Pissed. Need advice.
Okay, so we had an appraiser here at the ranch today, as we’re going for a mortgage equity loan. R. arranged the whole thing, and–frankly, embarrassedly–I know precious little about it.
I was walking out of the bedroom, having just dressed The Bee this morning, and The Appraiser Dude is taking notes on my back garden. My weed-filled, choked-with-green, viper-pit of a back garden. Taking notes. GAH. The Bee walks straight up to him and yanks on the cord to his GPS. (Guffaw.) Dude grunts at her. I go into the main house and notice Dude entering my bedroom building, wandering around by himself. Eyebrow raises.
I mention this to R. when I get down to the office, but R. insists Dude didn’t go into the main house. I insist he did, or would. Then Dude barges into my office without knocking while I’m sitting at the computer, through my outside door, even though R. told him explicitly to use the other door, the one that goes to R.’s office. Guard dog wants to rip Dude’s northern vertebrae out. As Dude sticks his head in my door, I simply say, “You really don’t want to come in here.”
We pass a mid-day. Dude has long ago left.
I take The Bee back up to the house and notice that the door to the guest room is askew. The guest room sits at one end of our doublewide and used to be two separate bedrooms, but we ripped the wall out between those and merged the rooms as one. But the two original entrance doors remain, although I keep a strategically-placed chair and baskets thingy in front of the door that we never use, thusly:
It’s important that I do that because propped behind the unused door in the guest room is the largest damned mirror you will ever see–or not see, because I can no longer show it to you, because Dude frigging went through the door (behind the chair and baskets thingy) and the gargantuan, ceiling-to-floor mirror came crashing down. And broke. Leaving one of us with seven years of bad luck.
Now, my questions are plenty.
Such as: since he had just been in the guest room, having walked in through the usable door, and he could see how freaking big the room is, WHY would he jam his weight into the other door (behind the chair and baskets thingy), looking for “another room”? (This was his later–much later–explanation.)
Please note:
You can see the mirror on the floor here, and here is the room in the other direction, back of broken mirror also visible on floor:
How do we possibly tuck another room in here?
GAH.
GAH.
GAH.
So, the absolute worst of it is that Dude leaves WITHOUT SAYING A WORD ABOUT IT.
After doing his dirty deed and leaving the main house, he spends another 45 minutes walking and driving the property–all the way up the mountain to the back twenty–WITH R. FORTY-FIVE MINUTES of chitchat, of guy-crap, of shooting the breeze, and Dude says nary a thing about the scene of ka-ka he left for me to walk in on in the guest room.
Jeezus. My dogs do a better job of cowering letting me know when they’ve had an accident.
I immediately have R. phone him. R. comes back and says it’s his “impression” that Dude was “hoping it would just go away.” R. says Dude reluctantly agreed to pay for a replacement mirror, but R. says take pictures in any case. Um, duh…hello? Blog!
Okay. I get that we initiated the reason for Dude to be here, even though we didn’t hire him–the bank did. I even get that R. should have been escorting Dude around 100% of the time whilst he was surveying. (I’m still unclear why that wasn’t happening…seems that R. was under the impression that Dude wanted to do his thing alone.)
What I don’t get is the imbecilic and completely immature way that Dude handles this mistake. What? Are we five?
No. We are a professional. We own our own business. We have an “& Associates” after our name on the shingle.
Okay. So, I need a reality check. Am I way out of line? Feeling overly-protective and overreacting as a result? How would you feel about this? Advice?
First of all, it’s definitely HIS seven years of bad luck, not yours.
Second - if the guy was like, 16, this would be sort of understandable - but to break something - something really BIG and dangerous now that it was broken - and then leave it there (when he knew there was a toddler in the house, too!!!!) and not say anything because…what? He thinks you won’t notice? Yeah. Not professional. Not even polite in any way. He should have spoken up immediately - apologized profusely, cleaned it up himself (or at least helped you clean it up) and written a check on the spot.
Can you complain to the bank?
Comment by: Maia - 09.13.2007 - 6.07 pm
Pissed wouldn’t even begin to cover what I’d be. LIVID would be a better description. What a bunch of bullshit. I’d be finding out who dude’s supervisor is and placing phone call. If I still wasn’t satisfied, I’d climb the bank ladder until I was. This was BEYOND ridiculous and is certainly no way to conduct business.
