Repairmen not shocked by report of gun threat<!---- END STORY TITLE -------->

Waiting frustrates many customers

By Michael Stetz

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

February 19, 2008 San Diego Union Tribune

No doubt, plenty of people have been there.

They have sat at home waiting for the cable guy, the telephone guy, the plumber, the gas and electric guy. They wait. And wait. And wait . . .

Gary Thomson, a 62-year-old Vista man, grew tired of waiting, according to authorities. The Dish Network technician coming to fix his TV set last month had gotten lost. He was late.

So Thomson greeted Edgar Ortiz not with an angry look but a shotgun, authorities said. He's accused of threatening to kill Ortiz if he didn't fix the TV.

Other repairmen, customers and consumer advocates interviewed last week were alarmed by the story, but not necessarily shocked.

“People are pressed for time, for money,” said Ed Homer, who manages Coastal Plumbing and who has been in the plumbing business for 40 years. Part of his job is to field calls, and he gets an earful if a customer has to wait. “They scream and holler.”

While service providers said they try to do their best, customers almost universally say they have had their patience tested at one time or another.

“They give you a four-hour window and they make it by five minutes,” said Maurie McKnight, who was at Ocean Beach's Dog Beach last week. “Of course it's frustrating. The frustration level is running sky-high. But you can't grab a shotgun.”

Thomson was arrested on suspicion of a number of crimes, including assault with a deadly weapon. He faces a maximum of seven years in prison if convicted.

He pleaded not guilty last week and is free on bail. His attorney, James Dicks, said his client didn't threaten the technician and was merely cleaning the shotgun in his garage when Ortiz arrived. It wasn't loaded. He didn't even have shells for it, Dicks said.

Oh, Thomson had been upset, Dicks said. Very upset. Someone was supposed to be at the house in the morning, but Ortiz didn't arrive until late afternoon. Thomson called a couple of times and yelled over the phone.

But when Ortiz showed up, Thomson was pleased, not distraught, his attorney said.

“He thought his TV was finally going to be fixed.”

If the Vista case was a matter of extreme customer dissatisfaction, it was not the first. In October, Mona Shaw, a 75-year-old Virginia woman, took a hammer to a Comcast office in Manassas, Va. The cable and Internet provider's serviceman didn't show up at her home when he was supposed to, and he did a sorry job when he did, Shaw said in interviews. Later still, the company blew her off when she tried to complain.

So she walked in with a hammer and smashed a keyboard, a monitor and a telephone. Her outburst landed her a three-month suspended sentence for disorderly conduct – and a bit of public praise.

A writer for The Washington Post called Shaw an “avenger of oppressed cable subscribers everywhere” and added this: “In the dark days of war, pestilence and Paris Hilton, a new hero has arisen.”

A number of factors cause the tension, said Michael Shames, executive director of San Diego-based Utility Consumers' Action Network.

A lack of competition among large service providers such as cable companies and utilities can lead to poorer service, he said. They don't have to fight as hard for business.

In addition, installations can be more complicated these days. High-definition and high-speed Internet connections are growing in demand, and it takes longer for the work to be done.

Service companies with 25 or more employees are required under state law to give consumers a four-hour window in which they will arrive. A consumer can file a lawsuit in small-claims court if the providers fail to show or don't call to warn they will miss the window. A customer can win $500.

Parker McConachie, a spokesman for Dish Network, said that Ortiz was running late but that the company always calls to let customers know if the four-hour window will be missed.

Technicians have been threatened, assaulted and even shot at, McConachie said, but such cases are rare.

“We're in customers' homes 365 days a year.”

Cox Communications reduced its time frame from the state-mandated four hours to two. It also offers customers a $20 service credit if a technician shows up late, said Ingo Hentschel, director of field operations and a former technician.

They make that window 97 percent of the time, Hentschel said, but employees are trained to defuse a potentially dangerous situation by offering something such as a free movie viewing.

Hentschel's not certain if the problem is increasing. People have always been stressed for time, he said.

Rick Schultheis, like many other consumers, can relate. He said he gets frustrated “all the time” by poor customer service. It has become a part of life. He said he wouldn't be surprised if someone got miffed enough to pull out a shotgun.

“I grew up in Detroit.”

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Michael Stetz: (619) 293-1720; michael.stetz @ uniontrib.com