A Tale Of Two Service Providers

This is an tale of two services that I recently had performed on my house. It's merely a generalized recount of things that have happened in my life, and not a commentary on DevOps, collaborating with business partners, or the #NoEstimates movement. --Editor [That's me]

We recently needed a new garage door opener, which wasn't a surprise. We knew it would need replaced since the old one had been less and less functional as time went on. We ordered a new one, selected certain other services, including installation, paid, and an install date was set. A date that did not make it onto the schedule and as a result, was pushed. At the new appointed time, the installer got to work. When he was finished he told me that there were problems with the setup. In resolving that problem, certain modifications had been made. He demoed the garage door, but it was using a cable that he then took with him, leaving the garage door opener non-functional at the end. But helpfully leaving instructions on how I could finish the work myself. The next day, we discovered that other contracted services had not been completed. Of the four support avenues we tried, all apologized for the inconvenience, albeit one only after trying to tell me that there had been no work order in the first place. A resolution date was set. A date that came and went with no resolution. We finally escalated the support call, informing the new people we talked to that we would be filing daily BBB and other consumer protection cases until the issue was fixed to our satisfaction. The dip in their ratings on these services were finally the stick needed to get a resolution that leaves us with a fully functioning garage door. However, it is good to know that the original dollar estimate will remain the same.

Somewhat less recently, we needed a new toilet installed. Our plumber came out and showed us his recommendations after listening to what we wanted. He set a work date and estimated price. When the installation was underway, the plumber pulled me aside and told me that there was something we needed to talk about. It turned out that the reason our toilet was degrading so badly was that our water softener was not working. Limestone buildup was corroding our fixtures. Replacing the toilet was necessary, but would not fix the problem in the long term. He told us that if we wanted to push the decision, it would not cause immediate problems. However, if we did not do this work, we would end up buying another new toilet. And probably faucets as well.

He told us his recommendations for a replacement, based on our water usage and gave us a revised quote. Making sure that we knew that the additional work was not necessary for fixing the immediate problem. He also showed us one other small problem, but told us that it was simple to fix. He quoted us a price for the part, but told us that the nearby hardware store had it for cheaper. Our decision. He also told us that the fix was too simple to bother charging for labor. Given all of that, we decided that it would be less of a disruption to our lives to have the work all done at once. We agreed on the new cost and time frame. The work was completed. The cost, time, and our level of involvement were all higher, but we knew why. And all steps of the decision making process were in our hands, with the plumber explaining the cost and benefit of all of our options.

Thank you for you patience with my tangent from the normal DevOps focus of this blog.