Friday, July 18, 2014

Letter Writting...

Many many years ago, I wrote a long letter to Fannie May Candy Company.. my Dad's favorite candy.  Long story short - the candy company was going through a merger and I had ordered candy for my Dad's birthday that never showed up.  I was promised both candy and refund over and over ... and still neither showed up.... well - until I was willing to sit down and write a very constructive factual letter citing that "I likened their customer service department to the depths of a latrine!"

Again - long story short - my Dad got his candy, I got my refund and a bunch of gift certificates and I also got a call from the CFO of the company who said he was taking my letter into a meeting and reading it to the entire staff!

That story gave me a reputation at work to help anyone who was having issues with a company - needing to write a letter!

Fast forward to today... I had to write 'one of those' letters again.  Instead of trying to tell you what is going on.. I will just let you read the letter for yourself!



 
I am building a home with Built Green - an owner builder company where I act as the contractor with the assistance of a Built Green consultant. Built Green is the largest owner builder company in the state of Texas. In this process we use different vendors and consistently give feed back as to the products, prices and services we get from the vendors we use. I also keep a personal Internet diary of my own experiences. 
 
I placed a large exterior door order with Luis Jimenez on the 17th of May, paying for only 1 interior door I took with me that day ($486.04). It took some time to get every exterior door into inventory but on June 3rd, we put in the order - again with Luis who was extremely helpful! This order ($6325.05) was paid for in full. On the 24th of June we added an additional door to the order ($929.87) that was paid in full on that day. 
 
 
 I was told that the expected date of completion would be early to mid July, so I started calling on July 7th as so many other contractors are in line to do work on our home. The secretary confirmed on the 11th of July that the full door order would be ready on the 15th. Since then, I am unable to get any clear information about the completion of this order. This is extremely frustrating since I am constantly asked by our framer when the doors will arrive.
 
 
I do not have any complaints about Luis. Give him a raise as it is obvious he is a hard working, is genuinely kind and helpful and very knowledgeable! Your door prices seem to be better than your competition.. but if I get tagged with extra charges from other vendors for multiple trips to our build site that are unnecessary, that nullifies the cost savings on the doors. I am unable to judge the doors themselves because I do not have possession of them. 
  
Communication is the biggest problem I see with your company at this time. Many times when I call to try and get an update, I am left on an automatic hold for longer than 20 minutes even though the message assures me I am the "NEXT IN LINE". Usually - I hang up in frustration. When I do get a hold of a real person, they are unable to get in touch with the department who frames the doors to check on my order, so for over a week now, I am still only trying to get an estimated date of completion, based on your very own schedule.
 
 
 
I still need to purchase all of our interior doors and honestly, If this does not get cleared up soon, I am not sure I am willing to go through all of this frustration again just to save a few hundred dollars. 
  
...and just in case I still have your attention - get a delivery truck! It would be free advertisement as they made the deliveries through out the area and your customers would be more than willing to pay for this service when buying such a large order as I have placed.
Sincerely,
Julie Size

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