…this is going to be a long post. Seriously.
I promised a blog post to catch up on everything, and I always (and by always I mean sometimes) keep my promises. The following events are in chronological order.
As I have said here before, Allison took a trip to Grand Cayman the week before July 4th. And since she won’t take the time to type something up or at least tell me about it in great enough detail so that *I* can type something up, it will remain a mystery.
Part of the reason I haven’t been updating the blog recently is because work has been pretty much the only thing going on with me and Allison. Since the middle of July, I have been involved with an S-1 filing, a second quarter review, and a prior period year review all going on concurrently on one of BDO’s largest audit clients. If you really want to know what any of that means or if you are interested in hearing more about it, let me know and I will be more than happy to discuss it at length. And Allison has been busy working on one of Grant Thornton’s largest tax clients and is shouldering a heavy load in an otherwise understaffed department in the Dallas office. That’s right, the Green family is a bunch of superstars, working on the highest profile clients because we are awesome. (It’s my blog, I will brag on us if I want to) So now, my world is slowing down, but Allison’s is gearing up. She has a September 15th deadline, so she is going to be working quite a bit up until then.
On July 18th, we had a flag football game (our team’s third). I play quarterback, and this was my first game since last season. I missed the first two games when Allison and I were in Denver. I was a little rusty, so this game was all about me getting comfortable with the game speed. I did alright…no interceptions thrown, but no touchdowns either. We won the game to put us in first place by percentage points over the second place team. I think the final score was like 7 to 6 or something. Not a lot of offense.
On July 23rd, we had a softball game against the first place team (we were second place at the time). We played a good all around game and ended up winning on a fantastic play. In the bottom of the 7th (softball games only go for 7 innings) the other team was batting with the bases loaded and one out. We were ahead by a run, so if they scored a run…it was going to go to extra innings. If they scored two runs, they win the game. Well, the girl batting hit a ground ball to shortstop (a guy). He flipped it to second base (a girl) for an out and she threw it to first (a girl). The throw bounced, but the girl at first dug it out as she was falling backwards (because it was an awkward bounce) to end the game. If she didn’t make that catch, the runner at third base would have scored to tie the game. It was awesome. I was proud of myself in that game too because I threw two people out from the outfield. The highlight was when a guy hit a grounder up the middle and I fielded it and came up throwing home to try and get a guy trying to score from second. I threw a one-hop bullet to nail him at the plate. I was very proud of myself because it ended the inning and kept the other team from scoring. I also hit an inside-the-park homerun too (in this league, if you hit it over the fence it’s an out).
On July 25th, we had another football game. This time, I was more ready for what was to come since I had been reacquainted the last week. I threw a nice touch pass deep to a receiver for a long touchdown, threw a Brett Favre-style flip pass to a guy at the goal line for another, and ran it in for an extra point. I even made an interception in the end zone while playing safety at the end of the first half. The only blemish we had as a team was near the end of the game when we were up big anyway. I did a hard snap count to draw the defense offsides, and sure enough the guy jumped. So the center snapped me the ball and we had a free play (if defense is offsides, no matter what happens, the offense can choose to take the outcome of the play or do it over). I threw it up to see if maybe I could complete a long pass, but it was intercepted. No big deal, we will just choose to do the play over. Wrong. For some reason, the refs didn’t call offsides although the guy was clearly in the neutral zone when the ball was snapped. I was pretty upset, but I knew that in the end, it wouldn’t matter because we were going to win anyway. First place tastes good.
Allison and I got the key to our new house on Wednesday, July 29th and we moved some things to the new house Wednesday night and Friday night to get a jump start on the move that was going to happen on Saturday.
Friday afternoon is when things started going wrong with our move.
Atmos (gas), Reliant (electricity), AT&T (phone/internet) and Dallas utilities (water) were all supposed to get things started for us on Friday. Well, Reliant and Dallas utilities both came through without issue. Atmos gave us a window of 8am to 5pm (good one) and they needed to be allowed in the house. So at anytime on Friday, I could have gotten a phone call. The guy calls me and leaves a message (because I was in a meeting) with his number saying I have 20 minutes to call back, contradictory to the 30 minutes I was assured on the phone with Atmos when I placed my order. I get the message 20 minutes later and call the guy back. No answer, so I leave him a message. I try calling back several times over the next 10 minutes with no luck. So I call the Atmos office. They tell me that since he called and got no response, they will have to schedule me for the next available workday, which is Monday. So that means no gas over the weekend which means no HOT WATER over the weekend. Yeah…and my parents were coming, along with Allison’s mom and sister. Needless to say, that was not going to work. So I informed the operator that I needed to speak to a supervisor to get this fixed ASAP. The supervisor tries to tell me that there isn’t anything she can do since I “missed” the service call. I told her it’s not my problem that the guy didn’t answer his phone. She said he went above and beyond by leaving a message with his phone number…he isn’t required to do that. Well, I was told that the guy would call me a second time if he didn’t reach me the first time, which he didn’t. I informed the operator of this and told her to fix the problem so I can have hot water over the weekend. She said that she would put me on hold and try to reach the guy herself. After a minute or two, she comes back and tells me that unfortunately she wasn’t able to reach him. What a coincidence. Now she understands my problem. She then tells me that she will continue to try to reach him and will call me back if she does. About 15 minutes later, she calls and tells me she reached him and explained to me that he didn’t know the protocol. At that moment, the guy calls me and tells me he can be at the house in 20 minutes. I told him to stay put and I will be there ASAP. Turns out everything was taken care of just fine after that.
