Last week I was in a conversation with an angry former client. She was so angry that her words came spewing out of the phone like hot lava out of a volcano. I had to put her call on speakerphone for fear of damaging my eardrums.
She was screaming so loud and so fast that I couldn't get a word in edgewise. And I really didn't even want to respond to her invective. All I wanted to do was ask her to take a deep breath and relax for a moment. But before I had a chance to say anything she ran out of steam and ended the call.
Unfortunately, this wasn't my first conversation with this former client. I'd spoken to her perhaps a week before and she was fairly pleasant. She claimed that I didn't know what was going on in our halfway houses, especially the woman's houses. She said they were overrun with rodents, cockroaches, and bedbugs. She said that several female clients have been rushed to the emergency room from the effects of bedbug bites and rodent droppings. She also claimed she'd been hospitalized for several days for serious after-effects from exposure to bedbugs and rodents. Before we were done talking I told her I would look into the matter and call her back.
When I asked the managers if any of what she said was true they said they didn't think so but that they would do a new inspection of the houses. The inspection resulted in the discovery of two dead bedbugs in one of the bed frames. And as we do in all such cases, our staff took the bedding to a heat room and let it sit in 140° temperature for a while. They also cleaned the room thoroughly and filled in any cracks where bedbugs might hide. And this is what they do in any situation where bedbugs are found.
In addition, Maricopa Environmental Services inspect our facilities regularly and generally give us passing marks at all our facilities. Plus, we have contracts with pest control companies that regularly inspect and document their treatments.
I'm not sure what this woman's problem is other than that maybe she has relapsed and is blaming it on our organization. Either that, or she might need to find a facility that could deal with her emotional issues and out of control rage.
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