GRR (Warning: Rant Ahead)

This is a picture of the botched job the ham-fisted locksmith did on the Guest House kitchen cabinet door earlier this week.  (See September 13th entry).  As you can see, he succeeded in cracking the wood, and now we will have to replace the entire door (and hire a different, more competent locksmith!)

Speaking of incompetency, we were supposed to meet with a realtor this morning (we’ll call her “Agnes” although that is not her real name) to have a market analysis done in preparation for putting our house up for sale in the near future.  The following is the series of e-mails that ensued after these plans failed to unfold:

(From me to the owner of the real estate agency:)

Dear Ms. X,

I am writing to you because I understand you are the founder of (X Real Estate), and I wanted to let you know about a very disappointing experience my husband and I had today.
 
We contacted your office recently to arrange for a broker to come to our home in Bridgewater to give us a market analysis.  We were put in touch with one Agnes, who agreed to meet us at 10:00 a.m. today (Friday, September 16th).  Agnes spoke with my husband on the phone, and then followed up with an e-mail confirming the appointment.  My husband took the morning off work to be available for this meeting.  I made the effort to have the place looking presentable and attractive. 

We sat around waiting (and waiting … and waiting) for Agnes to arrive.  Finally at 10:30 a.m. my husband telephoned her, only to be told that she had forgotten all about us!  Her only excuse seemed to be that she was terribly busy.  Needless to say, this came across to us as "you people are not important to me."  We find this sort of behavior incredibly rude and unprofessional to say the least.
 
The reason we chose (X Real Estate) to work with us is that we understand your company has an exemplary record of placing unique properties with unique buyers.  Our home is a lovely antique Greek Revival with guest house, pool, barns, gardens and acreage which we feel deserves a certain expertise in finding the right sort of buyer.  Needless to say, we were rather taken aback by this realtor's attitude.

Perhaps you could suggest another agent who might be more interested?  Or if not, another real estate company who might be more enthused?

(I am happy to report that I received a response from the owner very quickly, and she was most apologetic and anxious to set matters to rights as soon as possible)

(From me to Agnes:)

Agnes,
I am absolutely stunned to hear that you "forgot" the 10:00 appointment we had for this morning (Friday, September 16). 

My husband took time off work to be here.  I made the special effort to have the place looking presentable.  And all you can tell us is that you forgot?????

This does not make us overly confident in your skills as an effective sales person to assist us in the marketing of our home.  Perhaps there is someone else at (the real estate agency) who would be more interested, and more courteous of our time?

(From Agnes:)

Hi Dana,

It is the first appointment I have missed in over twenty years. I certainly regret the inconvenience I have caused you and Richard. I intended to confirm with you. I expected this week to be quite busy and it has been. Not to mention switching to a new phone where my calendar is not yet synched and moving my mother to assisted living in Massachusetts. I obviously took on too much this week.  I apologize for my very human error.

(From me:)

Agnes,

I appreciate your response, however it does not make either Richard or myself feel at all "special" to be the first of your clients in twenty years to be forgotten about!

I am sorry to hear that your are clearly so overburdened, that your new cell phone is not behaving as you would like, and so forth, but frankly none of these things are our problems!

I have contacted (the owner of the real estate agency) in the hopes that she will be able to suggest someone who might be more enthused about helping us sell our property.

What is this new tactic of blaming everything under the sun for one’s mistakes, and why is it so difficult to apologize???? 

OK, rant over.   You can carry on as usual.