Don't be Afraid to Ask

I am very bad about getting people to do what they promised to do. I don't like confrontation.

A couple of weeks ago, we hired a fellow to powerwash our deck and restain it. He came that day and got started. The next day he did the staining and then he was done. I wasn't totally pleased with how it looked. There were these splotches. And the best we can figure is that it is from the paint stripper that he used to take up the old paint - there are these splatter marks, like it was thicker in some places and took away more of the paint than in others. He also wanted to get it done right away and didn't pay any attention to the weather. Even though the stain was dry that afternoon, that night it started raining and rained for the better part of the week. I think it washed some of the stain away.

So we were just going to redo it ourselves, but when I was at Lowe's looking at stain and such, the guy there told me that I should just call the guy and tell him. So I screwed up my courage and did it. I mean afterall, we didn't get what we paid for. So I called him and told him I was unhappy with the way the deck looked and would he please come by so we could figure out what to do. I didn't make any threats or anything. He said he would be by in two days (he was busy with other work right then).

Yesterday he came by as promised and he couldn't believe the way the deck looked. He said he had never seen anything like it and if it had been him, he would have called and said something too. He said he wanted me to be happy with the work he did and he will make it right. We are going to pay for more stain, but he will apply it for no additional charge.

Asking to receive the service you paid for is okay. That is my motto for today.