Every once a while, someone really comes through! These are the Good people and Good products. The Good people do what they promised when they promised to do it, and they do it at the price they promised. Likewise, you occasionally get your hands on Good products. They are priced right, built right, and do exactly what you expected them to.

Unfortunately, Good no longer seems to be the norm. More likely than not, you will not get what you paid for. I am really getting tired of poor service, shoddy products or poor workmanship, and failures to deliver (or show up) on time as promised. Those are the Bad people and products. And it can only get worse from there. The Ugly are those situations where you feel you were cheated, intentionally mislead, or the product or service causes more harm than good. Since the Good is so rare today, I want to start sharing the identity of services and products that really stand out as Good—at least in my experience. I hope this list grows, because it is disappointingly short.

My List of Good Products and Services

Mosquito Squad: For years we had to retreat to our screened in porch. Not anymore! To find out more go to their website at www.mosquitosquad.com.

Closets by Design: The installer arrived when promised. The installation was professional and the finished product was exactly what we expected—Good quality, fair price, nice people. Go to www.closetsbydesgn.com.

Turfcare Landscapes: We use them to maintain our current landscape including mowing, rose care, mulching, debris removal, roundup and insecticide treatment as needed, aeration, reseeding, trimming and pruning. It is like our lawn and landscaped areas are on autopilot. They just take care of things—we don’t have to tell them what to do. They see what is needed and they take care of it—that’s all folks and it is great! Go to http://www.turfcareofnashville.com.

Chris Doubler, Art Handler & Designer: We had some really large paintings that needed to be hung in high and difficult locations. Finding the names of people who do that work wasn’t easy, but I finally came up with three recommendations. Two never returned my calls. The third finally did, but he explained that what I needed was beyond his job grade; however, he gave me the name of someone who could do what I wanted. That someone was Chris Doubler. Chris called me back almost immediately. He quoted a fair hourly rate, and we agreed on the day and time for the work. He arrived as promised with all the equipment, tools, and helpers needed for the job. He installed eight large pieces in a little less than two hours. The workmanship was first rate. You can reach Chris by phone at 615/423-5763. Services include installation, packing, consultations, and transportation of art.

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBooks Store and Smashwords.com.
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