Megashafted

So three years ago, we noticed that water was pouring down into the garage. It didn't take a structural engineer to work out that the shower was leaking. I was horrified. We'd only just moved back here and I had no money, no way to afford to have the shower replaced. So I was glad to see an ad in the paper for Megasealed. Pay 400ish dollars and they claimed they would seal up your shower, no leaks for 12 years, guaranteed.

Which was all good. Until a couple of weeks ago. So we rang them and exercised the guarantee. Or tried to. They took two weeks to send a guy round, and when he came, he said, no there's been structural change, we don't have to do the work, pointing to a clause on the back of our guarantee.

Yeah right. But here's the thing, Mr Megasealed. You didn't do a structural survey when you fixed our shower, and your man didn't take notes on the condition of the building. Nothing of the sort. So you can't prove that a structural change has affected the shower.

Like most houses in Brisbane, ours has cracks. The drought has ruined the structures of many houses, and subsidence is a common problem. So yes, there have probably been some minor structural changes to our house in the past three years. But the clause doesn't say "if we suspect that there has been any structural change to your house, we can fuck you over for the guarantee". No, it says that the new leak must be an outcome of the structural change.

And I say, prove it. I'm going to be saying it in court, because I plan to sue the fuckers for breach of contract. A quick online search shows me that they have done this to others. I'm guessing this is their standard getout clause. A lot of cowboys have one: the thing that they rely on to fuck householders over, so that their "too good to be true" guarantees can turn out to be too good to be true.

I hate people who have no honour. Truly. Like the CD people who would not change the delivery address for my CD but already had the money so didn't care. I think the same about Megasealed as I do about those guys:

I know, big deal, it's only a tenner. But it isn't. It's the many times these fuckers do something to people who they don't think can stop them. It's the businesses like them who fuck you over because they are not providing a service but making a dollar. Like governments, who also fuck you from behind a curtain of anonymity and bureaucracy, these people should be serving us, not using us. I am furious that these people do not feel they should do the right thing, and hide behind teh Roolz as a means of not doing it.

The truth is, I think the guy who came round didn't like the look of the job. He saw some rickety tiles and thought it probably looked like an hour's work rather than the ten minutes he'd hoped for. Tough shit. A guarantee is a guarantee, a promise. If you won't keep to it, don't make it. If I say I'll meet a deadline, I meet it. I lost a client this year (at least I think I've lost her) because she fucked me about over a job, and I had to turn it down at the last minute because I could not longer promise to meet the deadline. I won't promise if I can't make it; it's the least you should expect from a tradesperson, the bottom line in integrity. Hey, I know, in today's world, integrity is a quaint, oldfashioned concept. But I'd prefer to be living in a world in which it meant something, wouldn't you?

posted by Dr Zen @ 4:17 pm