That’s why it took so long to write this post because I’ve been genuinely conflicted as to what to do with that settlement offer letter when it first landed in my inbox a few days ago.
I’ve done what research I can and consulted those whose opinions I value and even so I’m still caught between conflicting emotions on what is the best course to take likely knowing what is coming.
And then I remembered that quote from Marcus Tullius Cicero…
Sometimes it really sucks having high-minded principles when dealing with entities that seem to be utterly beholden to the exact opposite and feeling like they’re getting off with nowhere near the accountability that they should bear.
I especially loathe that should I sign a release that it essentially means that “Appeasement Team” Joe and the rest of the Lowe’s employees I’ve dealt with will appear to “win” and get what they wanted regardless of how unjust it feels to me.
Indeed, I have no doubt in my mind that should they pay out that Lowe’s will likely turn round and collect the paid amount from the subcontracted installation company and knowing that, I can’t help but think that Lowe’s could and indeed should have done much better than this from the get-go.
I truly expected better of them being a North Carolina founded and based company.
I don’t intend to make that mistake should I choose to deal with them in the future.
Any goodwill that being a North Carolinian company gave them is gone (possibly irrevocably) and that genuinely makes me sad that I can no longer trust them as I once did.
If there is a next time, I’ll be far more inclined to give their “customer service” one chance and one chance only to cleanse the way between us the right way and should that prove unsuccessful employ a different strategy I have in mind that I’m sure they will not like or appreciate.
Why would I give two escalated “customer service” teams yet another opportunity to fail in a disappointingly spectacular fashion?
I refer you to the title of Episode 7…
I doubt that Lowe’s or most of the employees I dealt with these past two months will understand that the greatest cost to Lowe’s ultimately wasn’t in money but in honour they and their company have squandered that will take a very long time for them to regain, if indeed they even can or will even bother to do so.
Just because they’re allowed to do a thing by way of having mighty financial resources, governments and courts that are less inclined to regulate their anti-consumer behaviour, and the ability to impose their will upon their customers doesn’t mean that it’s at all honourable and does them any credit whatsoever.
I wish I could have written the happy ending this story really was aching for.
I genuinely mean that.
I really wanted to write the final entry along the lines of the last two months of dealing with various Lowe’s employees supposedly engaging in “customer service” (and in most cases being blithely unaware of the palpable irony) as opposed to what their actions actually seemed to accomplish weren’t exactly enjoyable (with certain interactions where that was a vast understatement) but we at the end of the day reached a fair settlement of the dispute and we can now carry on with our lives and leave this situation behind us.
They probably have no clue now and never will just how desperate I was to write that final entry to the story and everything I did to try to bring that happy ending about. It wasn’t for lack of me telling them that I desperately hoped that would be how this saga would end.
I like happy endings. Most people I know have a desperate yearning for them, in fact.
A happy ending requires more than one person to bring it to reality more often than not.
But at the end of the day, honour and the kept word are far more important to me than trying to put a happy face on a situation that I do not believe warrants it.
And so my friends, I’ll leave it at that and let you make what future choices you will with the story that has been written.
Choose wisely and well.