Automated Services

I made a call on 5/14/2010 around 1:00 PM and was told by the dispatcher that a technician would call me. No one called for the rest of the day. This morning, 5/15 at @9:30 AM I called back. The person who answered could not tell me why I did not receive a call, but took down my number and said she would tell the technician to call me. About 10 minutes later someone called from a cell phone. The person was not just abrupt, he was incredibly rude. Right after I said "Hello" he barked into the phone, "this someone who called about some kind of A/C?" I asked if this was a person from Automated Services. He then said, "you down there (in my neighborhood)?" When I answered "yes", he went on to say. "We don't do no work down there. We had trouble down there. So we don't go down there no more. For 10 years now" I said "OK, I guess your office should have just informed me of that." He said, "they don't know down there." WOW. What a fabulous experience. The fact that my first call was ignored was enough to turn me off, but since they came recommended to me, I decided to call them back and give them another chance. I could not be more sorry about that. My policy on this sort of thing is simple. If I am getting ready to spend a few thousand dollars, I do like to be treated as a paying customer. I figure when you have a big job done, there is always a lot that can go wrong. But, it is best if the early conversations stay friendly. I know that I did my part to make that happen. However, when I realize that my business is not important enough to rate a call back or any modicum of civility, then my feeling is, "Why would I ever want to do any kind of business with this individual or his company?"