"We'll call you within two days"

My furnace died yesterday morning.  I called some local heating guys and I called our electric & gas utility, too, because someone suggested it to my partner.

The locals were at my house almost before I hung up the phone.  The utility said, after I got through the computer responses and managed to talk with a human being, "We'll have someone call you within two days."

I guess the concept of "dead furnace" means something different to a guy sitting in a phone bank with some headphones wrapped around his head than it does to the person sitting a freezing house.  The small businesspeople know that. The big business doesn't care.

For the record, the utility called in less than 36 hours...While my new furnace was being installed.