April 23rd, 2010 → 12:39 am @ terry
I’m distraught and looking for sympathy so try to muster up some real concern for me. Our resignation prompted a call from the company and I have to admit I had a vision in my head of the caller standing straight and stiff as an ironing board with jaw slightly jutting forward. The caller’s answer was “That’s okay; I have a state-wide rep I can reassign them to.”
“Well, if you have a state-wide rep why have you been sending us a handful every month? Why isn’t the state-wide rep getting all of them?” ”Hello?” ”You still there?”
I’m glad she (the caller) could so boldly let me know that our resignation was not going to cause any permanent damage to their business. Even though I have been in this business for a long, long time, I still retain some ethics.
Of course the visual image of the straight-up stance and the daring chin position was blown to hell when she told me that we had to finish what had already been assigned and give a 30 day notice. ”We will certainly do that. We don’t have a problem with that at all; but tell me – if you have a state-wide rep, couldn’t you go ahead and reassign them to that rep?” ”Hello – you still there?”
A couple of hours later we got a call and we were told that “Yes, we can reassign them if you let us know what has not been done.” ”Okay, here they are, all five of them that are not already in the field. By the way, your state-wide rep must be really busy; it took you several hours to get back to us.” ”Hello. You still there.”
There’s a moral in here somewhere. I think it goes something like this:
When I first started in this business, I didn’t have access to anyone that would talk much about the greedy and corrupt companies we could be dealing with. I learned pretty quick though – I did 500 or so inspections for a company and at the end of the pay period I owed them $800. Seems that the companies have a habit of telling their computers to ignore the fact that the inspection requests were late when they send them to a new rep. Actually it’s a pretty good system. They just transfer all the penalties to the new rep and wallah – they win and you lose!
Have fun out there and if you’re having any doubts about seven exterior photos (requires a walk-around), I can send you a link to a company that has pretty good prices on bullet proof vests.
Tomorrow, if I’m not totally wiped out from all the fun I’ll have in the field, I’d like to tell you about a call I had that was just full of complements.
Terry