No links or pictures this time... And I’m sorry if this seems like I’m just venting... but that’s probably just what I’m doing.
Yesterday afternoon, I discovered she won’t be ready for LIB. In fact, she won’t be really ready for at least 2 more weeks.
The flooring is in. And some of the minor cosmetic touch-ups have been completed, but that’s about all since its returned from CIP.
After giving me excuse after excuse, the manager of the shop finally confided in me that his upholstery guy had “a little bit of trouble” with the law which I take to mean a short vacation at the grey-bar motel. But that’s just not my problem, especially since the pieces that needed his work have been sitting around their shop since early March virtually untouched.
I spoke with the owner of the shop this morning. Based on my being jerked around by his crew, I told him I was ready to pull the job and take her to another shop to have them finish it, at their expense. I asked him to give me one reason why I should let them finish the job. He was apologetic to a fault, and he seemed legitimately sorry about all the delays. He confirmed what the manager had told me about the upholstery guy, but said he hadn't been told about it till this morning. He also said, to his credit, that it wasn't an excuse because the work should have been done weeks ago and when his guy ran into problems, his manager should have hired another guy to finish the job on time. He told me the manager that had been stringing me along was “gone,” asked for one more chance and promised that he’d have it done and "perfect" by May 30.
I also spoke with 2 other RV interior shops as potential back-ups, one which is actually closer to me than R&A. But neither of them could start on her till mid-June, and as the guys from R&A took her apart, I’d really be concerned with some else trying to put her back together again without either my or my head mechanic’s oversight which would be both expensive and a pain in the ass.
So I told the owner of R&A I’d give him until June 6 to finish (which was a week more than he said he needed), but that’s their drop dead date and if I need to take her somewhere else after that, on their dime, so be it..
These types of projects always seem to encounter problems along the way. I was ready for that, but I wasn’t ready to be BS’d by a shop I’d done business with before. Bottom line is I may live to regret giving R&A another chance, but it seems like both the cool and practical thing to do at this point. We shall see.....
And I rented an RV for LIB, the cost of which R&A will be deducting from my bill.