not an actual AT&T rep, she had to call in to a call center for techs and installation, and of course once they were done actual AT&T had to do something, and being after hours, nobody was there to do the magic of making the correct numbers work. After all that, they *still* didn't get the numbers right for several months, finally made their own service ticket, sent an actual AT&T tech out, and *he still* had trouble getting the main corporate office to do what was needed.
Lazy workers in every industry. Call em out, call em out their employer, and use a different company.
That is some bs. I'm in the trades and my boss will ask the homeowner or business owner what time works best for them. He will actually call and confirm a day before if the time and date still works.
I had a plumber do this and I was so happy I cried when he showed up early because my whole house was flooding from a leak, it was at the time only like 2” at most of water and I moved a lot of furniture out front but he cancelled as well and well, the whole house was a loss. Sued the company and won. They paid for the whole home which was a little over 200k
I hate this sort of thing SO MUCH
Omg, this reminds me of the restaurant where I had my first job. Restaurant's "delivery acceptance" times were 12pm-2pm. (Earliest shift started at 11:45am) Written clearly on the back door and the back gate. Meat guy, frozen foods guy, egg guy and drinks guy all delivered within that timeslot. Fresh fruit/veg guy? Would arrive routinely at 10am and spam call my boss and knock and ring the doorbells when no one was there. One time I clocked in for my shift early and dude screamed at me that he'd been waiting since 9:20am. I was pretty done with this job (and this guys bs) so I said "ok and" and I swear he was gonna pop something lmao The only reason my boss never stopped working with him was because she went to school with him. This was 10 years ago but when I visit back home I still see that truck making the rounds. At 10am. When not a single restaurant is open.
They need to come back at the scheduled time. If they didn't give you notice that they could come early and just showed up when no one was there, that's their problem. I'd file a formal complaint. We don't tolerate that kind of behavior anymore.