The Sears Saga, Part II

OK, here we go again.

The Sears repair man is to be out on the 29th, bright and early. We had talked and he said 8AM and I liked that idea, get it fixed and get some washing done.

The Sears Service Center calls on the 28th and says a repair man will be here between 8AM and 12 noon. This is a standard call they make. I like that.

So I am doing normal stuff all AM around the house but really do need to go out to get some things at the grocery store. We like to eat as well as wear clean clothes.

It is getting close to noon and no repair man. Now these guys are great, they call when they are about 20 minutes from being here. It gives us a heads up so if we need to go potty etc, we can be done.

It is noon, no call. OK he is running late. They get lunch from noon to 1 and I can understand that so not a problem although I would like to get to the grocery store.

I do a few more things around the house, read some e-mails and delete them or send them on, see a new cobweb that needs to be removed, just every day stuff.

I do love the wood stove my son got me for Christmas but I sure see the cobwebs easier now. It seems they grow over night now when it use to take a week before I would see them.

A friend calls and we are on the phone for a long time but I have call waiting so not a problem and the Sears people also have my cell phone number so if I don't answer one phone, I might the other.

I finally realize it is now 2:30 and no call from Sears. I call the 1-800 number and get the lovely sweet female computer voice. She asked me what I would like to do. I tell her schedule an appointment. To which she replies I have an appointment scheduled for the 29th between 8:00 AM and 12:00 noon. And wouldn't you know it, the computer thanks me for doing business with Sears and hangs up on me! I call again but this time I tell it repair so she asked what needs to be repaired. I tell her washer. I get the lovely organ music again but this time it isn't so bad as the last time, not as static as it was in the past.

At last I speak with an Indian sounding lady. I tell her I want to know when the repair man will be out. She tells me between 8 and noon. I know that but I want to know if he is coming at all today. To this she again tells me between 8 and noon. I tell her it is now almost 2:45 so he is really late and I want to know when he will be here. How much longer will it be? She can't tell me that so I told her I would like to speak with someone who can help me, maybe her supervisor? To my surprise I don't have to listen to organ music to long, maybe less than a minute. By now they most likely have my name on their "Don't Blow Her Off" list.

Ah, the Indianish supervisor who can't tell me any thing. I tell him to call the repair man and find out. He puts me on hold - more organ music - and after a few minutes he tells me the man is on his way and will be at my house within 10-15 minutes. Now I am thinking this is not right, he would call me 20 minutes out. But OK, if he says so.

Well the 10-15 minutes drag on and on. It is now after 3:30 and at last the phone rings. The repair man will be here in about 20 minutes. I clock him and 17 minutes later he pulls in.

Now this is the man who has always come out to fix my washer. He knows the machine. He is an expert with Calypso machines. They break a lot. Sears does not sell them any longer.

He looks at the boxes on the washer, sees there is the 1st pump that was ordered by him has finally come and there is the control panel box. He wants to know why the control panel was ordered so I tell him the last man that was out on the 24th said he could not get it to light up so it too was bad and ordered it.

Now this guy on the 24th was here forever and a day. He was making calls to people, he had no clue as to how to fix my machine. He had never seen a Calypso. He then tells me the control panel is bad, he can't get any thing to work on the touch screen so he has to order a new one. Hence the Good and Bad News, The Bad: your machine isn't working yet but the Good is when done, your machine will be like a new one except for the frame work etc.

The nice Calypso fixer guy takes a look at it and tells me the other guy unplugged some wires from the circuits. Well duh, that would make it not work. The lights were on just fine and have been all this time. The nice Calypso guy hooks it up, plugs it into the wall and BINGO, I have lights and it goes through a very short wash cycle to make sure the switches and pump are working. He is done in less than 30 minutes. Nice guy, I like him, I have his ID number and he said to ask for him the next time it breaks and that could be in a few days to maybe a year from now. But mark my typing, it will break, I know it will!

A word to all the wise out there. If you should ever buy an expensive item and you can get a protection plan on it, do so. This machine was well over $1500. I bought the plan and in the over eight years I have had it, it has been broken every year. I have had switches, pumps, control panels, computers etc. replaced. Each time the repair man comes out I get the bill that I just sign saying he has been here but it tells me how much it would have cost. This last repair would have cost me over $1000 alone. I have a package deal with Sears, all my appliances are from them. For just over $300 I have a protection plan that covers all six of them for five years. They will come out once a year and test each one to make sure they are running like they should. They have cleaned coils etc. To me for the $10+ per appliance per year, it is worth it. It has more than paid for itself on the washer alone.

