Oh I wish!
Two things DID piss me off this weekend...
First, our hot water heater went out Saturday morning. As I was in a hurry, I took the cold shower, and CO later pronounced it D.E.A.D. dead. So I call the home warranty people.
Or should I say the automated service, because we all know there are no people anymore. No people...anywhere. Oh, except India, but that is another story for another day. Apparently, the home warranty company doesn't even know people in India, so you get the robot voice, who assured me my claim would be addressed "promptly" and that I would receive a call "soon" to schedule a service call for "Monday, September 3."
Now as Monday was a holiday, I was a bit surprised, but pleasantly so.
I suffered through the cold showers on Sunday and Monday, knowing...just knowing, the robot voice would not lie to me, and that it would be my last cold shower. Right? I mean. the robot voice does not lie! Does it?
Monday came and went...no service...no call to schedule service, and Tuesday morning brought the worst cold shower of all! At least over the weekend I made myself busy, and with the terrible heat, worked up a sweat such that the cold shower was tolerable. But what is worse than climbing out of a comfy, cozy bed to start the morning, nee the work week, with an icy shower? Nothing!
So it is after noon when they finally...finally call, and I can talk to a real human person, who promptly tells me it will be next week before someone can come out.
Next Week? NEXT WEEK?
"Yes Ma'am. This isn't an emergency."
Uhm, okay...my voice gets high and squeaky when I am upset, and I was squeaking up a storm here. I have taken four...FOUR, cold showers in a row. I have a hamper full of dirty clothes, a dishwasher full of the least offensive dishes, and I have had to boil water to clean the most offensive ones. I feel like I need to light a lantern and tuck Mary, Laura and Carrie into their beds in the little house. And have I mentioned the four...FOUR cold showers? If this is the legendary cure for an over-active libido, I may never need to have sex again! THAT is an emergency in my books!
I called CO...and with my high squeaking voice, made it HIS problem. They are coming to look at the water heater tomorrow.
The other thing...
Last weekend (or two Saturdays ago...however you define that), we bought some new furniture. Later in the week, I found out the place we bought the furniture from was closing the location closest to me, and was having a "massive store closing sale." So I'm a little ticked off. They didn't tell us that in a few short days, the furniture we just bought would be "20 to 50 percent off our already low low prices."
I go in there, just to see how screwed we got, and to look at a few of the pieces we wanted, but didn't think we could afford just now. I stopped at my new items, while the sales dude blathered on about great savings and some shit, and almost died! Not only did we NOT get screwed...we got a great deal!
Turns out the "HUGE SAVINGS" was a bunch of bullshit! They had doubled...yes DOUBLED the prices, then marked those down like 20%. I started laughing and called the sales dude on it. He, of course denied it, until I pulled out my receipt from the week before.
Last weekend it was $399...now, after the super-duper sales event, it is $608! Or $239...now $458, and $499...now $729!
I don't fucking think so. And hey...legal eagles out there...isn't that consumer fraud or something?
I was so furious over that. And every time I think about it, I get pissed off all over again! I will so be reporting them to the Better Business Bureau.
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4 comments:
Been there, done that on the not-being-able-to-get "emergency" service.
I learned to change out a wax seal on my toilet (even though I didn't want to) for that very reason. I called nearly a dozen plumbers and was told that I could have an appointment in a week to a couple weeks.
Even when I told them I had one bathroom.
The last person I called, I was so fed up, I started to cry, and he actually TOLD me how to change the seal myself. (And I will keep him in mind in case I need other work done, since he was willing to help me at least that much).
But it really stinks how hard it is to get help sometimes.
One of the main problems getting help from plumbers is that there is a critical shortage of them throughout the U.S. If you want to counsel someone on a possible future career -- plumbing would be a great way to go. It's not glamorous, but have you ever seen what plumbers drive off work?
My degree program dealt with technical education and all of the vocational programs in the area couldn't beg enough people into plumbing. Schools in the area were having to consolidate programs into regional service. Kind of sad, and explains why it takes weeks to get service.
You know, I've said more than once that if I totally bug out on this college-teaching thing, I'd go back to school to become an electrician.
But maybe plumber would be a better option - fewer opportunities to prematurely end your life by making a foolish mistake.
There are 12,000 people in my town and perhaps 20 plumbers. As I said, I called 12 and couldn't get a single one to come out. Either that's an awful lot of toddlers sticking their older sister's Barbie down the commode before I happened to call, or all of the plumbers ONLY want to work on new, unoccupied buildings rather than places where people are currently living (which is what I kind of suspect.)
Oh, and Maggie - I can think of something worse than dragging yourself out of bed to face a cold shower:
dragging yourself out of bed at 5 am
doing an hour's worth of strenuous exercise
THEN facing a cold shower.
(Thank God my hot water heater is working or I'd seriously have to hurt somebody. And if there were any justice in the world, I'd be a size 4 by now, not a barely-maintaining-it 14)
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