A most excellent servicing

Anyone who has read my blog in the last little while, or who knows me personally, knows that Cush and I have problems with our landlord and that we are so looking forward to finally moving out in September. *Look for my review of real estate agents and agencies in Muscat towards the end of September, it's going to be epic...like for real.*

Anyway, so for the last month and a half off and on I would be woken up by dripping water on my pillow and head from the airconditioner. Have you ever been woken up that way? It's horrible, like what I think Chinese water torture would be like only...you know, not so bad.

So I asked Cush to call the houseman/houseboy/maintanance guy (whatever we want to call him today) who said ok he would look into it, but then a week went by and we never heard anything so we chased it up and again we were brushed off.

I finally ran into him outside our building and asked if our AC's were going to be serviced or not.

He gave me some song and dance about how he's so tired and that he doesn't take care of the maintanance anymore (but he totally does!) and something about Bahwan that I didn't understand what he was saying and that the landlord had gone away on holiday and he couldn't get any money to pay for the service until the landlord came back sometime around the end of July.

Well....fuck that.

In the meantime I saw this sticker on our gate:

and decided to ask Cush to give Mr. Alex Joseph a call. But he didn't answer, so Cush tried again, and again and finally got him on the phone and he said he would come the next afternoon.

I thought for sure, yeah right, there's no way that guy is coming, but he did! He even found our house without having to call from a fixed location and have me go and get him.

I have to say that having lived in Oman for 4 years has kind of made me a bit ...I guess "battle ready" like everything is always hard or a struggle for whatever reason. Like my phone broke and I ended up fighting with the after service sales guy at Carrefour because on my life my phone did not come with a warrenty card, it just did not have one and of course they wouldn't fix the phone without it but the other Carrefour after sales service lady said they would totally have my warrenty card on file at the store where I bought it....it's a whole big story but this is what I've come to expect every time I have to deal with anyone anywhere here. I'm just always expecting the worst always. I had no reason to believe that my experience with Mr. Joseph would be any different...but it totally was!

So I showed Alex Joseph and his workmate around my house and told him that I wanted all the AC's serviced, I pointed out the dog and said that she would stay in her crate and not to worry, and he was totally fine about the dog, because some people are not fine about the dog at all, so that was good.

Then I pointed out the cats and said please don't let them out the front door, but when he saw McFluffin, he said, "oh your cat is pregnant!" I was so embaressed, because a) I'm a believer in the words of Bob Barker and b) McFluffin is a bit fat and I guess c) McFluffin is a boy.

I explained that because McFluffin is from Canada he has a winter coat that never really goes away because it's cool in the house in the summer and it's cool in the house in the winter here so he's just big because he's really, really furry. I might have lied a bit.

Mr. Joseph explained to me that he had 2 types of service, one a basic cleaning service that cost about 8 OR and another deluxe cleaning service that cost 15 OR per AC. I said that we were moving in September so the basic would be fine.

He went about his business and though we had a few hectic moments in the lounge with the AC above our mounted plasma tv under which rests a pretty well wired up tv bench thing with drawers and shelves that I said he could not move or put his ladder on, he was very patient and professional with me.

He went about his business through the house but when he got to the master bedroom he called me in. He said, "madam, I know you only want basic service but you must see this." I really didn't want to see how disgusting anything was and wasn't wearing my glasses but even I could see that the inside of the AC was sort of fluffy looking with puffy edges. It sucks having bad eyes.

Mr. Joseph said that we "have too much cats" and their fur clogged the filter and that he recommended the deluxe service for that AC. I asked what it entailed and he said that he would wash the AC with a pressure washer.

I had just assumed that he and his workmate would take the unit down and take it outside to be pressure washed but no! They attached the power washer to my bathroom sink and that's when I walked out of the room.

I had this horrible thought that something bad was going to happen, my matress would be soaked, or he would spray the paint off the walls, something, and I didn't want to see whatever was going to happen, happen but no. Nothing bad happened at all. They had a tarp that they attached to the wall and everything drained into a bucket, a bucket that they brought with them!

For real, they brought their own equipment. Outstanding! I've never had that happen before! I've had to lend repair men screwdrivers and screwa and hammers and nails before.

The pressure washer did leave a bit of water on the floor and Mr. Joseph asked for a mop to mop it with. And he did, and he did a good and thorough job.

I can't say enough good things about this man. He and his buddy were quick, thorough, polite, good with the animals and patient and best of all our AC's are blowing good and cold with no leaks.

So yeah, give him a call if you need your AC's serviced.