Jami Robson

And the rest of Washington State!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am a native of Western Washington, specifically Tacoma and Gig Harbor and the heat wave that has descended on the Puget Sound Region is for the record books and one that I will be glad to see end!! I love the Northwest for its mild winters and relatively cool summers. I for one love a walk in the summer rain, when you can get refreshed without getting cold. Right now, rain in Gig Harbor is but a distant memory! The news tells me its been more than two months since we have had any measurable rain! What a difference! I am used to some dry days in summer, even a few 'scorchers' but this reminds me of the summers I used to go visit relatives in Nevada and Southern California! I was always glad to come home to Gig Harbor's cool dampness after those visits, now I feel like I am living smack dab in the desert!

Some friends call me a weather Scrooge, but I miss the rain! I would love to look out and see dark clouds boiling up on the horizon, bringing their cool dampness before the rain. I would love to open all the doors and windows and breathe in the wondrous smell of rain-washed leaves and sidewalks! I would dearly love to stop paying money to keep a few plants alive in the yard!

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade living in the Gig Harbor/Tacoma area for anyplace in the world, but could we just have a couple good old fashioned rain storms??

Over the last few days I have had the 'pleasure' of waiting for people to show up. First I spent an entire afternoon waiting for the cable company technician to show up to work on the cable tv service at my home. As may of you know, the cable company can't give you a specific time they will arrive, just a time frame. (mine was between noon and 5pm) I knew in advance and was able to plan my day accordingly and patiently awaited said cable tech. Well at about 2:30pm he finally showed up. He proceeded to go through his routine, checking all the outlets, climbing the pole out back twice and finally about 4:30pm, pronounced he was finished and all was well! I bid him adieu and he was on his way. My husband came home from work about a half hour later and when he tried to turn on the tv, there was nothing! I grabbed the new remote and pushed a dozen or so buttons and still nothing! I picked up the phone and called the cable company. After pushing 37 different buttons before I finally got through to a human, I was informed that there appeared to be an issue with our service and they would be happy to schedule a tech to come out!! As you can guess, I was less than pleased! I reminded the poor guy on the phone that I had just spent the day waiting for a tech and didn't have time to wait for another. The person was apologetic and promised to put in the trouble ticket with a special request for someone to call me and further promised that they would actually make an appointment with me... It's been three days and still no phone call!!! I decided to chalk it up to one company giving poor service, until today! Today I was scheduled to meet with an electrical inspector to do a final inspection on some work that was done for a client of mine. It took a couple days to get this inspector nailed down but was assured that he would be at the site today between 9am and 10 am. I double checked and told them I had keys in hand and would be waiting for him at 9am. At 8am I received a call telling me that the inspector had contacted the electrician and told him it would "be closer to 10am" before he could get to my job site, so not to arrive until closer to 10am. Okay, no problem! The electrician told me that 9:45am would be early enough... sounds good right?? In spite of my instructions from the electrician, i arrived on site at 9:30am, not wanting to miss the inspector. Well, it is now going on 2:30pm and the inspector still hasn't arrived!!

The question that begs to be asked is "What ever happened to customer service????"

I strive to give my customers the best customer service possible and could not imagine doing business the way these industry people do!

Growing up in the Tacoma/Gig Harbor area of Pierce County Washington was like living full time in a State Park! There is always a beach, park or trail to explore and never a lack of things to do! As an adult, I have traveled extensively, but I always return to Western Washington because no where else feels so good! It's true, that sometimes we feel like we get more than our share of wet weather, but the first cloud break treats you to a sky so incredibly blue and trees so green, that you forget almost instantly about the former grey skies! The Evergreen State, with its many parks and recreation areas, is the only place to live!!