I can't believe what a SAP I can be so I have to vent about this whole scenario - bare with me!

I contact a provider with great reviews but located a good hour+ away.  We set up an appt and other than calling 1.5 hrs early to push it back a half hour ( which was fine ) everything went fine.  She offered to be a reference ( which I took her up on several times ) and over the next few days asked me to review her on several sites which I did willingly and gave her accurately high reviews.  So far so good.

I had asked her, after telling her that the reviews she requested were done, if she'd let me know when she would be traveling closer to my home base - she said she often did as the 2+ hour roudtrip is a tad long.  She never responded but I saw on her calander she'd be in town and emailed her.  I asked for 5pm and she responded she only had 4pm or after 8pm open.  I responded 4 was fine but then she said a regular had called and booked it in the interum.  So I asked about 8 and she said she forgot she had a party to go to that evening.  Sa la vie.

About 3-4 weeks later I decide the weather is decent and maybe I'm up for the 2+ hour trip again so I email her again.  We set up a 7PM and she confirms it the night before.  I arrive to be greeted by a guy.  Says he's a relative and her son had an accident and broke his arm and they're at the hospital.  OK, chit happens.  I'm even nice enough to send her a note saying I understand and family comes first etc.  She responds that she owes me big time and is so sorry and she'll make it up with a discount on my next appt.  Later I found out that the accident happened at school so it did retroactively kind of irk me she had hours until 7pm to let me know and cancel - but I was nice and just let it slide as she probably forgot in the shock of an injured kid.

So we reschedule for a week later - same time.  This time she emails me at 1PM saying she knows I'll want to kill her but she's been sick all night and day with the flu and hoped she'd recover in time for our appt but now it was not going to happen.  Again I bought the story and hoped she felt better etc.

A few days later she emails me it was probably food poisoning and wants to reschedule.  I go along and we set up another appt.  This time I tell her I'll call 1 hour before to confirm.  She sends me daily emails the whole week to confirm and obviously aware of what a pain it had been.

Day comes and I call as planned. No answer.  I still jump in the car and head that way expecting she won't have the nerve to cancel 3 times straight.  STill no answer.  Halfway there I stop and leave about my 6th vm message.  Finally about 20 minutes to the appt she texts me saying the sheriff's office has come to her house and is searching it and stop calling and do not show up.  Over the next 15 minutes she texts me 6 times saying her relative is on parole and they say the relative violated and since they stayed at her house for a while they needed to search it.  All flustered messages.  Some made no sense.  I headed home.

Again she emails saying she'll give me some free time next appt etc.  Like a sap I email about the next day and she responds 2 days later saying I should have called as she just now read the email.

I know I should have just killed it at that and chalked it up to a flaky provider.

But I got another cancellation yesterday and decided to give her one more try.  I called and she said she had a b'day party for her kid last night but today was possible.  We set a time of 10am and then she asked if I'd seen her before.  She hadn't recognized my voice or name ( we hadn't spoken over the phone since our first meeting ).  So I reminded her of who I was and she said again she was sorry and had gotten that family stuff all straightened out.  I told her I'd call at 9 am to confirm before driving all that way again - in case something should come up.  She said that was a good idea and she'd see me Sunday.

So I call at 8:50 no answer.  I get in the car and call at 9, no answer.  9:02 I leave a vm saying I need confirmation that we are still on call me right back and again leave my number.  Nothing.  I proceed to drive until right before a toll road and pull off - calling every few minutes.  Now I text at 9:16 again asking for a call or confirmation.  Nothing.  So I run some errands I was going to do after the appt, calling every so often until 10 - when I gave up and went home.  I only left 2 vms and the one text but having left at least 6 vms the prior time did no good so I didn't think it should matter.

The kicker is she texts me at 10:41 asking if i'm okay - as if she thinks I was in an accident.  Then she says she's been waiting on me since 9:30 and was I no-showing just to get back at her for the last time and didn't I know she had given me good references etc.

I still can't believe the nerve!  I really showed restraint by telling her that I had bent way over backwards to be patient and nice while she no-showed twice and cancelled a third time and that she agreed to confirm at 9 and then was not reachable for almost 2 hours and now accuses me of a no-show!  She claimed she was in the shower when I left the vms but did not explain the other 20 calls she didn't answer or the text she ignored.

The fact she text messaged her last 10 communications means she doesn't have the guts to actually call me and talk to me "live" because she knows how badly she has hosed me over now.  I can't believe she'd take the offensive like that as she seemed reasonable and decent our first visit.  I'd bet big money she was never even home this morning and just wanted it to look like I was the one renegging!

DAMN WHAT A NIGHTMARE