William the cable guy

[Ozz]

We had the appointment set up 3 days in advance, with the assurance that the installer of our cable television, and Roadrunner Internet service, would be professional and on time. I am a serviceman and tend to hold all, to my standards, ’old school’, taught to me by my father, who was a Plumber/Pipefitter. I would listen to him tell me about always cleaning up his work area, setting tools out on old towels he kept on the truck. Punctuality was part of the package he brought to the customer.
William was late. Not fashionably late, ’I don’t know if he is going to show up late’. We had to call his office to see if we were still on the schedule. They had to get in contact with William, then call us back. Three and a half hours after the “From 11:00 to 2:00 time frame” that we were promised.
William showed up at the front door with an old vinyl coat on, his long dirty hair stuffed up into his hat, 2 days of beard, glasses askew, so dirty I can’t imagine how he could see out of them. I wanted to snatch them off his face and clean them with ammonia, but I didn’t.
I had a satellite receiver before switching to the cable, so with the two feed cables from that, my antenna cable, 4 televisions and a monitor for a surveillance camera upstairs, and one downstairs, there were many cables in my basement. I asked if I could be of assistance, he said no, so I sat the ordeal out. I was firm when I told him I wanted good cable installed for the digital signal and HDTV I was getting, he agreed to the demand.
One main TV in the living room, and one in the bedroom was all I wanted him to do. 3 hours later he left the house, the receiver in the bedroom didn’t work, the new receiver for the main TV was sitting next to it on the floor, wires wadded up behind it, satellite still hooked up.
The guy stunk, like body odor stink. I was just glad he left the house.
The entire next day was spent climbing the ladder in the basement, taking out unused cable, securing the loose cable he left, hooking up my other TV’s to antenna he unhooked, fixing his screw-ups.
Two days later, today, a Time Warner service guy came and ran new cable to the bedroom, and replaced the defective receiver in the bedroom.
How that kid keeps his job, I just can’t imagine. But we have HDTV now Yeaaa!!!