day late
money? whats that?
Here we are, the day after the storm and everything is about back to normal. The last two calls I got proved interesting. One, just kind of strange and the other, just another jerk.
Of course, unless the customer provides it, I never get the whole story. But a lot you can infer. I got called to rekey locks on three doors. Normally that means six locks, one doorknob and one deadbolt each. ALL of the hardware is brand-spanking-new. New keys for everything. There isn't a stick of furniture in the house and the customer is an older gentleman with a young guy who keeps calling him "Dad." Seems like maybe Dad bought a house for junior while he is in school at UF and then plans to flip it when son graduates. A common practice in this town. Done right, you can make a few bucks that way. Now here is the odd thing, and I'll say right now that in seven years I've never had this happen before. We have a brand-new-just-installed doorknob and deadbolt on the front door. It comes with two keys from the factory. Only one key works. They decide to save a couple of bucks to key the other doors to the front door, instead of having everything set to another key. That's fine, saves me time. I rekey the other doors and guess what. That bad key on the front door will work on every other door in the house, but not the one it was made for. I've never seen that happen before and have no idea why.
The jerk call was the last one of the day. I'm supposed to leave the house at 7:30 to pick up the guy I drop off the van with at 8 and he lives about 25 minutes away. Of course, I get a call taking me the wrong way, to 'Sam's Club' and I need to open a car at 7:30. I arrive a couple of minutes early. I already called the customer and left a message that I was on my way. Then left another as I'm cruising the parking lot. I call dispatch to ask if they said any certain part of the parking lot. The lady calls them and I keep cruising. I get a call 10 minutes later from dispatch. The customer got in by themselves and have already left the parking lot. The jerk wasted about 20 minutes of my time just because they couldn't pick up the phone and say 'Never mind'.
Of course, unless the customer provides it, I never get the whole story. But a lot you can infer. I got called to rekey locks on three doors. Normally that means six locks, one doorknob and one deadbolt each. ALL of the hardware is brand-spanking-new. New keys for everything. There isn't a stick of furniture in the house and the customer is an older gentleman with a young guy who keeps calling him "Dad." Seems like maybe Dad bought a house for junior while he is in school at UF and then plans to flip it when son graduates. A common practice in this town. Done right, you can make a few bucks that way. Now here is the odd thing, and I'll say right now that in seven years I've never had this happen before. We have a brand-new-just-installed doorknob and deadbolt on the front door. It comes with two keys from the factory. Only one key works. They decide to save a couple of bucks to key the other doors to the front door, instead of having everything set to another key. That's fine, saves me time. I rekey the other doors and guess what. That bad key on the front door will work on every other door in the house, but not the one it was made for. I've never seen that happen before and have no idea why.
The jerk call was the last one of the day. I'm supposed to leave the house at 7:30 to pick up the guy I drop off the van with at 8 and he lives about 25 minutes away. Of course, I get a call taking me the wrong way, to 'Sam's Club' and I need to open a car at 7:30. I arrive a couple of minutes early. I already called the customer and left a message that I was on my way. Then left another as I'm cruising the parking lot. I call dispatch to ask if they said any certain part of the parking lot. The lady calls them and I keep cruising. I get a call 10 minutes later from dispatch. The customer got in by themselves and have already left the parking lot. The jerk wasted about 20 minutes of my time just because they couldn't pick up the phone and say 'Never mind'.