Sunday, I realized that our phone wasn’t working. We had no dial tone. But AT&T was supposed to come out Friday and activate everything. I call to check, and the automated system informs me that the service call was complete. So I would have to call back Monday (during business hours) to talk to someone about the problem.
Note: I will go ahead and take this story to completion since it will inevitably take a back seat to what I am about to tell you about the moving company. I called AT&T on Monday (8/3/09) and tell them I have no dial tone. They tell me they will send someone out on Wednesday to check the line. Wednesday night, I get home and still have no dial tone. I call back Thursday morning and ask what’s the deal? They tell me the technician missed the appointment, so they will send someone out today. I get home Thursday night, and – awesome! – I have a dial tone. So now, I try to hook up my DSL (internet). Nothing. I try for a long time. Still nothing. It was late, so I gave up and would just try it again Friday. Friday night comes and I still could not get it to work. I call AT&T tech support, and they inform me that they have no record of DSL on my account. The only way to add it is to call customer service and get them to add it. Customer service was closed at that hour Friday night, so I would have to call Saturday. Well, I forgot to call Saturday. So I called (8/10/09) and they get me all squared away…except that it will be Wednesday until I get internet.
Allison’s mom, Kay, and sister, Katherine, came Sunday to stay with us for a few days to help unpack and take care of some things while Allison and I were at work. And by the way, I know you all read the blog, so Mom, Dad, Kay, and Katherine…thank you so much for your help.
MONDAY, 10am. I called All My Sons (“AMS”) to talk about the painful experience I had. I talked to Tim in dispatch (the same guy from Saturday) and went down my laundry list of complaints:
-Showed up 3.5 hours late
-Didn’t get 30 minutes notice
-One guy stayed in the truck the whole time
-One guy was tired and worked slowly
-Third mover tried to carry a single cushion
-Took smoke breaks and kept the clock running
-Movers didn’t have a commercial dolly (they used my dad’s)
-Didn’t work from 2pm to 4:30pm, waiting for third mover
-Black mark on our chair and a ripped back of the same chair
He let me air my grievances, but he tried to chastise me for not contacting AMS on the day of the move. I told him that I didn’t because I didn’t want the movers to get pissed about my complaints and then take even longer to spite me or “accidentally” damage my stuff. The moving company is only liable for $0.60 per pound. So if a $50 glass vase, weighing 5 pounds, gets broken…they will give me three dollars. Yeah, right. His point didn’t have much validity and I think he realized I wasn’t going to accept it. So he told me he would look into something and call me back Tuesday morning.
TUESDAY, 1pm. No call Tuesday morning. I called AMS again, and I talked to Tim again and said I was following up since I hadn’t heard back. He said that he hadn’t had a chance to do anything and he would call me Wednesday morning to let me know.
WEDNESDAY, 2pm. No call Wednesday morning. I called AMS and asked Tim what the status was. He said that he talked to the crew and they gave him a different story than the one I did…saying they worked the entire time and worked hard. Surprise, surprise. I asked him if he expected anything less. Why would any employee in his right mind admit to not working hard and essentially screwing over a customer? I reminded him that it took them EIGHT HOURS to complete the move, so something didn’t add up. He also informed me that he passed along my information to the owner of AMS (Ron Clair), noting that I should expect a call from Ron by Thursday morning.
WEDNESDAY, 5pm. It dawns on me that in order to really bolster my case for the owner, I need to have some ammunition. So I start getting moving quotes from several different companies. I went the itemized route, which is where you tell them everything you have and they quote you based on what you own and not the time it takes. In hindsight, this is what I should have done. I got quotes from five companies, all while OVERESTIMATING my belongings to get the highest reasonable quotes. The quotes I got were $779.93, $569.54, $383.27, $568.00, and $400.00. Jackpot. I also thought it would be good to use AMS against themselves. So I called them under an alias (Ricky Butler) and got answers to questions that totally contradict the experience I had. After I hung up the phone, I realized that I should have recorded it to have concrete evidence.
THURSDAY, 2pm. No call Thursday morning. I called AMS and asked to speak to Ron. He was unavailable. So I left a message. I call back and ask to talk to Tim. He is on the other line, so I am put on hold. I start recording, so I can capture our conversation on tape. I am on hold for about 10 minutes. The operator that put me on hold comes back on the line and tells me that Tim “can’t talk to [me] right now. He said to let [me] know that he forwarded all of the information…” Sounds to me like Tim is screening my calls and doesn’t want to talk to me.
