The Week From Hell, And It's Only Tuesday

The past two days have been without a doubt the worst days I've had all year; maybe even the past few years.  I've been in the middle of an ugly, ugly mess that is not going to be resolved any time soon.  A few weeks ago, the 'Rents were shopping at Lowes and ran into an old friend that they used to work with at B&W back in the day. She told them that she was there looking for a pump for the basement of her daycare, and the 'Rents told her that their daughter happened to work for a pump company, and probably wouldn't mind helping out.  So the next day, I stopped by the daycare on my way home from work, and looked at the existing pump, and told her we had one that was almost identical and would work fine in that application.  She needed a plumber, so we gave her the name of the family plumber (who also did all of the plumbing work at Fourth Avenue Baptist Church). I told her to call the plumber and then call me back. Two weeks went by, and I was on my vacation just a couple of weeks ago (two weeks, to be exact) when the lady called wanting to know where her pump was.  This should have been my first red flag.  I told her that neither she nor the plumber had gotten back in touch with me.  I stopped what I was doing and on my vacation day, went into work to pick up the pump (which she bought for exactly what it cost me under our employee sale discount) and deliver it.  The plumber was there when I got back with the pump, and I dropped it off and went back home to continue my vacation.

Flash forward to yesterday, exactly two weeks from when I delivered the pump and it was installed.  The owner of the daycare (the 'Rents' old co-worker and alleged friend) called me and proceded to rip me a new one because the "pump has been leaking all over the place."  My first response was "You waited two weeks to call me?"  She continued to rant and rave and rip me a second new one, even though I did nothing wrong; I was guilty of only trying to help her out.   I then called the plumber, and got his side of the story.  To make the long story short, I told him and the lady I'd get her a new tank for the pump to go in, and then everything would be fine.  Well, it couldn't be that simple, now, could it?  The plumber came to work early this a.m. and got the tank, and went over to the daycare to get everything hooked up.  Let me interject that at this point, he was sick of dealing with this woman and was not going to charge her any more money for all of this.  Flash forward again to lunchtime when the plumber calls me, and all I can hear is the daycare owner screaming in the background.  To make the long he-said-she-said story short, apparently he didn't hook things up quite like she told him to, so what do they do?  Of course - they call me; the one who is not a plumbing expert nor plumbing contractor.  So to calm both of them down, I told the plumber to come back to work and I'd get him a 2nd tank.  He picked it up, and told me he was going to go and deliver it after the daycare closed, and was simply going to drop it off on the doorstep with a note telling her that she had ranted and raved so much, that it raised his blood pressure and affected his nerves so much that he can't deal with her any more, and for her to get the phonebook out and find another plumber. 

Now do you see why I've been stressed to the max the past two days?  I can kinda see her side, and I can see the plumber's side.  But the both of them are not seeing MY side.  And to be honest, I don't actually have a side in this - all I was doing was helping a family friend out by getting her a pump for what it would cost me.  Now I'm in the middle of World War III.  It's almost 7:00, and the daycare is closed, and it's a good sign that the lady hasn't called me yet wanting to know when the plumber was bringing her tank.  Maybe, just maybe, the plumbing gods will show favor on me and she won't call me tomorrow raising hell abou the tank that was left on her doorstep.  Yep, you believe that too, don't you.