What’s That Sweet Smell?

It’s laundry detergent.

We are back to doing laundry and by the loads piled and sorted on the bed it appears as though we could be working on it for the next two days.

So how long did it take to fix the issue that kept us waiting two weeks?

20 minutes. That’s it.

Unscrewed a little pump, put a new one in and ran the machine for 10 minutes to make sure it didn’t leak.

Now that we are back to clean laundry it’s time to deal with our unit owner who believes we should pick up the first $100 of the $300 repair.

What’s the Deal With Customer Service In LA?

First let me thank everyone for the suggestions about getting our clothes clean – laundromats and wash/fold services. With a scheduled fix date of yesterday we were pretty confident we could make things work. Here’s how it unfolded.

Our three hour window for repair yesterday was from noon until 3 p.m., with a call one half-hour before they arrive.

2:30 p.m. rolls around and I am starting to get a little nervous so I call.

Me: “Hi, my name is B and I have service scheduled today between noon and 3 p.m.. I just wanted to make sure everything is still in place for our washer/dryer to be fixed today”

Him: “Hold on”

Five minutes on hold.

Him: “Um, I’m very sorry to tell you this but we will not be fixing your washer/dryer today. We can reschedule you for . . . “

Me: “Wait a second. Why are you not coming to fix it today?”

Him: “Well, the original tech called in sick so I gave the job to another one of our workers but he doesn’t think he will be able to get to it today.”

Me: “Seriously? This is the third day someone here has stayed home from work . . .”

Him: “Sir, I understand your frustration and disappointment but there is nothing I can do”

Me: “Sure there is, you can have someone come out and fix the unit today as scheduled. Look, the first time a tech came out he arrived with a flash light so there was no chance for him to fix the unit. The second time they came with the wrong part . . .”

Him: “That was LG’s fault that they sent the wrong part . . . “

Me: “I don’t care who’s fault it was for getting the wrong part but your guy showed up, wasted my day, and didn’t have the parts needed to complete the repair.”

Him: “The label on the outside of the box said it was a different part than was inside. We don’t open the boxes before we arrive on the site”

Me: “Well that’s a bad policy considering you wasted his time and mine on that day. I was told the part would come in on Monday or Tuesday and I had to call on Tuesday to see if the part came in and it had. Now today I have to call 15 minutes before the 3-hour window and you tell me nobody is going to arrive today”

Him: “I’m sorry sir, I understand your frustration and disappointment . . .”

Me: “Honestly, I don’t think you do. This is day 13 without a washer/dryer, I’ve been buying clothes day by day and mostly because your company continues to drop the ball here. Is there anyone I can speak to, a manager perhaps?”

Him: “I am the manager”

Me: “What about Alexander. He was supposed to call my wife on Friday, then again on Monday and he hasn’t done that”

Him: “Alexander is not available”

Me: “Fine, Alexander is not available. I would think considering the situation you would ensure this was fixed today, even if your guy has to come off hours, that’s okay with us”

Him: “He can’t do that, he only works until 4:30″

Me: “Then pay him overtime, I don’t care really. On top of it all I had to call you to find out nobody was showing up!”

Him: “That’s why I am taking the initiative now to get things completed . . .”

Me: “No, actually you are not. I took the initiative and called you. I am giving you suggestions on how we can solve this.”

Him: “I can have someone there on Friday morning”

Me: “Friday morning? Why two days later?”

Him: “That’s the first time I have available. For your trouble I can make sure you are first customer of the day and give you a two-hour window”

Me: “The two hour window isn’t making this right”

Him: “I don’t know what else you want me to do”

Me: “I want you to not make me take a fourth day off of work, three for no reason”

Him: “I don’t know what you want me to do. I’m sorry”

What followed was two calls to LG to see if they could do anything (they can’t/won’t) and a call from H to the same service company to follow-up. She asked why someone couldn’t come out on Thursday and was told “… we are booked on that day and we are not about to inconvenience someone else for your troubles”  Seriously?

This all follows another battle I started with Old Navy earlier in the day when they charged me four times for the same pair of underwear on Sunday. That resulted in the old “I will look into it and call you back”

Still waiting.

