Tonight I had the pleasure of dealing with our neighbor who's been rather questionable in the past - I've called his wife the "clown lady" (though not to her face) because of the make up she wears, and the guy is..well..anyway..
Neighbor comes over to ask around maybe 5:30 or so my time to ask if our kitchen sink is backed up. Now before he'd come over, there was a weird noise that I'd originally attributed to the cats, because they do get into stuff and I figured one of them was using the litter box. It wasn't until he came over that I realized "hey, they don't burble when they use the box". It's been a long week.
I see that there's a back up in the sink. So I run the disposal. No luck, the water comes back up. They say they've got the same problem. Now herein lies the problem. He goes from "hey we've got a problem" to "okay so who's going to pay for it".
You see, a year or so ago, DDD caused a back up that necessitated RotoRooter to come out. They do, fix the problem and we pay for it and are more careful about what we do. A little less than a month ago we got a new disposal because the one we had finally went. It's been working like a charm and probably the most we've put down it has been egg shells. Nothing bad like grease or other stuff. We learned our lesson on that one.
Anyway..I tell neighbor that I'd have to talk to DDD and have him talk to the neighbor about this. He looks a little upset and says "Oh, I see, so he wouldn't pay for it?" No, I didn't say that. I said he'd have to talk to DDD. Meanwhile, I've called DDD, and I've been blowing up his cell phone with texts.
About 7pm or so, RotoRooter comes by and the guy wants to look at our sink. I say, like I said to the neighbor earlier, the last time we used the sink was Monday when I drained some ramen, and the tech does not see me pointing to the colander. He turns around and says "Well, that's the problem. It's your fault."
That had me seeing red and I kicked not only the neighbor who had come in but the tech out of our house. I was not about to have someone who was so unprofessional as to listen to me and even really think it through to say that it was our fault. Water is burbling into OUR sink, not the other way around. We didn't do anything wrong.
I was so mad and seeing red that I had to call my sister to rant. DDD gets home a little bit later and he goes to talk to the neighbor who tells him that the guy left because his ladder wasn't tall enough to get him onto the roof as we apparently have stacks vents. Someone is supposed to return tomorrow to drop a snake and I think then that'll determine who is at fault.
We managed to get the name of the tech and I called and put in a complaint. I was livid and probably an SC, but dammit, I'm being attacked blindly and being blamed for something I know we didn't do, not to mention that they tech was very unprofessional in making the assumptions without getting all the facts. Our neighbor also told him that he didn't believe that just water would cause this. The water coming up is icky, smelly and has crud in it, as well as what looks like dirt.
I am more than ready to admit that if we'd done something, we would foot the bill for it, but since I am more than 99% certain it's not us, I'm not about to pay for something that I didn't break to begin with. I am certain that we may end up having to pay half just to keep the peace. Honestly, and maybe I'm wrong, but if someone comes to me with a problem that they've discovered, how is it that suddenly my fault?
If you've made it through this whole diatribe then you're braver than I thought.
Neighbor comes over to ask around maybe 5:30 or so my time to ask if our kitchen sink is backed up. Now before he'd come over, there was a weird noise that I'd originally attributed to the cats, because they do get into stuff and I figured one of them was using the litter box. It wasn't until he came over that I realized "hey, they don't burble when they use the box". It's been a long week.
I see that there's a back up in the sink. So I run the disposal. No luck, the water comes back up. They say they've got the same problem. Now herein lies the problem. He goes from "hey we've got a problem" to "okay so who's going to pay for it".
You see, a year or so ago, DDD caused a back up that necessitated RotoRooter to come out. They do, fix the problem and we pay for it and are more careful about what we do. A little less than a month ago we got a new disposal because the one we had finally went. It's been working like a charm and probably the most we've put down it has been egg shells. Nothing bad like grease or other stuff. We learned our lesson on that one.
Anyway..I tell neighbor that I'd have to talk to DDD and have him talk to the neighbor about this. He looks a little upset and says "Oh, I see, so he wouldn't pay for it?" No, I didn't say that. I said he'd have to talk to DDD. Meanwhile, I've called DDD, and I've been blowing up his cell phone with texts.
About 7pm or so, RotoRooter comes by and the guy wants to look at our sink. I say, like I said to the neighbor earlier, the last time we used the sink was Monday when I drained some ramen, and the tech does not see me pointing to the colander. He turns around and says "Well, that's the problem. It's your fault."
That had me seeing red and I kicked not only the neighbor who had come in but the tech out of our house. I was not about to have someone who was so unprofessional as to listen to me and even really think it through to say that it was our fault. Water is burbling into OUR sink, not the other way around. We didn't do anything wrong.
I was so mad and seeing red that I had to call my sister to rant. DDD gets home a little bit later and he goes to talk to the neighbor who tells him that the guy left because his ladder wasn't tall enough to get him onto the roof as we apparently have stacks vents. Someone is supposed to return tomorrow to drop a snake and I think then that'll determine who is at fault.
We managed to get the name of the tech and I called and put in a complaint. I was livid and probably an SC, but dammit, I'm being attacked blindly and being blamed for something I know we didn't do, not to mention that they tech was very unprofessional in making the assumptions without getting all the facts. Our neighbor also told him that he didn't believe that just water would cause this. The water coming up is icky, smelly and has crud in it, as well as what looks like dirt.
I am more than ready to admit that if we'd done something, we would foot the bill for it, but since I am more than 99% certain it's not us, I'm not about to pay for something that I didn't break to begin with. I am certain that we may end up having to pay half just to keep the peace. Honestly, and maybe I'm wrong, but if someone comes to me with a problem that they've discovered, how is it that suddenly my fault?
If you've made it through this whole diatribe then you're braver than I thought.
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