Harris & Co.

I have never been treated so poorly by a business person in my entire life. I know that probably sounds cliché or overdramatic, but from what I just experienced, it’s really just honest and accurate. In brief, my back story with the company is this: Seven years ago, I called Harris and Company to see if they would install a fairly large irrigation system for me. They came out, gave me a quote, and I never heard from them again. No harm no foul there, really. Just run-of-the-mill bad service. Last year we had a pool installed and because I received several recommendations from people about Harris and Co., I decided to give them another chance. Again, they came out, gave me a quote, and I never heard from them again and I had to get it done by someone else (there was a time crunch with my newly laid and quickly dying sod.) But I’m not reviewing because of a normal lapse in customer service like never getting back to a client. If it were just that, I wouldn’t bother (although that kind of service alone is kind of deserving of a negative review, I suppose). So, this year, I wanted to change some of my drips into sprinkler heads. With everyone’s recommendations in mind, I decided to give them another chance. And so the old story played out again. They came out, gave me a quote, and told me it would be four to five weeks before Harris and Co would get back to me. So there I was this morning at week six, calling to check in. I was at South Side Equipment while a gentleman was fixing my tiller. Mr. Harris answered, I said hello, gave my name and asked to check on my appointment because I was never given a specific date. In a very abrupt tone, Mr. Harris said that he was backed up and “overloaded” and it was going to be at least three to four more weeks. I (politely) reminded him that he had said the same thing to me before and kept putting me off until I eventually had to get someone else, when he interrupted me and began to rant, without pause, about how great his company is and how I should have gotten them to put in my initial irrigation system in. On and on he went about how busy he was and how ‘he had Georgia College to worry about’ and he ‘didn’t have time for me’. He went on for at least two minutes without me getting a single word in and finally ended by telling me he was taking me off the books. Then he hung up. I was honestly shocked into silence throughout his whole rant. I was just so caught off guard by his vitriol; it’s a bit embarrassing, but I was actually quite shaken. The man at South Side Equipment (who had once recommended the company to me) asked me what happened and after I told him, was very nice, but not surprised. He recommend another company to me and then called me after I left the store and gave me another recommendation. Harris and Company has a good word-of-mouth reputation for whatever reason. I was referred to them by multiple sources. And it could very well be that Mr. Harris was going through something extremely traumatic this morning and he had to let it out somehow and I was just the first target he came across. But whatever the reason, the fact that he would show his temper to me, an innocent by-stander and a customer, in such an incredibly rude and explosive manner, speaks volumes about his character. I normally can’t be bothered to review things either good or bad; I’m lucky in that I very rarely come in contact with people like Mr. Harris. But now that I have, I feel like it’s my responsibility to let other people know just what kind of person they’d be giving their money to if they support his business.