Time to go sift through the cleanest of our dirty clothes.

Clean Clothes? Maybe.

I know people would rather here something other than our clothes drama. However, when you’re faced with deciding which pair of socks are the cleanest you tend to focus on certain things …

Supposedly a tech is coming today, between noon and 3 pm, to fix the washer/dryer.

Of course I had to call late yesterday afternoon to see if the part came in and schedule service. It made me wonder when they were going to call and come out if I left it up to them?

Sorry for the short post but I have to find the cleanest undershirt I have at this point.

The More You Know . . .

There’s a time and a place to lie, or as others like to call it fib. It’s not a practice I condone and it’s certainly not something you should make a habit of doing. In life you will come across a situation where you are faced to shade the truth or tell a small lie in an effort to ‘do the right thing’. It happens – this isn’t anything to feel guilty about.

However, there is another type of lying . . . a more powerful and brutal dishonesty that is both intolerable and inexcusable. Both H and I have become experts in this fast growing segment of lying because people seem to do it to us on a regular basis these days. The car dealership has yet to call us back and the manager of the repair place taking care of our washer/dryer has lied to us about a callback not once but twice. Those are just two examples but since living here in California I find it happening more and more.

• Don’t Say You’re Going to Do Something and Then Not Follow Through – Things come up, schedules get pushed around and 90% of the population understands this. However, there is no reason to tell someone “I’m going to call you back …” or “I’m going to make sure Alexander calls you back today …” if there is going to be no follow-through. Just don’t do it. I’d rather you tell me “I’m not going to call you back …” or “Alexander is quite busy and probably won’t be able to return your call today …”. If you’re going to do something, do it. Don’t say it just to appease me and make me feel good for a fleeting moment.
• If You Don’t Know the Answer, Don’t Make One Up – I’d much rather someone tell me “I’m sorry, I don’t have the answer for you but I’m going to find out and get back to you right away”. I appreciate that honesty more than someone giving me a BS answer just to give me an answer. If you don’t know, tell me you don’t know. It’s okay. Of course this type of theory requires you to act upon two things: finding the answer and following-up so please don’t make one lie into two.

All of this stems from the terrible customer service experiences we seem to be having lately, and over the last year. I don’t know if it’s an LA thing, a California thing or what but this little game seems to be a regular occurrence out here for a segment of the population.

Don’t get me wrong – there are some great people in this town/state but there is also a large population that make their living on BS here in La La Land, and it’s getting old.

Don’t Push Me, ‘Cause I’m Close to the Edge …

I want to rant and rave about something but I can’t decide what it is. My choices have covered a bunch of topics lately but in no order:

• The fact we still do not have a functioning washer/dryer
• Scam being run by the service company and them not calling us back
• Dealing with our unit owner and his request for us to cover the first $100 costs of things in the unit
• Subaru dealership and their terrible service including not calling us back
• General customer service issues here in California
• Home not selling and what it means on a daily basis for us

I could go on and on and who knows, maybe I will. Throughout the last few days I’ve had moments of where I found myself just shaking my head out of frustration; moments of laughing because things are so messed up and moments of bewilderment at what happens around me …

… but this isn’t a philosophical blog so let’s just cut to the chase.

Washer/Dyer: The unit broke last Saturday … E-mailed unit owner Sunday to see what he wants to do … Call service company Monday and they schedule Tuesday appointment … Service tech comes out in the four hour window (joke) and spends 10 minutes diagnosing the problem. Of course he doesn’t have the part to fix what he calls “… the most common problem with these units”. They charge $50 for someone to come out, look at the washer/dryer and schedule another appointment … Get a call on Thursday that the part is in and to schedule service on Friday … Guy shows up during four hour window and starts to work … Hour in he determines they sent the wrong part. Let me tell you the important info again: an hour in he determines they sent the wrong part. Service guy claims they don’t check the parts until they are on-site because customers thought they were getting refurbished parts when the boxes were brought to the houses open. Service guy calls his office and they order the new part. H is upset and rightfully so. Tech puts her on the phone with the manager and says how we’ve taken two days off work already and we are approaching a week without a washer/dryer. He says he will call back later in the day with information/solution. Guess what? No call. Today I need to follow-up and find out what’s going on but we’re looking at me using the same towel for, well for too many days in a row and another four hour window when they decide to come out.

