Out with the old, in with the new

Simple Simeon right?

I mean, the hard part was the hunt - having to purchase under pressure and with the added restrictions of 'fitting the hole'. Well, that and the cleaning out of the spoiled food, not to mention the floor underneath. Ah, but we were ready! At 7 AM today, we were ready. Delivery scheduled for Saturday - a sigh of relief after being without a refrigerator since Wednesday.


10 AM came, the phone rang with what I hoped to be the much anticipated call that the delivery truck was on it's way...

Wrong.

"Mrs. Overton? I'm calling on behalf of ......... to let you know that your refrigerator will not be delivered today, your model wasn't in our warehouse"

"Excuse me? We bought the floor model, of course it's not in the warehouse, it's on display in the store."

"Well the store didn't bring it to us, they are suppose to bring those to us.....we need to reschedule your delivery because our drivers have already left"

"You don't deliver on Sunday do you? I guess we're talking Monday?"

"No mam, the earliest I can reschedule would be Thursday the 14th"

"I don't think so. (said nicely but firmly) I've been without a refrigerator since Wednesday night, I purchased this one on Thursday, I understood having to wait until the truck could come on Saturday, but my paperwork says Saturday the 9th and I need my refrigerator. I have out of town guests coming in for Mother's Day weekend that will be arriving around noon and I don't have a refrigerator. It's only 10 AM, you have all day to come up with a solution, I need you to assist me with this problem."

"Mam, I can't, the truck has already left and the driver has his route. It will be Thursday the 14th before we can deliver."

UGH!!!

So I call the store where I purchased the appliance and the wonderful customer service gal who helped me pick it out immediately started digging into the problem. Their paperwork said today but the delivery company's paperwork said next Thursday. (some sly person changed the paperwork I'm guessing). She said she was trying to find a solution, that the contracted delivery company was suppose to come pick up the floor model, all the paperwork indicated that it was a floor model and not a warehouse item and that she would speak to the manager who happened to be tied up in a meeting -- could she call me back within an hour or so. Oh, and did I mention that I shared with her that I either needed the refrig delivered today or my money back to go somewhere else and purchase my 'second choice' because I needed an appliance! Of course all this was I hope said very sweetly as I firmly believe you can atrack more flies with honey than vinegar (grin).

Noon came. True to her word she called back, said they were working on the problem, that is was possible they would use their own truck and bring it out, she would keep me posted.

2:30 PM. Long long day. I called to check on the progress...seems they really were working on it and doing their best but it would be delivered today she just wasn't sure of what time. Sigh of relief!

4:40 PM Time for my two hour update. I call again, my sweet little gal had gone home but she left me in capable hands of another associate who assured me that it was indeed on a truck and now it was a matter of routing, I'm guessing they had something else to deliver too, which was fine with me, I was just relieved to hear that it was being moved this direction! She thought it would be closer to 6 PM and said that if I needed to run a quick errand to do so, they would call when they were about 20 minutes out.

In the meantime during the course of watching the clock for 2 hour updates, my guests did arrive. Since there was nothing to eat in the house we did manage a quick run to Subway for lunch around 1 PM and had hoped the appliance would have been delivered in time to go out for a nice supper at the Kemah Boardwalk...when I learned that it would be near 6 PM we decided that would be too late to try to go out to eat on a Saturday night so I decided we'd make some potato soup from a mix I had in the pantry, but I wanted to run to the store to get some grated cheese and pick up some crackers....I knew I couldn't do my "grocery" shopping since even with the refrig on it's way it wouldn't be cold enough yet...so left hubby and Pixxie guarding the house waiting on the phone call and we ran to the local grocery store.

You guessed it! They came and went while I was gone. Can you believe that! I waited almost 11 hours for delivery and I missed all the excitement!

Ah, but it's here, and it passed Pixxie's inspection. This is the cleanest it's ever goin'a be so take a good look at my new kitchen appliance!! We were told to let it sit for 30 minutes before plugging it in (something about the freon and transit) then to allow 24 hours for it to cool down before adding food.

The good news is it kicked in when we did plug it and and the lights even work! The real test will be in the morning when we check the temperature...

So, it's been a long day and my guests have been most patient. We've made plans to go to I-Hop in the morning for breakfast before going to church. Guess I get a Mother's Day breakfast out instead of a lunch out! But that's fine by me. Looks like I got a new refrigerator/freezer for Mother's Day too!

I'm a happy camper. And the gals at my local store are to be praised for their persistence in trying to find a solution for me, especially when the gal at the contracted delivery company wasn't willing to go out of her way to help a lady in need. I will be writing my comments to the corporate office stating the facts, and again, praising the manager who took it upon himself to personally make a delivery so this lady didn't have to go another week without a refrigerator!

All's well that ends well!

Hum? Was this a test?