They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case it’s worth almost a thousand dollars.
This is Maurice from Safety Harbor Locksmith. This is his 7th stop today. This is where I live. This is my front door being re-keyed.
This is why:
My landlords decided they’d rather use their own contractor rather than mine to remove and replace the leaking shower pan and surround full of black mold, even though they know exactly what I do for a living.
Day 1: a house key I’d left for the landlord at his request was missing from the countertop four hours into the demolition after I’d left for work. Being older, I thought he’d missed seeing it or couldn’t find it. When I got home, I found a huge mess all over the carpets and no key.
Day 10: even though I’d requested they close the door while cutting, not only did I come home to discover yet another huge mess but also that the contractor’s son did not follow the design for my shower I had laid out so painstakingly. He had jammed the tile in without my glass inserts. At the end of the job, they had cut 75 square feet of tile on my patio with the door open, sucking every bit of porcelain dust up the stairs to the return air vent and I discovered the safety locks on my patio sliding door were unlocked and the curtains drawn. Coincidence? Possibly.
That evening, I also discovered I was missing three boxes of tile I was going to return. Maybe I’m just getting senile?
Day 12: I decided to test the shower after the sealant had dried. It didn’t drain. At this point, I called one of S&W’s Ask the Seal certified plumbing contractors, All American Plumbing (who, by the way, know my landlords). They came over and sucked five pounds of construction debris from the drain. Good news is the shower pan didn’t leak after holding 30 gallons of water for 24 hours. Better news is that, being the upstanding guys they are, they refused to charge my landlords for the service call.
That weekend I had to have the carpets professionally cleaned because of the mess. It was well beyond that of the Bissell Carpet Cleaner XL’s capacity. While moving the furniture around, I had cause to open the night stand drawer where I keep several valuables, which includes the spare remote key fob for my car…which is not in the drawer anymore. Hmmm… I say to myself, “I think I smell a rat!”
Some that know me would say I live a spartan – maybe even ‘sterile’ – lifestyle in which there is no clutter (as opposed to my office) so searching every drawer in the room wasn’t that hard. I couldn’t have overlooked the key fob and attached keys.
As it turns out, the contractor’s son is his helper and has been in trouble before and has a recent serious felony charge. Dad apparently was having mercy on this wayward lad in order to help pay for his legal fees. I’m guessing a couple of big screens, a laptop and an Acura might have helped him along in the pursuit for financial independence.
Let’s tally the costs that someone is going to be reimbursing me for:
- Maurice to re-key: $75
- Carpet cleaned: $225
- Reprogram my car at the dealership so missing key fob won’t work: $125
- Replacement key fob: $500
- Total insanity: $925
- Listening to my Scotch-Canadian landlord rip into his ‘favorite sub contractor’: Priceless
At S&W, we have Ask the Seal‘s Seal of Approval because:
- Ask the Seal.com is free to consumers.
- Ask the Seal.com does not require you to enter any personal information.
- Ask the Seal.com performs criminal and sex offender checks on not just the owner but also the employees who interact with your family.
- Ask the Seal.com actually performs the background checks rather than just taking someone’s word for it.
Companies with the Seal of Approval can email you an employee photo and proof of background check(SEAL-MAIL) so you know who you are opening your door for.
Employees are issued photo IDs confirming their background check.
At S&W, we go to great lengths to qualify and background check our employees and our contractors. It’s that important.