Comment by: Jacquie - 09.13.2007 - 6.28 pm
Definitely not out of line! You need to complain to the bank, his business and the BBB. Ridiculous.
Comment by: Donna - 09.13.2007 - 7.02 pm
Call the bank and express your extreme displeasure in this appraiser or else his behavior will continue with other victims.
An appraisal is not an excuse to trample people’s personal property. If he did that while you were trying to sell your house? Unacceptable!
Comment by: Johnny - 09.13.2007 - 7.38 pm
Normally when someone breaks something in your home they are mortified. They apologize and freak out. Its wierd that he didn’t say anything. That had to be loud!
Comment by: christie - 09.13.2007 - 8.22 pm
Asshole. Seriously, what the hell? Even a 5-year-old would have fessed up. You have every right to be pissed and I don’t think you are overreacting at all. That was a great mirror too - angled nicely to give a slightly slimming effect.
Comment by: Jessi - 09.13.2007 - 8.31 pm
You are not out of line - not at all. I agree with Jacquie, except I’d call the Dude’s supervisor after calling the owner of the company Dude works for THEN I’m work my way down the bank ladder, making sure several people heard this story. I’d also make sure that whoever is covering the replacement costs pick up the mirror frame, and pay for delivery after it’s done. Unbelievable. That man needs to be removed from the gene pool.
Comment by: walternatives - 09.13.2007 - 8.32 pm
At the very least have the bank replace the mirror. Write ‘em a letter. A scathing letter, a la this blog entry. Tell everyone you know in Cowboy City that they shouldn’t use Appraisers & Associates, and tell Appraisers & Associates that you are going to do this.
It’s inexcusable. What is wrong with this guy anyway?
Comment by: OmegaMom - 09.13.2007 - 8.45 pm
Oh, but after I thought about this for a moment- first GET THE APPRAISAL! Um, you don’t want to piss him off if he’s in any position to mess around with your loan. Get the appraisal, make sure it’s what you want - and then maybe kick up a fuss. Because I’m guessing that the mirror isn’t worth skewering your finances - or even worth the trouble of a second appraisal.
Just a thought…
Comment by: Maia - 09.13.2007 - 10.32 pm
I would agree, call the bank.
Comment by: Nicole - 09.14.2007 - 5.19 am
Idiotic and unprofessional. I agree with everyone else saying that this is an issue he should hear from HIS boss. Call the bank and raise hell.
Comment by: FDChief - 09.14.2007 - 5.55 am
Okay, I am sort of with Maia here. Wait for the appraisal, then report the damage and stuff. Write up your account now, combine with pics, and then sit on it for a bit.
It has been my experience that appraisers are a tight-knit community (at least in my small burg), and I wouldn’t want this whole thing to be compromised by his (wrongfully!) trashing your rep along with your mirror.
That said? His behavior sucks, and you are NOT in the wrong. I would also think that the bad luck is his, not yours.
Comment by: Amanda - 09.14.2007 - 6.56 am
I’m with everyone else - call the bank and complain LOUDLY. That kind of behavior is appalling, especially knowing that there is a toddler running around and dogs. What can be more dangerous than broken glass all over the floor? Geez. What a jackass.
Comment by: Project Ni Hao - 09.14.2007 - 7.09 am
What is up with Appraiser Dudes?!?! We just had one come out to our house recently for the same reasons. He showed up 45 minutes late, saying that he got lost after my husband gave him explicit directions. He tooled around for 30 minutes, then left without saying a word. A week later, we received a message saying that everything had been put on hold because the appraiser wrote on his report that our house was ‘For Sale By Owner’. WTF?!?! We had to go through an extra 3 weeks of clarifying everything because of ‘Dudes’ completely fabricated report.
So my advice about your Dude would be, string him up. Not that I’m biased or anything.
Comment by: Mrs Pushy - 09.14.2007 - 10.58 am
Whoa, I just wrote a new song,”Dude SURE IS an Asshole”..think Aerosmith might record it?
The bad luck is definitely all his BTW….the completely reasonable attitude toward the whole fiasco is yours.
Hope everything works out exactly as you want.
Comment by: Barbara Noblog - 09.14.2007 - 1.52 pm
JFC!!!!!!!!!!
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