My washing machine broke last week, and since I'm leaving the country on Friday I desperately need to do some laundry. I went to the yellow pages and found a nice full page add for a family-owned appliance store with same day service.
When I called them a guy picked up and just said "hello?". I expected a receptionist or something, so I asked if I had the right place. He acknowledged that I did. So I described the problem to him, to which he gave me another number and told me to call him there in about an hour. I thought it was a little strange, but I was desperate to get the thing fixed so I called him back. He was at my house within 15 minutes.
The guy looked fine (he wasn't dressed in a work uniform or driving a car with logos on it), so I took him to the washing machine. He immediately diagnosed the problem and had it fixed within 20 minutes. A little plastic part had split, and he replaced it with one than had a metal reinforcement so it wouldn't break again. All in all - he was very good and professional. The charge was about $150; seemed a little high to replace a little plastic part with 15 minutes of labor but I didn't care. I got ready to write the name of the appliance place when he told me to make it out to him personally. Again - a bit odd, but he gave me a generic looking receipt so what do I care?
I've done 4 loads of laundry already and the thing works great, so he obviously knew what he was doing. My question is, just out of curiosity - did he scam the company he works for by taking a call at their place and pocketing the money himself?
Or do you think maybe he was the owner doing something off of the books so he wouldn't have to report it? Or do some companies simply work this way?
When I called them a guy picked up and just said "hello?". I expected a receptionist or something, so I asked if I had the right place. He acknowledged that I did. So I described the problem to him, to which he gave me another number and told me to call him there in about an hour. I thought it was a little strange, but I was desperate to get the thing fixed so I called him back. He was at my house within 15 minutes.
The guy looked fine (he wasn't dressed in a work uniform or driving a car with logos on it), so I took him to the washing machine. He immediately diagnosed the problem and had it fixed within 20 minutes. A little plastic part had split, and he replaced it with one than had a metal reinforcement so it wouldn't break again. All in all - he was very good and professional. The charge was about $150; seemed a little high to replace a little plastic part with 15 minutes of labor but I didn't care. I got ready to write the name of the appliance place when he told me to make it out to him personally. Again - a bit odd, but he gave me a generic looking receipt so what do I care?
I've done 4 loads of laundry already and the thing works great, so he obviously knew what he was doing. My question is, just out of curiosity - did he scam the company he works for by taking a call at their place and pocketing the money himself?
Or do you think maybe he was the owner doing something off of the books so he wouldn't have to report it? Or do some companies simply work this way?
Facebook
Twitter