This is an old, familiar rant:
it's 0252 as I write this; my alarm goes off at something like 0401. SInce I didn't actually put head to pillow until 2208, I am running on less than four hours of sleep, but that is partially compensated by anger.
Oh, I have a job interview at 0700. Then I get to do my day job until 1600 at the earliest. Nonetheless, I intend to call Lowes warranty repair at least once today.
You see, my refrigerator is broken. Has been since March 16th. This is the same fridge that broke when it was six months old and back then, it took ten months to get it fully operational. I think it lasted eight months before breaking again.
So, it's three years old, same things going wrong with it as the last three or four times is has broken on me. Here is a typical repair cycle for me:
I call Lowes warranty service, they make an appointment, about a week out. Then I get a call from the local repair subcontractor. They reschedule, because Lowes overbooked them for that day. So, their people show up, say, yup, it's broke, and order parts.
Ten days or so later, they call and say my parts are in and schedule a visit. Now, about half the time, they show and they have the wrong part. Or sometimes, I forget to turn off the fridge ahead of time (or, because this fridge excels at making ice everywhere except where it's supposed to be, it's still frozen over after being unplugged for 24 hours), and they have to schedule a follow-up call; a good ten days later. After the third of fourth visit, the fridge is fixed. Maybe.
So, March 16th-- I call Lowes. They schedule a visit. The contractor calls me a couple days later. We can't go at that time, because we are overbooked. We are scheduling you a day earlier. Can't, because I am out of town on that day. Schedule next week. They show up on the 3rd of May. Order parts.
May 4th, the sub-contractor calls and leaves a message on my machine saying they can't service my fridge because they can't get parts. I call Lowes on May 5th. They schedule a new appointment, with a different sub-contractor. Actually, there is only one sub-contractor in town that handles my model fridge. These are the guys who can't seem to figure out which part number to order the first time around... who I've called to complain about the last two or three repair cycles. Whatever.
So, these guys come out. May 18th. Two of them this time and one is a trainee, They actually take some time to troubleshoot, figure out that there are a couple problems going on and order parts. Mind you, the fridge is not cooling: the temp is set to 35° but it is showing at best 59° F. They call and say they have parts, schedule June 1st. Now, I am taking my family to the coast for vacation on the 30th of May, so I drive them down, set them up, and then drive home on the 31st. Turn off the fridge.
June 1st, they show up with the parts. The back panel is still frozen over so they can't replace it. Reschedule on June 7th. I've got what little food (mostly condiments) in a cooler, and I'm buying ice every day to keep things cool. For a week. June 7th, guy shows up. "We didn't leave the part here?" No, if you had, I would have installed it my own damn self five days ago (we'd actually had a conversation about it last week). Goes back to truck. Keep in mind that my family is still on vacation. I have been to the coast for about thirty hours for this vacation.
Guy comes back in. After chewing out his handler back at the office, he finally finds the part in his van (imagine that). Only problem is, it's broken. "We will get the part and overnight it, maybe get scheduled in by Friday." Well, Friday is no good; I work on Friday (that is today, by the way...), so you'll have to schedule some time next week, after Monday. Monday is when I go to retrieve my family from vacation. If anyone has been counting, that's a 14 day vacation, and yours truly got to spend a grand total of 62 hours at the coast. At least twenty of those hours sleeping.
So, I call Lowes warranty service. Again. Look, this is ridiculous, you guys have a lemon policy! Look at the history of this fridge: it's three years old and has been in the repair cycle for almost half that time! "Well, sir, our lemon policy is three service calls within thirty days."
Then it occurred to me. This morning, at zero-dark-thirty... three calls within thirty days implies a repair cycle of ten days or less.
Ten days or less. It takes more than ten days for a repair guy to show up and freaking look at my fridge to say, 'yup, it's broke'!
So, I'm calling shenanigans. I will find time during my work day today to call Lowes and escalate this. If I have to, I will call every day. If I had actually claimed the $250 food spoilage insurance every time I made a service call, I would have been reimbursed enough to buy a new fridge.
For almost an hour this morning, I have been plotting revenge: I will gather all the phones at my disposal and call their service center and then put them on hold. I will call every radio and television station in town, then I will start calling radio and television stations in other towns. Newspapers. Create web pages, twitter accounts, Myface. Instagram pictures of my broken fridge alongside more pictures of rotting food. Smellovision. I will call Martha Stewart, Oprah, Judge Judy, and Ellen Degeneris. Where the hell is Colbert's number? John Oliver's?
I will promise to vote for Trump if he gets me a new fridge, or Hillary. Or, hell, both!
I do not think I am being unreasonable in wanting a refrigerator that actually does what it is advertised to do: keep food cold, make and dispense ice. That's really all I want. Considering how much money this fridge costs, at the least, it should have done this job for two or three years, and it hasn't. Really, it's Samsung's fault-- it's their fridge that's crappy; Lowes problem is that they sold it to me, and sold me a five year service plan.
Okay rant done... for now!
