PEACHTREE CITY: Service businesses often don’t serve customer consideration

I almost had a home-repair strikeout.

I arranged for three separate service calls on the same day, hoping to consolidate the amount of time I’d have to suspend work and wait around. Even before the “sometime between 1 and 4 p.m.” holding pattern, one company called to cancel and reschedule for the next day.

OK, I had yet another company coming the following day anyway, so that time was already blocked off. Then the second company arrived nearly half an hour after the “waiting window” was over —- with no phone call to say they were running late —- and I was on my way out the door to a 4:30 appointment.

At least that work was outside and didn’t need my supervision or immediate payment. The third guy waited until 45 minutes after his scheduled arrival time to call and say he was still coming, but it was so late in the evening I rescheduled it for the next day along with the others.

I recently spent more than a month trying to schedule a TV repair. I ended up having to call four different companies (after the third failed to show) until I got someone who actually came out (twice) and fixed the problem. Thank God, my husband is great with routine repairs or else I’d be having these issues even more often.

I’ve had both good luck and bad luck with Peachtree City-area contractors: good with air conditioning, bad with sod installation, good with drainage repair, very good with carpet cleaning and two excellent companies that did deck construction and floor installation.

You never know whom to trust, so I try to get referrals whenever possible. I know there are online lists that help rate businesses, too.

But for some situations you’re at the mercy of who’s closest, cheapest or available. You would think in this economy, companies would be more diligent about customer service to retain clients.

Even if there are last-minute circumstances, contractors need to inform their customers and not leave them hanging; we have schedules of our own to keep.

(As for my ultimate repair results, I’ll have to get back to you sometime between noon and 6 … )

> Jill Howard Church writes a Peachtree City blog at ajc.com/metro/fayette.