by Mark Laughlin

Many years ago, I walked up to the lobby area of my business to say good-bye to a client that was relocating out of state.  While shaking his hand he looked me straight in the eye and said, “It has been a pleasure doing business with you and your staff.  What I enjoyed the most was your ability to always do it right the first time.” 

I’ve thought about this moment often as I go through life dealing with a variety of inept contractors and businesses.

My family just recently moved out West after living in the Chicago area for most of our life.  I now live out in the country and don’t need to use my turn signal to turn into my driveway. 

People generally seem to be a lot friendlier.  Strangers strike up conversations with me in the Sam’s Club parking lot and tell me sincerely to “Have a nice day”.  No one has laid on the horn, or flashed their “brights” at me, if I’m not going at least ten miles over the speed limit.  No one has flipped me off.  Neighbors invite you over to dinner instead of giving you a half-ass wave or head nod.

But despite all this pleasantness, I am thoroughly convinced that our country is overrun with ineptness, laziness, lies and the “me” syndrome. 

Mistakes and general laziness abound everywhere.  No one wants to be held accountable for his or her actions.  What’s wrong with admitting you screwed up and actually fixing the problem?  It amazes me how some businesses continue to stay in business.

When you do find the person, or business, that does it right the first time, there’s a real good chance you will be a customer for life.  Let me give you an example. 

After moving, I needed to purchase an electric clothes dryer.  I found an acceptable model “in stock” at a large national department store chain.  I was promised delivery in a couple of days.  Two weeks and six phone calls later, I still had a void next to my washing machine.  Now, I am fighting with the chain about the delivery charge, that I am told is non-refundable, for the dryer that was never delivered. 

The local “Ma and Pa” appliance store in town delivered and installed my dryer the next business day after I called.  What a pleasure!  They just got a customer for life!

Unfortunately, more businesses operate like that large retail chain than the “Ma and Pa” store.  Let me tell about a few more experiences I’ve had in the few short months since I moved out West. 

Three weeks before we left the Midwest, I called and reserved a phone number for my new residence.  When I got my first phone bill, I had an $80 charge for a cell phone that wasn’t mine.  I called the phone company and was told to deduct the $80 from my bill.  The following week, I got a disconnect notice for not paying the $80. 

I was back on the phone to straighten out the problem.  After several probing questions, I found another $48 had been billed to me from the folks that had the number before me.  Two more calls, and a half-hour later, the problem was put to rest.  Why did this happen in the first place?

Next, the electric company showed up at my new residence to turn on a security yard light, which doesn’t exist.  They had come out in response to a nine-week old work order placed by the former owners of the property!  To compound things, after seven weeks in the house I still hadn’t received a bill for electric service. 

This made me nervous.  I made a call to the electric company to find out why I had never received a bill.  A half an hour and three phone transfers later, I got to the right person.  He was very nice and fixed the billing problem.  However, he had no rational explanation why a bill was never sent.  How do they stay in business with screw-ups like these?

I also had a fiasco with a concrete company that I hired to pour a new sidewalk.  They didn’t do the job according to the specs we laid out in the contract.  They forgot to do two sections of my new sidewalk.  They also didn’t haul away the debris from the wooden sidewalk that I had removed to prepare for the new sidewalk.  We had a written contract.  Why couldn’t they perform correctly the first time?

Now, I’m fighting to get my real estate agent to return my e-mails about escrow money that I was owed at closing (for a large appliance that the previous owners just flat took out before I arrived).  There’s also problem getting a deposit returned on two parcels of land that I decided not to buy.  The sellers never signed or returned the paperwork within the required seven-day time frame.  We had no binding contract.  I decided not to buy the land.  Legally, I’m due my deposit back.  Why can’t I get back what’s legally mine?  This battle is still going on!

To cap it all off, I had to drive into my bank today to have an erroneous check charge of $2,169 that was drawn on my account reversed.  Yes, the oversight was corrected, but no one at the bank could offer me even a partial answer as to why it happened.  Gives you a real feeling of confidence, doesn’t it?

What will tomorrow bring?  I’m almost afraid to find out! 

I don’t think I have unreasonable expectations.  I know mistakes happen.  But why doesn’t anyone do anything right the first time anymore? 

If you’re in business, and you do things right the first time, your chances of failure are almost nil.  Your competition will likely self-destruct right before your eyes.

I have better things to do than making follow-up phone calls to put out fires that someone else created.  Am I the only one this is happening to?  Somehow, I don’t think so.

How are you going to run your business?