Waiting, waiting, waiting

I'm waiting for the furnace repair guy to show up. I'm an hour and a half into my wait. I was told they would be here by noon.

I hate waiting for people to show up. I feel like I can't do much of anything for fear I'll miss the guy. I always think I'll clean. You can do some of that but you can't vacuum. Can't really do laundry because that would mean going down into the basement and you might miss the guy.

I always schedule my appointments for the morning window. I think that's easier. There's a little story that goes with that preference of mine.

I was living in an apartment at 12th and E Streets NE. I needed to have someone come out and fix the cable. I'm don't remember exactly what was wrong with it. I was always having problems with it. Once they decided to disconnect me for no reason.

Anyway I set the appointment for the afternoon window 1-5 pm. I leave work sometime around 11:45. This will give me plenty of time to get home. I'll even have time to fix myself some lunch before I have to sit and wait. I arrive at my apartment building and there's a note on the front door saying sorry we missed you. It was from the cable company for me.

I call the cable company up and ask what's going on. I was told well someone should up for the appointment but no one was home so I'll have to reschedule. I ask if there is a way to find out when the note was left. She says there should be a time on the note. I find the time it says 12:20 pm. I read her the time and then asked her when was my appointment for. She says 1-5 pm. I say well then the reason on one was home was because it was 40 minutes before someone needed to be there.

She then gets bitchy and says the guy called ahead and left a message saying he would be early. I said there was no message left on my answer machine. She says well they expect someone to be there. I said yes you can expect someone to be there but not 40 minutes before the scheduled appointment. I ask what do you expect people to do take an entire day off from work when the appointment time is 1-5.

I then ask when I can reschedule the appointment. She takes along time to get back to me on this. She finally says the next appointment isn't for another 10 days. I say you have got to be kidding me. Your employee shows up for an appointment early and then leaves and I'm going to have to wait 10 more days to get service. She responds well I'm sorry sir (in that charmingly condescending customer service voice). I ask to speak to a supervisor because I've had enough of this lady.

So on to the supervisor. I get the same line. Well the representative showed up and no one was home. I again pointed out they were 40 minutes early why would there be someone to let them in 40 minutes early. This got no where. The supervisor could only offer me the appointment in 10 days. I'd had enough. I said ok then how about I cancel the service that shouldn't take 10 days should it. All of a sudden they are going to be able to get someone out to me by the end of the day.

The bottom line is they should have done that in the first place. They should have said sorry the guy should have waited but he didn't but we'll get someone out to you by the end of the day. I shouldn't have had to threaten to quit. And that's the reason I always take morning appointments.