My Dryer Vent is Clean, but Mr. Wizard is Not

Kevin made an appointment for us with the Dryer Vent Wizard for this morning.

Mr. Wizard showed up at his appointed time, bright and early, and I'm pretty sure we were his first job of the day.

His uniform was white, starched, and very nicely pressed. His crisp white shirt was emblazoned with the Dryer Vent Wizard emblem. It had a nice wand and some stars.

He looked very presentable.

I showed him the dryer in our basement. He complimented Kevin on the dryer vent installation, and after a quick inspection, offered to clean the vent for the lower of their two price points ($118 rather than $155), because it looked so new and was in such good shape.

So, after settling that he would clean our vent for $118, plus tax, plus $29.99 for the service charge (which worked out to be $154.97 in total, and made me feel like he hadn't really given me a break on the $155 cleaning at all), he went out to his truck to get his tools.

I expected him to pop back into the house after he grabbed his gear and return to the basement. Instead, we next saw him in the back yard near our dryer vent.

Dear friends, what I hadn't told him, or you, is that our dryer vent is located under our back deck. It is not easy to access. To say the least. This is why Kevin hired someone else to do the job.

So, as Connor and Lex watched out the back window, Mr. Wizard, in his crisp white uniform, crawled under our back deck on his belly like a snake and cleaned the vent from outside.

When he appeared back in the house approximately 20 minutes later, he proclaimed the job finished.

But.

He was not pleased. He was covered in mud. There were twigs and leaves on him. He was no longer so presentable.

He informed me that jobs where the dryer vent is located under a patio start at $250. But sitting right there on the table was our work order/invoice, along my check which I had already made out in the amount of $154.97, payable to Mr. Wizard.

He took my $154.97 and left in a huff, obviously ticked off that he was such a mess.

All I have to say is that if the price depends on the outside location of the dryer vent, he should have checked into that before settling on a price with me and filling out his work order/invoice.

And maybe Mr. Wizard should invest in a different color uniform. Or a better magic wand.