Caroline Kennedy, pictured in 2008, has ended her bid to occupy the US Senate seat vacated by newly sworn-in Secretary of State Hillarity Clintoon, New York State Governor David Paterson said Thursday.
Good morning...we got the water heater parts and Dave put them in. NO hot water still! I’m calling them as soon as the Whirlpool support lines are open this morning. I emailed Whirlpool and American last night demanding a new water heater. Then I read on a consumer affairs website of others with same problem. Some were given a new water heater just to start the same headaches over again. Maybe I don’t want a new water heater! How about cash!
Tammy 24 Jan 2009, 0:42 a.m.
#Memories Hi Tammy, Sorry you still can’t get your water heater fixed. I know how frustrating it can get. You beat me to the send button this morning. I was about half finished with my story below when you sent your comment. Here’s the warranty story I promised ——
I’ve told my “warranty problem” story so many times there is a good chance you may have heard it already but I’m going to tell it again anyway because I can and I want to. If you recognize it and don’t like re-runs then close your eyes or skip down to the end of the page and write your own story!
To set the scene we are talking mid-70s. I was single and living in my first house. I didn’t have much for money after buying the house so I ended up making two purchases of note —— a refrigerator and a microwave. They went well with my bean bag chairs, concrete block and plank stereo table, etc. I had an avocado and black folding table in the kitchen with classic 60s wire and vinyl chairs that matched the avocado and black décor.
The trouble began about two years after I bought the refrigerator from Gil’s Appliance in Pekin. I remember it was still under warranty but just barely. It quit making cold and I called to have a service guy come do his thing. They gave me a time around 4 p.m. and I remember that because I was working day shift as a Cat apprentice at the time and I had to really book it to get home in time. I also remember thinking that was good though because I had a date at 7:00. I raced home and no service guy until after 6:00. He looked at it and took some panels off and finally I told him he would either have to come back another time or take the thing to the shop with him because I had to leave and it wasn’t my fault he was almost two hours late. He suggested I go ahead and he would stay in the house alone to work on it and he would lock up after himself. I wasn’t real comfortable with this and I asked him if he was bonded. He had no idea what that meant and I tried to explain it is a legal agreement similar to insurance that assures that he is a responsible worker, won’t hold me liable for his damages, etc. He decided to leave since I didn’t “trust him”. And I didn’t. I don’t trust any stranger as far as that goes. We left. The refrigerator was in pieces.
I called back as soon as I got home from work the next day to find out when they would be coming back to finish repairing the refrigerator and the lady who answered the phone said the owner had decided they weren’t going to “mess with me”. I wrote that down. I asked a couple times to talk to Gil, the owner, and never got through to him. So I got out all the paperwork I had and started calling the manufacturer —— Westinghouse. Oddly enough all these calls were cordial and polite. They ended the same though. It turned out that Gil’s was the regional retail warranty service outlet and they were supposed to do the repairs. Finally somebody in a Chicago office, just before closing, agreed to contact this Gil and tell him he had to repair it because he wouldn’t take my calls. My kitchen smelled like sour milk so I cleaned it up.
Next day is a Friday and I got a real nasty, angry phone call from Gil. He told me he would NEVER fix the expletive thing and he wouldn’t stand for me calling his repairman a thief and on and on. He got to that part about I better not “mess with him” no more when I hung up. I was young and foolish at the time. My first inclination was to go beat the hell out of Mr. Gil. Instead I called the guy back who had agreed to help me previously and he said he didn’t think there was anything they could do. I went off. I remember telling him I would write an editorial to every newspaper in Illinois about this and tell everybody in my union hall, etc. I was hot. He gave me a couple more phone numbers and said he would see what he could do but that he wasn’t optimistic. I called the numbers and couldn’t get any farther than the secretary of that office —— today’s equivalent of an answering machine. I repeated my anger and threats to each.
The next day, Saturday, I get this phone call from some guy who said he was Somebody. All I recall is something like Regional Vice-President or other —— he’s Somebody. He wanted to assure me he had spoken with Gil and that all was resolved. A truck would be at my house in the next hour or two to pick up the refrigerator and it would be repaired free of charge and returned by Monday evening. He apologized up and down and asked, pretty please, if I would refrain from any nasty newspaper editorials. I agreed not to as long as they were sure Gil understood he couldn’t treat people the way he treated me. Especially when this Gil was a warranty shop. The guy told me not to worry, that Gil had been “taken care of”. So I pressed him a bit and Mr. Somebody said that Gil had agreed with what I had said and had gotten snotty with Mr. Somebody too. So now Gil wasn’t going to be a warranty center anymore. Music to my ears! I know vengeance is not nice —— but it is. After all the blood pressure and adrenaline wasted on that jerk I felt very nice indeed that by blowing the whistle on him I had cost him some big bucks.
Moral of the story —— raise hell and make actionable threats —— don’t go “beat the hell” out of them. At least if you want to get it fixed and stay out of jail.
MjL 24 Jan 2009, 6:52 a.m.
#RetireeBreakfast I’m going to town pretty soon to have breakfast with a bunch of guys I used to work with at Cat. Most of us are retired but some are still enslaved until they finish doing their time. I will be full of more stories by the time I get home again! I will probably have heard most them already but sometimes they morph into different stories so you can tell the again!
MjL 24 Jan 2009, 7:05 a.m.
Alright, I’ve got a warranty story to top off yours! This was about 6 years ago. My dad bought a blue dodge Dakota pickup from Sam Leman. It was barely used with mileage around 20,000. Dodge has a 7 year 70,000 warranty. With that knowledge the fun begins!
Around 40,000 miles the transmission went out. (Dodges are notorious for this). In the shop for awhile but they replaced it free. Worked great until around 70,000….70,058 to be exact. Guess what happened. The darn transmission went out. Well, into the dealership again and the saga began. The dealership refused to replace the transmission since the truck exceeded the 70,000 mile warranty. The bill was for over $800!
My dad, the shortest tempered man I know, went in raising all hell. He went straight to the manager and he explained, only to lead to another dead end. After that he went home and began calling Mopar (Dodge headquarters). They went around but finally came to the conclusion… Not their problem since the truck went over 70,000 miles. So, back to the dealership. This time I remember he was hot about it! Back to the manager and some words and extreme anger were expressed until they were going to call the police on him!
My dad up and left the office which led to the showroom. He then began going to each customer he saw and told them the story and how they are going to get screwed by the dealership. After a few customers left and drove away, a police car arrived and told dad he had to leave the property, to which he did.
The next day he went back and right when he opened the door, the manager came running over and told him not to worry because they have a new transmission on order. They would replace it at no charge within the next few days. So, the story ends with a fixed truck and the dealership out about 4 or 5 potential sales! We now call the dealership Sam Lemon.
K. Monroe 24 Jan 2009, 8:26 a.m.
Kyle, I, too, bought a car from Sam Lemon....1 car -- 1 time! I don’t go near that dealership at all.
You can add Whirlpool and American to “the list”. American told me this morning that I had to pay for a licensed technician to come to my house on a Sat., call American from my house and tell them if the water heater could or could not be fixed. If not, then they would get me a new water heater.
Whirlpool (after 5 phone calls) are sending us ANOTHER thermocouple....3 in 4 years now! Of course, that means it won’t be here until Tuesday! UGH!
Dave wants to put the water heater on the curb with a sign telling people this is what happens when you buy Whirlpool/American products! I’d love to do just that!
Tammy 24 Jan 2009, 11:37 a.m.
ooops....no stress here.....I can’t even spell my own name!
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