The following is a clip. I edited out only the gaps from when I was on hold. It is only about 30 seconds long.
Audio
FRIDAY, 2pm. No call from Ron Friday morning. I begin recording and call AMS and ask to speak to Ron. Unavailable again. The operator offers to transfer me to dispatch. I tell her to connect me with Tim. Tim answers cheerfully, but his tone changes when he hears that it’s me calling. “Uh, I told you, Mr. Green, that uhh there’s nothing more I can do, and so I gave you to Ron.” He transfers me to Ron’s voicemail, so I leave another message.
The following is a clip. I edited out only the gaps from when I was on hold. It is only about 3 minutes long.
Audio
I call back as Ricky Butler and record the conversation. I asked all the same questions I did on Wednesday, but I added some more and recorded everything. Game. Set. Match.
The following is a clip which is about 5 minutes long…but it is worth it.
Audio
FRIDAY, 2:30pm. I stop by a colleague’s (Jordan Maxwell) desk and tell him about the latest events regarding my inability to get a hold of the owner. So he thought he would try to see if he could get through using his own name (and not mine). He talked to the operator and she told him that Ron is in a meeting. Jordan told her that he has left several messages with Ron but hasn’t heard anything back, so he just wanted to know whether or not it was Ron’s policy to not return phone calls and ignore his customers. He said that he had a bad experience using AMS and just wanted to talk about it with Ron because he is regretful that he even used the service (Jordan did a great job ad-libbing this whole thing). She told Jordan that she would try to get a hold of Ron and to hold on. I thought the kid had done it. But she came back and said that she couldn’t get him. But she asked if he wanted to leave a message and he did, but he used my name and number (the operator didn’t catch it…go figure).
I have made a vow to myself to call back every weekday for as long as it takes to get to talk to Ron or anyone else that will talk to me about my problem. Bottom line: they screwed up and they need to do something to make it right. It’s not necessarily about the money anymore (although I would really like to get the $500 or so that I think I am owed), but more so the principle of the whole thing. I am in a client service business myself. And if me or my company pulled this crap, that client would find them another accounting firm because let’s face it…my company is not the only show in town, which is equally true with moving companies.
MONDAY, 2:00pm. A new week, a new day to call AMS. I took the day off for my birthday, so I was at home. I had everything set up to record the conversation and playback my previously recorded phone calls. Tim answers. Ron is unavailable but will call me back this afternoon. Where have I heard this before?
MONDAY, 2:30pm. I decide that I am going to just drive to AMS headquarters to talk to Ron Clair in person. I got the feeling that Tim was lying to me and he was intending to ignore me forever. And I figured that it would be hard to avoid me if I am physically there. I drive out there and wait for Ron to get back. He finally does and he introduces himself to me. I told him that an eight hour move was just flat out unacceptable. I began to tell him about getting a third guy and the fact the movers didn’t really do much for 2.5 hours waiting for the third guy, etc. Ron took me to the computer to pull up my account. I tried to stay positive and kiss his butt telling him nice things and complimenting him. I was able to tell that this guy was one that responded well to flattery, so I kept it coming…figuring I would be more likely to get something out of him that way. I told him that I talked to several different companies, each quoting me about 4.5 hours for the move. I then proceeded to tell him that I even talked to several AMS representatives and they all told me the same thing…but I only recorded a single conversation. One thing I did before leaving that turned out to be clutch was video-taping all the furniture in the house with my iPhone. Since I videoed everything, I was able to show Ron exactly what I owned. After seeing it, he admitted that I didn’t have that much stuff that would have warranted an eight hour move. At the end of the day, he asked if it would be acceptable to me to settle up my account based on a 4.5 hour move at the agreed upon two man rate. I told him that would be exactly what I was hoping for…and what I anticipated when I booked AMS to do the move. That amount ended up being a credit of $567 for a net total of $800 paid to AMS. It was a little on the high end, but a reasonable amount. My ordeal with AMS is now officially over.
Moral of the story: DO NOT USE ALL MY SONS AS YOUR MOVING COMPANY.
Now to the really important stuff…baby news. Allison is doing fine. She is getting bigger every day. In the past couple of weeks, her feet have gotten swollen and her rings won’t fit on her fingers. Jackson is apparently an active little guy because she says that he is always kicking. Allison also told me that Jackson is getting so big that she can just feel him moving around (not necessarily kicking)…she even felt him have the hiccups last night.
Since we are only about three months away, we have gotten busy looking at cribs, bedding, furniture, etc. When we finally end up getting these things, I will be sure to post pictures for all to see.
I had to wait until getting to work to post this since we still don't have internet at the house. But I would like to say that I typed this up over the weekend and yesterday. I didn't spend time at work typing this up. :)
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