No Means No
Awful…read moreinteraction with COLBY, followed by ALMA.
Initially, Alma was very personable and scheduled the consultation. Everything was smooth, friendly, and easy.
Then Colby showed up at 4:25 p.m., 25 minutes after the scheduled appointment time, and immediately had an attitude. I tried to end the meeting shortly after he arrived because I had an obligation at 5:00 p.m., but more importantly, because of his demeanor from the moment he stepped into my house. I told him, "We're going to have to do this another time." He chose to ignore what I said.
Then I said, "We're done here."
He didn't budge.
I then said, "Please leave my house."
Instead of leaving, he explained that there was supposedly an hour-long arrival window. More on that later.
I repeated, "Please leave my house."
He still didn't leave. Instead, he said, "I'm UPSET with YOU because I tried calling you three times yesterday and you didn't return my call. When customers don't return my calls, it tells me they don't care."
I received ZERO phone calls from Colby the day before. See attached call log.
At this point, I was genuinely becoming concerned and raised my voice: "PLEASE LEAVE MY HOUSE!"
There should NEVER be a situation where a customer or potential customer clearly terminates an appointment, asks a business representative to leave their home, and that representative refuses to leave immediately.
I'm not going to lie, by this point I was concerned enough that I was considering calling the police.
After Colby finally left, I called Sun Blinds and spoke with Alma. I was obviously upset about Colby's behavior. Initially, Alma handled the call well, but unfortunately, she also lost her professionalism.
She said, "I wish you had told me that you had an obligation at 5 p.m. We would've never scheduled that appointment with you and wasted our time."
I was appalled. Potential customers are a "waste of time" when scheduling gets complicated?
Alma then had the nerve to tell me, "Usually we have a two-hour window."
That makes her response even more puzzling. There was no need to try to make a potential customer, who is literally prospective business for the company, feel guilty about an appointment that went badly because of the company's scheduling and its representative's behavior.
Alma, some thoughts are better left unsaid.
For the record, during my initial call, I specifically asked Alma how long the appointment would take. She told me, "About an hour." Had I been told there was also a one- or two-hour arrival window, I obviously would not have scheduled the appointment that afternoon.
Never again.
I ultimately called the Elk Grove Police Department to document the incident because I was sufficiently concerned about Colby's behavior that I wanted a record of what occurred in case he returned to my home.
No customer should have to repeatedly tell a company representative to leave their house. Once someone says, "Please leave my house," the conversation is over.
No means no.
