May 16, 2012 4 min read

Murphy’s Law rose its ugly head.

No matter how careful you plan something, there always seems to be a snag.

My lovely wife has been preparing a bathroom remodeling project for the past several years, bringing home samples of flooring, wall covering, etc., pamphlets about tubs, shower stalls and toilets.

It never seemed like an urgent project to me, but then most men would be content with having a toilet, sink and running hot and cold water and little else in the way of a bathroom.

Through the years, my wife has chipped away at trying to make her bathroom more to her liking, putting in a tile-like wallpaper, buying a new sink, having me put up bead-board wainscoting, etc.

For the past several years she has complained about the bath/shower unit, bugging me … er … cajoling me to visit some of our local home stores to look at new ones.

I caved in .. .er … acquiesced … but never really took action on it.

Well, more than a year ago my mother moved in with us so we could better care for her (she will turn 88 this summer). But she has some physical difficulties that make it extremely hard for her to bathe properly. She has a difficult time going up and down stairs, so using the walk-in shower in my bathroom is out of the question since it is in our downstairs family room.

And while there is a tub in my wife’s bathroom, it is too high for my mother to step into.

We investigated special tubs with doors so people can walk in and sit to bathe. They just didn’t seem that practical for our home.

We finally decided on a walk-in shower large enough to accommodate a shower chair.

The store we visited guaranteed the model we wanted was in stock. “No problem,” they told us. It would be available as soon as we were ready to get started.

Now this task, remodeling the bathroom, is way beyond the reach of my handyman skills (as are most home do-it-yourself projects), but we have a contractor who has handled some other things for us over the years.

While I am at work, my wife and the contractor go to the home improvement store to buy the needed materials. She also serves as a gopher, picking up anything else he might need, and sometimes as a helper.

When they returned to the store to buy the shower … well … you know what happened. They didn’t have it. In fact, one salesman told my wife it had been discontinued.

That didn’t make sense fro two reasons: The store still had it on display, and we had looked at it only a few weeks before.

“Can’t I buy the display model?” my wife said.

“No. We don’t sell display models,” the clerk told her.

Frustrated, my wife and the contractor went to another home improvement store.

When it was all said and done, she came home with a new toilet, part of a shower surround and a faucet she wasn’t crazy about. The rest of the shower stall was on order, and the project would have to wait until it arrived.

I was sympathetic as she told me the tale. But not surprised. On similar projects we have run up against salespeople who don’t know what’s in stock, seem to be completely unaware of good customer service and, in cases, appear to tell you anything to get you out of the store and out of their hair.

It’s a rare thing anymore to find someone knowledgeable about products, helpful in finding what you need and skilled in the art of selling.

And I still don’t understand why we couldn’t buy the display model.

Oh, and did I tell you my wife wants me to redo my bathroom?

Have a good day.

James Pletcher Jr. is HeraldStandard.com business editor. He can be reached at 724-439-7571 or by email at jpletcher@heraldstandard.com.