When hurricane Matthew grazed the east coast of Florida last year, our home came through the storm in fine shape. The only troublesome damage was the loss of several trees along the borders of our property that we probably should have removed years ago. The mess was enough to call in a landscaper to clean things up.
What seemed like a simple task quickly grew into a substantial project.
In the end, we ended up removing lots of vegetation and an old lamp post the original owners had installed. We brought in several trucks loads of dirt, planted new sod, mulched, put in stone borders, and expanded our irrigation system.
The removal of the lamp post stalled everything until an electrician came to address the still live wiring.
Our house is lovely but cursed. It seems every project we undertake involves this monologue: “This should be a simple job, but I don’t know why you did it this way. I’ve never seen it done this way. Because of how this was done, we have to do this special thing. It will take longer and cost you more money.”
The wiring was just the latest such issue and in the process of addressing the lamp post we got into other electrical quirks around the house. Having been ripped off in the past, part of me is always skeptical, but this was not a scam. We knew things were amiss.
So we proceeded to discuss with the electrician what we needed to do. It did not go well.
He would say something. I’d respond that I didn’t know what that was and he would explain by using more terminology I didn’t know. He’s a nice guy and was genuinely trying to help me understand. He came highly recommended by a contractor I trust so when he finally just sighed and said, “I’m not sure how to explain it, but if you let me do this, I am certain everything will be in proper order.” I just smiled and said “OK.”
An hour later, I had a similarly frustrating interaction with the sprinkler guy.
This is very common. We need help but the provider of that help uses too much terminology and jargon for us to really grasp the subject. How many times have you called a technology-oriented support line and had no clue what they were talking about?