Old Navy: All of this brings us to Old Navy. We head to the one in Glendale yesterday because I can no longer wear the same underwear and socks. I just can’t do it. I find myself staring at the underwear shelf and there is maybe 8-10 packages on the wall. This includes boxers, briefs, boxer briefs and whatever other kind they make. Somehow there is one pair of my ’style’ and in the size I want but not the color. At this point color isn’t a huge problem but having only box (two pair) is. It takes five minutes to track down an employee – no idea where they were but I’m guessing hiding in the back. I get the old “Whatever we have on the shelves is what we have”. Look, I know there was a sale this weekend but it’s Sunday morning and you have a handful of underwear! Fine, I settle on my box and look for socks (didn’t mean to rhyme that on purpose). Of course I can’t find the socks and spend another couple minutes finding an employee. I asked where the socks are and I’m told with the underwear. “There are no socks there” and I’m told they must be out. Out of socks? Old Navy? The entire store? Unbelievable! I take my box of underwear and head to the line. Two registers open, one has a manager ringing up a few people. We’re in another line where some guy is trying to return things and scam the system. After 10 minutes they send the one guy away from the registers to find someone else to open a till. Long story short (I know it’s long already): 15 minutes … Three charges on my debit card because the register is broken … I paid cash and was told the transactions didn’t go through … Find out this morning they did. Not once did anyone say I’m sorry, for not having stock or the joke of an experience at the register.

Subaru: Remember the trouble we had with the car and someone followed up from the dealership to ask how our recent experience was? They told me a manager would call last Thursday to follow-up. No call Thursday. No call Friday. Typical it seems.

Condo Sale/Cash Flow: I usually roll with the punches and try to be the even-keel, non-emotional thinker. The time we decided to list our condo was out of our control, and so is the housing market. While eating In-n-Out following the fiasco that was Old Navy I realized we are out around $2,000 a month based on what we pay for our place back in Chicago. For a moment I thought about the things we could do with $2,000 a month. Get new phones … take a much needed vacation … put money away for investments/emergency fund … purchase a few items for the house we need/want … buy more underwear and socks. That’s a lot of money every month and for a few minutes it got the best of me and made sure I didn’t enjoy my hamburger.

So I get to start the week following up with Sprint who has screwed up my bill for the third month in a row; the washer/dryer service company who didn’t return a call; the Subaru dealership who didn’t return our call; and our real estate agent to argue about their new “cancellation fee” they want to impose.

Strange Days Indeed

Something strange about living in Los Angeles . . . it’s the home to so many famous people and when something happens to them you are right there – you know what I mean?

Michael Jackson, the world’s most gifted entertainer, dies 2 minutes from where H was working yesterday and no more than 15-20 minutes from our condo. I’m at home last night and look out the window to see the helicopter carrying his body fly by. The night before he passes away he’s two blocks down the street rehearsing.

. . . and this sort of thing is just every day life here in LA.

Strange days indeed.

Good news is the washer/dryer repair guy will be here sometime between 10 am and 2 pm today. I love the four hour window *sarcasm*. Hey, whatever it takes to get clean clothes on this guy’s body – I’m all for it.

Still haven’t decided how we are going to play the whole cost of the washer/dryer. Still waiting to speak with our legal friend and I am hoping to steal some time this afternoon to make some calls to the city of Los Angeles. It doesn’t help that I’m generally a nice guy and don’t want to start some kind of conflict. However, $100 is a $100 and I’m not about to lay down for some loaded dude from OC.

Sticking with current events – a woman called on Wednesday wanting to know about our recent experience at the dealership service department. I explained what happened and was told a manager would call tomorrow to talk about our unsatisfactory service. You think a call came through? Hell no.

H keeps buying these soft cookies for me at Ralph’s. They are incredibly delicious but can’t be good for me at all.