2022-09-20 — The Ingrates

No, if you were wondering, I didn’t write an entry yesterday. Not doing well at all. Got really discouraged really quickly last night, and depressed.

And then a long day today.

And it’s gonna be a really short night and a really long day tomorrow. (I’ve got a job way down in Fayetteville at 5 a.m.)

Ugh.

Annoyed at myself and at the 5 a.m. customer. I went to four different stores to try and find him a water pump that wasn’t crap out of the box. I’m not feeling well after a long day in near record-breaking heat. I didn’t get home until well after dark, and this… lovely customer…

erg.

It’s my own fault because I zero-heartedly offered coming early in the morning as an option. But good heavens, what person on earth after you’ve been to four stores in three cities trying to find a good part for you, when you’re overworked and overheated, not feeling well, and are exhausted (and the customer is well aware of it clear as day), is gonna ask even more special treatment of you?

This guy.

Yes, please get up at 4, so you can drive to get to my place by 5, so you can work on my car in the dark, to install a part that’s not good out of the box (but, hey, I don’t care, it’s under warranty), and I’ll hope you don’t run into any troubles along the way that delay repair or require additional parts/supplies (even though that’s very probable as it’s not a quick job, and parts stores won’t be open to get anything, which means you’ll have driven all this way only to not be able to do the job before I have to go to work anyway. But hey, I don’t want to be inconvenienced and have to pay for a Lyft to work and back, so I’ll take you up on an offer that obviously should have been politely declined because… I mean… any reasonable person isn’t going to keep taking and taking and taking when the person they’re taking from is drained to near nothing, right?

But welcome to this day and age. Give me give me give me give me give me. I’m alive, so I deserve.

I know it’s my fault for “offering.” Only me to blame, but good crap.

Good crap.

Add that experience to the young woman who called this morning telling me that she needs help figuring out what’s wrong with her car but doesn’t want to pay someone to come out because she already knows what’s wrong.

Um… 😶…if you’re needing help because you’re not sure, then you don’t know what’s wrong.

So… you want someone to come out because you’re not sure, but you don’t want to pay for it because you already know and don’t want to have to pay for someone just to confirm the issue is what you think it is?

Yeah…

Good gravy.

And then I offer to help you over the phone, without charging you, and you treat me as though you deserve that help and not like I just spent my precious time helping you as a favor out of kindness.

That’s what we’re getting: Political leaders and media spreading the word that because you’re alive, you deserve. You’re alive, so you deserve to have everything necessary to live handed to you without having to work for it.

Man, we’re in trouble as a society if we keep down that road.

Work if you can. Serve those who can’t.

Oh yeah, and then there was the guy this morning who complained that Malaki didn’t even pop the hood on a car he went to even though his daughter was present when Malaki looked at it. So he complains, says he figured out the problem and fixed the issue himself and that he wasted his money and got nothing of value from us. So without quibbling at all, I gave him a full refund, and asked if there was anything else I could do for him.

I didn’t even get a response. Not a thank you for the full refund, no questions asked. Not anything.

Ugh.

Oh! and add the woman last night who had some sort of emotional breakdown, called me and was very unhappy with me and said she didn’t want to work with me in the future (another person I spent tons of time trying to help, tons of time I didn’t bill for). And she hangs up angry.

Me? I’m shocked. I went out of my way to work very hard to get the best stuff for her, and I get this?!?!

Holy. Freaking. Crap.

Gratefully, after almost spamming her with so many messages trying to figure out what was going on, she, quite embarrassed, apologized for her breakdown, said I’d been wonderful, and… that was it…

😶

Miguel and Malaki think I worry too much about reviews. Think I’m too quick to refund. Maybe that’s true. I don’t know. My philosophy has been that I want a great reputation, and I don’t want bad reviews, and I’d rather eat some dollars than get bad reviews and bad publicity, so I give refunds and knock dollars off, and I’ll decide later if I ever want them as a customer again.

Well… I’m over the edge. Migraine starting. A bit angry (obviously), and not well in pretty much every sense of the word anyway.

Ugh.

Gonna get about 3 hours of sleep… if I’m lucky.

Tired. Just tired.

I’ve gotta find meaning in life soon…