Introducing my Co-poster: That Weird Woman

Okay, so to call her That Weird Woman is nothing new to some of us. She happens to be the strange person who gave birth to me several years ago. She is almost as busy as I am. Or, I may be almost as busy as she is. I'm not quite sure which way this one goes.

That Weird Woman is a life-long Boy Scouter, hence the weirdness and the business. Every time I turn around, she is doing something with Boy Scouts. She did much more when Little-Big Brother and I were still of minority age. Back in those days, she was a Girl Scout mom, roller-skating mom, and Boy Scout mom. For a few years of that time, she even held a job.

So, since my life has gotten busier with going back to school, homeschooling, and everything else in my already busy life, That Weird Woman has graciously offered to write for the blog. Her style is very different than mine. Please don't get us too confused. We may be related, but we don't write the same. But please do enjoy.

I Finally Found It

She searched for days. Tirelessly looking in the cyberspace known as the intenet, she ran google searches. She even altered the google searches. She even added commas and quotation marks to her google searches.. She opened page after page. She gazed at template after template. She even found several templates she liked. She dowloaded several template pages of code. She copied all of her widget html codes. She copied, she pasted. She trialed the code compatability. She moved ads, she moved widgets. She copied and pasted even more.

Its about time I finally found a template I like that will actually work with Blogger. I figure this will service my blogging needs until I have finished school.

Then maybe I can either buy the design software, or hire an editor/designer.

Why I Don't Buy Appliances From Sears

The following is not my story. I'm not smart enough to make this crap up. Fortunately, neither is my mom, who is the original author of this story. Unfortunately, the following testimony is not uncommon in the world of Sears customer service. I had problems similar to this several years ago, but never got money for having to use a laundromat. Sometimes, I wonder is Sears doesn't outsource their customer service to TeleTech or some other company with low standards for performance.

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I called Sears, on hold for a year listening to organ music. All Representatives were with other customers. I finally get some gal, sounded like from India. I told her I was not happy, I wanted to talk with a supervisor or a manager. She needed to know why so I told her. I said I wanted compensated for loss of wages, I wanted compensated for having to take my laundry out. I wanted the repair to be done tomorrow on the 17th and the guy needed to be here by 8 AM. She was sweet in her Indian voice and said she couldn't do that. She could set up a day and time and it would be the 29th between 1 and 5 PM. I told her NO, that was not acceptable. I wanted to talk with a supervisor manager.

Holding for another year with organ music. Now I like organ music, if it is not scratchy and distorted. Finally an Indian sounding man came on the line, I could not understand him half the time, he talked so freaking fast. I had to tell him my problem all over again and again because he could not understand me.

"What is it you wish?"

"I want my washer fixed Damn it and I want it fixed tomorrow the 17th by 8AM!"

"I am sorry, we can not do that."

"Why can't you?"

"We can set up a day and time for you but we cannot give you money."

"Let me talk to your supervisor!"

On hold for another year with the same organ music. An American man is on the line now. I tell him my phone many times dies after 20 mins of talking, we don't know why so if it does, HE needs to call ME back. I give him my phone number. I have to go through the entire story of how I called in Dec right after Christmas, could not get a tech out until the 7, he could not fix the washer, ordered the parts and only 2 have come. He may have the pump on another truck.

Nice English speaking man. He said the parts were ordered the 7th, shipped the 8th. I said I got the two starters on the 14th. No pump but it may be on another truck. He checked but can't find the pump any place. There was one shipped the 13th. It would get here on the 23rd. I told him that was unacceptable. Well, now a new one will be shipped on the 19 via air and be here on the 21st and if not here by the 22nd, I have a hot line number to call.

I don't get paid any lost wages that I asked for but do get a check for $50 to help cover the cost of taking my laundry out. I will have to take 3 or 4 loads out and they run $8 per load. Just not a happy camper. I told the American guy that when someone is not happy with service, they tell people. I would have no problems telling all my friends the kind of service Sears was giving me.

By the time I got off the phone with Sears and the reason I ended the call was the call got dropped. It generally does this after 20 mins. so I was happy I got almost a full hr. it was after 6 PM. I still had to fix dinner. I am in no mood to run this out to Silverdale for the tech guy in the morning, I will just get up early and take it there and then I can talk directly with the head man.

