We the Consumer have the POWER!!

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As we are going through this “leaking pipe under the kitchen slab” shenanigan I come to find out I am going to meet all kinds of “special” people on my odyssey through the Insurance maze. I was speaking to my Home Warranty people who sent me my first plumber who I found questionable. I just didn’t like his attitude with me. He was a bully. He was a big guy with a brusque manner who thought he could keep me in my place, compliant, scared and as his unwitting accomplice. No way. I questioned him, even on the matter of payment, and he had the temerity to say “Don’t shoot the messenger!” Really?! When, I heard from my Home Owner’s Insurance company saying they had received his estimate, I told them how I didn’t really “click” with this man and had found my own Construction Professional, someone who had already proven himself as a professional, with good work ethics, who I would trust in my house, who had come yesterday, and was coming again today to give us estimates, and would soon FAX them to him, he was impressed. He looked over Mr. Intimidations faxed estimate and thought they did seem  “wonky”. Really, what a surprise!

Now, I must go back to my Home Warranty company, see if they are going to cover the first $1,000 of said problem, because of course I have a deductible with my Home Owner’s Insurance. Also, what is interesting, is just the leaking hotwater pipe itself is covered, no cosmetic fixes are or so said Mr. Intimidation. No tiles, if you chose the floor way, and no dry wall and paint if you choose the reroute way. How ridiculous. So I guess, you would be expected to leave your floor wide open, because Thank God the pipe is fixed. Or, who cares about the holes in the walls all over my house, Thank God I have hot water. Welcome to the pleasant world of Insurance! We’ll see. I hope I heard wrong, or “misinterpreted” what Mr. Intimidation, The Plumber, said. That was all he was going to do… plumb. Oh, I can’t wait until he calls me to know when he can come do the job, Ha Ha! as if. I would NOT let that man fix a shed! If he thinks he is EVER entering my house again, he is sadly mistaken. As I said, We the consumer have the POWER! We can pick who we want to do work FOR us, who we ALLOW in our houses! I will not be disrespected by someone who is going to work FOR me, and who I am going TO pay! I wrote him the check for his services, which like I said I questioned because I said I felt as if he did nothing, I knew I had a leak, he left here saying, “Yup, you have a leak, somewhere over here, … I can’t hear it. He did not actually find the conduit and cut it off which is the first thing my Contractor did the next day. Amazing.

And Mr. Intimidation had the nerve to tell my Home Warranty there was a problem with the payment. I was speechless, then I went nuts. Telling them the question about the payment, he forgot, was he expecting cash in hand? actual cash so he could have kept the lie going, say I did not pay him, saying I had no receipt, again making me his accomplice. When I said Wow, amazing that I have to pay you when all you did was tell me I have a leak, which is such bad news, and he said, Hey don’t shoot the messenger! But I handed him a check, he had insinuated I did not pay him! WHAT?!

Anyway, onward and upward…