All Washed Up, But Not Going to Dish It Out

Yesterday was the day our appliances were going to be delivered to our place in Florida. The property manager was planning on being there for the delivery and promised to e-mail a progress report. There was no reason for us to hang around, being six hours ahead and 3,000 miles away, so we went out for the evening.

When we returned home, I found this e-mail from our property manager. "I am at the unit with Brandsmart and it seems like you ordered 2 washing machines instead of a dishwasher, I have them taking one back to replace but I'm sure the dishwasher is cheaper so you will have to get a credit from them. I will verify the prices when I get back to the office but in the meantime please double check the order."

I start spinning like a top. I knew I did not order a dishwasher, but I was also positive I did not order 2 washing machines either. I found the receipts that I had already sent to the property manager, wondering where he even came up with the idea of a dishwasher. By gosh, I have to hand wash my dishes, the tenants should have to also. But 2 washing machines? Where was he getting this. 

I had multiple copies of receipts. I forwarded each one to Alain, our property manager, stuffing up his Blackberry with data. I envision his Blackberry becoming so engorged,  blackberry juice squirts in all directions drenching him. Well fine then. That will teach him to read the invoices properly and see there was never a dishwasher on the list. The 2 washing machines were the screw up of BrandsMart. What can I say?

For the 47th time, I look over the receipts for the appliances I had ordered. Refrigerator, microwave, stove, washing machine, dryer. Quantity: 1, 1, 1, 2, 1. Whoa! Back up there. Where did that 2 come from. As it turns out, with all of the order numbers, sku numbers, dimensions, prices, and capacities listed on the paperwork, the quantities did not pop out at me. I admit that I have a mild form of dyscalculia, the numbers version of dyslexia. My mild version results in number reversal. If I need to use 21, I have make sure I do not put 12 instead. This takes a great deal of time checking and rechecking, especially with all of the districts, building numbers, prices, and phone numbers included in my books.

Calling Florida to get this straightened out again is going to be another joy ride, but life is one adventure after another. 

The icing on the cake is that the appliances did not come with power cords. You have to buy them separately. When the hell did that happen? Every washer and dryer I have ever bought had an electric cord permanently attached to the back. When did this stop, but the better question is why did it? To gouge more money from the buyer? These cords are $15-30. each. God bless capitalism, consumerism, corporations, and God help the working poor, the destitute, the disadvantaged.

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Two Shakes of a Lambs Tail and Internet Magic

Here is the next phase, deciding on an appliance store. My first thought was Sears. Has any American grown up without a Sears Kenmore product in their home? I would think you are in the minority if you had. My grandparents as well as the next generation swore by them. However, when I mentioned it to the property manager, he said they were overpriced and I should use BrandsMart, a local chain. 

I had concerns about whether or not the appliance store would let me order online. There is the credit card issue, living in Europe, but using American issued credit cards can sometimes be difficult.The property manager said they would not accept my card. Mike, my friend on the ground called the local store and they said yes they would. I found that they would on their web site, but e-mailed them to confirm it and they said no, they would not. Talk about mixed messages. 

I could have sent a check to the property manager with my wish list, but I was not sure how much tax and delivery would be, but the bigger issue was getting my frequent flier miles. I want everyone I can get.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I shopped the Brandsmart web site like I was buying today, which I was if it would let me. I picked out the largest of what would fit into spaces in case they rent to a family: My choices were a: 

Hotpoint 3.2 cub. ft washing machine

GE 7.0 cub ft dryer

GE 5.3 cub ft Electric range (I hope it is large enough for a good sized Thanksgiving turkey)

GE 1.5 cub ft over the range microwave

Frigidaire 18 cub ft top freezer/refrigerator

After arranging all of these so nicely in my shopping cart, making sure no edges were sticking out that would slam into any other shopper or their cart, I called American Express.

I had my billing address temporarily changed to my friend's home in Santa Fe, NM. Then I went back to my shopping and registered for an account. 

Dum-de-dum-dum...the moment of truth...will he or won't he be able to make this purchase. Praise be to capitalism it was successful. The store swallowed up $1,911.72 like a compressed sponge soaks up water. Sluuuuup. Delivery date is set for May 5th. Ta-da!!

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Tag Cloud

You may have noticed there is now a Tag Cloud on the right side. This crawls through the labels on the blog and chooses the most often used words. Clicking on any word will bring you to the postings where that label has been used. It took a great deal of time to find a Tag Cloud that worked well with this template, but I finally did at http://www.wowzio.com. Additionally, this service has created another interesting service called Pulse. They are in the process of extracting product reviews from blogs that they are hosted on to create consumer product ratings and reviews. From what I could tell, so far, it is limited to some kitchen appliances, but hopefully this will expand as they progress further. Keep you eye on it. These are real reviews by real people who have written a review on their blog about particular products. http://www.wowzio.com/docs/insights-shopping

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Technology Hell Calling

I confess, I am a technology junkie. There I said it. My name is Ryan and I am addicted to technology. (Chorus: Hello Ryan). There is a certain pride that at my age I am more computer savvy than many of my students. This all goes to hell when something goes belly up, which happens often when I near anything electrical. One of our acquaintaces insists it it the Mercury Retrograde that is responsible. If that is the case, the retrograde has been in my star sign for decades too long. It used to be so common at one point, I would plan on returning an appliance before I ever left a store, knowing ahead of time it would not work when I returned home. It was habitual. Everyone that knows me, knows that I have perpetual computer problems. One of my students came over a month ago to see why our router suddenly stopped working. I tried everything Google had to offer to no avail. He finally switched it out with his own and took mine home to try. Within ten minutes, it went up in smoke. So was I surprised when my Western Digital 500 GB external hard drive stopped cold in its computerized tracks? Well, seriously, I really was. We were having such a good relationship, I thought we were beyond the stage of "Is this really going to work out for us" when it dumped me. Not only did I have abandonment issues, but it stole the 500 movies I had stored on there. Now that hurt. While I was licking my wounds, what I did not need was a dash of salt poured into them. My Palm Treo 750 died. Not even plugging it in to charge showed an iota of life. Now I am phone shopping, but time is short. For a brief moment, I thought of taking it for repair, but hey, I have spent 24,000 forints on the selfish little ingrate already. Time to kiss its little touch pad good bye. It causes me to laugh when I read in consumer magazines that extended warranties are worthless. They should spend a month with me.

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