Most of the time I am laid back, don't let things get to me but this entire day was a joke. The dishwasher/range guy was to be here at 8, didn't come and didn't come, said he would be here by 10:00 then calls and says it will be 11:30 and it was closer to noon. He can't find out why the d.washer has water coming out of it sometimes. Ran fine for him. I told him it does for me about 95% of the time and then there is a puddle. He told me I load it wrong so I asked how I was to load it. Lame excuse, because he said it was to be done the way I always do it. He is the guy who could not come out on the 7th because his computer was down. Not a valid excuse.

The washer guy was nice, he called here and set up the time and date of the 24th. At one point I had the American Sears guy and the washer guy on phones at the same time. I was relaying messages from one to the other.

So that was how my day went. Hope yours has gone better.

The "New" Temporary Template

I'm in the process of putting What me, BUSY? Never!!! under re-construction. Part of this process is the face-lift underway. I'm searching for a new template for the blog, with possibly some more depth to it besides the blog itself.

This is not my favorite template on the planet, but it will have to do until I find the one I want.
Or break down and actually buy web design software.
Or break down even more and hire a web editor.

I like the idea of the web editor. I'd like it even more if I could afford one.

My Shameless Plug for Bigfoot

I figure it was time I give my dear son Bigfoot a shameless plug over here in What Me, BUSY? Never!. I have to admit, his work on YouTube is good.



This in one of his friends in his Boy Scout troop. How anyone can solve a Rubic's Cube in that kind of time is beyond me. But, then again, I'm one of those people who spend an hour over a 100 piece puzzle.

Have fun!

Paying Tribute to Seattle's Mayor

Actually, I just got this through the email from my mom. I don't normally repost the work of other people, but this was way too true for all the snow we've had here. So, instead of an intelligent thoughtful New Year's posting, which I'm still working on, please enjoy this lovely tribute to the mayor of Seattle. Thankfully, I don't live in Seattle, let alone King county. And as much thanks goes to the monkeys running Seattle and King Count, I plan on never living there.

This says it all!!!

"T'was the week before Christmas, and next to the Sound,
Not a creature was stirring, for all were snowbound.
Greyhound busses quit running, no matter the fare,
And the mail men and garbage said they just couldn't get there!

The children were sliding Queen Anne Hill on their sleds.
While roofs were collapsing on old people's heads.
And mamma in her boots and I in my cap,
Were stuck in the snow and ice and such crap.

When at the Home Depot there arose such a clatter,
I trudged from my car to see what was the matter.
A group of sad souls were waving their cash,
They couldn't buy shovels, they'd sold in a flash.

Tires were spinning and just wouldn't go,
And chains lay broken in the dirty old snow.
Then, what to my surprise did my eyes look over and see?
Eight representatives of SDOT,

With a fat politician so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it was Mayor "Salt Nick".

More rapid than gun bans, his excuses they came,
"To save our environment the roads stay the same!
On Broadway! On Boren! On Yesler and Denny!,
To clear off these roads would cost such a penny!

Sliding down Thomas and onto a wall!
The busses hung over I-5, ready to fall!
Still, he insisted it wasn't his fault,
As the world's greenest mayor he wouldn't use SALT!

That stuff's corrosive, could hurt the fish.
(But the Puget Sound's SALT WATER you ignorant kish!)
So snowy Seattle continued to stew,
But Mayor "Salt Nick" just hadn't a clue.

While I stood there astonished, on nearby TV sets,
I saw the airport was packed, no de-icer for jets.
Since others couldn't get down the roads to the ferry,
The city decided to close Denny and Cherry.

Police cars and fire trucks were highly impaired,

Citizens got no impression that Mayor Salt Nick cared.

A house that caught fire, or a rape in progress,

Was less important than "going green" in Seattle - I guess!

An accident closed the I-90 bridge,
And people couldn't drive down Phinney Ridge.
Shovels, and salt had just flown off the shelf,
And I laughed when I heard him in spite of myself.

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
He tried to convey we had nothing to dread;
He spoke many words, but did little work,
Yet Seattle knew they should never have elected this jerk.

Then thumbing his nose at his citizens' plight,
He turned to the crowd and exclaimed "We've done right!",
And then to his limo refusing to yield,
He left to get solar panels installed on Qwest Field.

But I heard him exclaim, as he skidded past me
"Happy Christmas to all, heck, I give myself a 'B' ".

For those not aware, Mayor Greg Nickels is rated by many as a buffoon.

Gone time-travelling. Will return last week.