This is my story, similarity to any real person other than myself is purely coincidental. Please don't be an ass and copy/use this as your own. Some language and material may be unsuitable for people under the age of 18- reader discretion is advised.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Good customer service?? Yeah, right.

Good morning to all of you!  I don’t know about any of you, but it honestly seems like a little garden gnome comes in at night and changes my alarm clock to go off a little earlier each morning.  I swear- I feel like I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in ages.  With that being said, here is today’s edition of Hell… well, yesterday’s version posted today.   Still waiting for my hot caffeinated beverage to kick in…

Rewind time to last Thursday, I was doing the normal morning routine and went to unload the dishwasher.  As I pulled out a plate, I noticed it wasn’t clean.  Not unusual because the cheap p.o.s. appliance dishwasher leaves at least one dish dirty and needing a second go ‘round.  Move to the next plate, it is dirty too.  Again, not unusual, but kind-of since they were next to one another.  Third plate- same thing.  Damn.  I must’ve forgotten to run it last night because now I’m noticing the dishwashing soap tablet is still intact.  No biggie, I’ll run it while doing laundry, go grocery shopping run some errands and come back to finish this up later.  Close the dishwasher, run the laundry, run errands, come back to unload the dishwasher- that’s a typical morning for me.  Excitement in Hell- living loving it every day.

So… going to unload the dishwasher for the second time today, and imagine my shock to have same said plate dirty *again*.  It was like a vicious cycle of “rinse and repeat” except there was only the “repeat” part.  Now I’m kinda pissed.  Check the silverware- dirty.  Getting pissed now.  Check the glasses on the top rack.  Dirty.  WTF?  I know I started the damn thing before I left.  Then again, I have been forgetting things lately, maybe I just *thought* I started it.  The damn thing is so temperamental.  Replace the plate I originally took out, close the door, and program the load, press start… nothing.  Silence.  Huh?  Open the door again, close it and listen for the “click” indicating it is indeed closed properly- done.  Program the load- done.  Press start- still nothing.

Officially pissed off- this p.o.s. dishwasher was bought in MAY of this year!!  That’s right, only about 6 months ago (actually it will be 6 months the *end* of the month) and it decides to give up the ghost?  Really??  Really.  So, Millie calls up the company it was bought from and they don’t service their own appliances they contract it out.  Okay, whatever happened to standing behind your product? If I sell something with my business, and something goes wrong- I fix it.  To me, that is good customer service and unfortunately, the thought of “good customer service” has gone the way of the buffalo; but I digress… Well, they give the name of a contractor to come out and see it.  She calls the contractor and they can’t come out until Tuesday and can’t nail down a specific time so be home all day.  What the hell?  Are they the cable company now?  Do people have nothing better to do than to sit around all damn day waiting for them to come and fix the p.o.s. that is less than 6 months old?  Breathe in, breathe out… it will be okay… lots of pizza and paper plates, etc. at least Cutie and Junior will be happy.

Now someone will have to be here for the repair man’s huge-can-fit-an-elephant-through-it window of arrival.  Millie is off to get something to complain about- gallivanting around bitching and judging the whole time so she can’t be here.  Phil has a follow-up appointment that he has to go to- and has informed us he will be gone “all day” so he obviously can’t stay.  I forgot I was in both Cutie and Junior’s classes today (Tuesday) and so that leaves Bill.  He’s not too happy about that but, he will do it. 

I come back from the kid’s classes and ask Bill how things went with the repair guy.  He said he isn’t going to be here until 2-4 pm.  What??  That’s crazy.  Wait.  Millie will be back by then, her latest time of arrival is 1 pm, and Phil should be home by then too… Sweet!  We’re going to leave them here to deal with the repair guy and get the p.o.s. fixed to run errands for dinner tonight and come back after picking up Cutie from school.  Come back only to find out the repair guy said it will be 2-3 weeks before the dishwasher can be fixed because of the holiday.

Two to three weeks?  With all of the advancements in technology, shipping, manufacturing, it is going to take 2-3 weeks to get the part and then you’re going to schedule a time to come here and fix the p.o.s. dishwasher *after* that??  Are you having carrier pigeons take your order to a sweatshop in the Arctic for translation to the penguins so Santa’s elves can make it and send it back on a slow kayak with holes in it via the Orient?  Something is not quite right here on several levels.  In short your inability to provide “good customer service” is going to ruin our damn Thanksgiving.  It’s not like we called you at 4:59 pm Wednesday afternoon the day before Thanksgiving to say it broke- that I could understand you not being able to fix it due to not having the part.  You were called two weeks before Thanksgiving and you looked at it a week and a half before Thanksgiving- ever heard of expedited shipping?  Better yet- remove and replace this p.o.s. dishwasher with another exact same model and exact same brand.  That would be “good customer service” and go a l-o-n-g way- but then again, the cheap comes out expensive and in your case, I’m going to let anyone who asks me about appliances (and believe it or not, is quite often shockingly enough) *not* to go to your place of business.

Thanksgiving is one of the biggest stuff your face and your family’s face with food times of the year- that means tons of dishes.  Now you’re going to say there will be no dishwasher to clean them and if that part doesn’t fix it maybe Christmas before it is fixed?  Customer service my ass!!  Then again, Millie and Phil don’t cook unless it is heat and serve from a microwave, so to them it isn’t a big deal.  To me- it is.  I enjoy cooking (like I said in a previous post- I can be like one of the Martha Stewart/ Bree Van de Camp psychos) and it is something that I can do that reminds me of being “home” with my family (even though they are far away).  I am not looking forward to using paper plates and tin foil pans for cooking, but I will adapt.  Things will get better- they have to.  I don’t know why this is so upsetting to me, the inability to prepare a Thanksgiving meal the way I feel it should be prepared and not do the clean up afterwards.  I guess it is only fitting it should be that way.  Life in Hell will now have Thanksgiving in Hell.  So, how has your week been going?

Similarity to any real person other than myself is purely unfortunate for them coincidental, this is my story so please don’t be an ass and copy/use it as your own.

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