A couple of weeks ago I had a bad experience with a furnace technician.  He was supposed to be at my house sometime between 8am and noon.  At 1130am, I got a call saying he wouldn’t make it by noon and they wouldn’t provide a new estimate.  They wanted to reschedule my service to the following week, but I had taken the day off.  To make a long story short, he finally showed up at 430pm.  I wasn’t at my best by that time and we got into a disagreement.  He got in his truck and drove away without doing the service.

After talking to the dispatcher, we negotiated a different technician to come out two days later (Sunday).  That guy showed up, did a great job, and was incredibly respectful.  He had won back my business.

Then today, the punch in the gut.

I received a letter from the company’s General Manager stating that she would have never sent the second guy out had she realized how poorly I treated her staff.  Her technician told her that I called him a “Liar”, which never happened.  And, even if I had done that since when does a company send a full one page letter berating a customer.

She went on to state that “liar is a powerful word” and that I should consider that before calling someone a liar.  Wow…giving me advice when it never happened…I never called him that.

She also wanted me to know that he worked for his dad’s business and that when his dad died he was only 16 and he took over their family business.  I have no idea what this had to do with the issue at hand.

I already didn’t feel great about the encounter and now I have someone getting on her soap box and lecturing me.

I called her and let her know that I never called her employee a liar and I encouraged her to talk to the other technician.  I’m sure he would have nothing but nice things to say about our encounter.  I told her how much I appreciated him and how I had decided to use their services again in the future based on his service.  That was until I got her letter.  There was no mistaking that she did not want to keep me as a customer.

She had absolutely no response during out phone call.

I gave her one more chance.  I said, “I guess I’m not going to get an apology.”  She said, “I apologize” in a snide tone.  I let her know that I thought it was insincere and said “good-bye”.

I will not say that the technician was fully to blame.  Clearly both he and I had a bad day.  Sure, I wish I would have handled the situation better.  But, I forgave them.  Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought a General Manager would write me a letter berating and belittling me.  This is quite possibly the worse customer service experience…EVER.

Note:  I thought about listing the company, but I don’t want to stoop to their level.  If you are in Western Washington, looking for furnace maintenance, and want to avoid a similar issue you can leave a comment below and I’ll email you the company name.