Today I received a notification that my dear friend from 8th Grade and High School has died. She was my maid of honor at my first wedding, and although we didn't see each other very often after we both married, we kept in touch.
A picture sent at Christmas this year was hard for me to look at because she had changed so much. Now I know why. She has been ill for several years and on dialysis.
So now she's gone. Goodbye, Carol. I'll miss your cards, but I still have wonderful memories.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Sometimes Good Things Happen
We bought a beautiful refrigerator with Dutch doors and a freezer on the bottom two and a half years ago. Within a couple of weeks we knew something was wrong with it because it kept freezing everything in the top part as well as the freezer. So a repair man came out and discovered some of the packing material hadn't been removed and the air wasn't circulating. A few more weeks went by and we had to call him out again. Something else was wrong and the temperature wouldn't stay where it belonged and everything froze. So a part was ordered and he came out again and fixed the problem.
Fast forward: Sometime within the next six months everything in the freezer had ice crystals all over. Repair man again. Then whenever the drawer of the freezer was pulled out to get ice, the arm on the ice maker threw ice behind the drawer, onto the defrost tray and then speeding out across the floor. Repair man again, and again, and again and again. Sometime during these visits when I spoke with Sears about the problems we were encountering I was told that if we had more than three repair visits within a year we were to get a new refrigerator. This sounded great because we were rapidly getting our three in! However - the catch was that it had to be for the same problem. Once it was the arm, once it was the ice maker itself, and then again it was the arm. Now we have an extended warranty, so we weren't paying for these repair calls, but they were adding up for Sears! Each repair visit averaged about $180 just for the repair man, not for the parts. We had just about figured out that the cost of repairing the refrigerator had now reached almost what we paid for it.
In all of this the contract repair men were wonderful, helpful, courteous and just as frustrated as we became.
I finally had Bill call Sears the last three times because I was so frustrated. I had to clear out the freezer section each time the repair man came so he could take out the drawer to work on the ice maker. Bill got extremely angry during the last call because he kept being transferred to different sections of Sears Customer Solutions - and there were no solutions. He even threatened to sue, although we wouldn't have done that - we're too old to go through that, and it would have cost us more than a new refrigerator.
Well - the happy end of the story is - this afternoon we got a call from a very apologetic man at Sears telling us that we were to get a new refrigerator! Tomorrow we'll go up to Sears and pick out one - up to $2,200.00!! And they will deliver it and take away the poor lemon at no charge to us.
That is what I call customer satisfaction!
We will not get a refrigerator with the ice maker in the freezer where it can throw ice cubes on the floor this time. We will get a refrigerator with the ice maker in the door with the water dispenser so we can have ice cubes fall on the floor along with dripping water!
Fast forward: Sometime within the next six months everything in the freezer had ice crystals all over. Repair man again. Then whenever the drawer of the freezer was pulled out to get ice, the arm on the ice maker threw ice behind the drawer, onto the defrost tray and then speeding out across the floor. Repair man again, and again, and again and again. Sometime during these visits when I spoke with Sears about the problems we were encountering I was told that if we had more than three repair visits within a year we were to get a new refrigerator. This sounded great because we were rapidly getting our three in! However - the catch was that it had to be for the same problem. Once it was the arm, once it was the ice maker itself, and then again it was the arm. Now we have an extended warranty, so we weren't paying for these repair calls, but they were adding up for Sears! Each repair visit averaged about $180 just for the repair man, not for the parts. We had just about figured out that the cost of repairing the refrigerator had now reached almost what we paid for it.
In all of this the contract repair men were wonderful, helpful, courteous and just as frustrated as we became.
I finally had Bill call Sears the last three times because I was so frustrated. I had to clear out the freezer section each time the repair man came so he could take out the drawer to work on the ice maker. Bill got extremely angry during the last call because he kept being transferred to different sections of Sears Customer Solutions - and there were no solutions. He even threatened to sue, although we wouldn't have done that - we're too old to go through that, and it would have cost us more than a new refrigerator.
Well - the happy end of the story is - this afternoon we got a call from a very apologetic man at Sears telling us that we were to get a new refrigerator! Tomorrow we'll go up to Sears and pick out one - up to $2,200.00!! And they will deliver it and take away the poor lemon at no charge to us.
That is what I call customer satisfaction!
We will not get a refrigerator with the ice maker in the freezer where it can throw ice cubes on the floor this time. We will get a refrigerator with the ice maker in the door with the water dispenser so we can have ice cubes fall on the floor along with dripping water!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Back in the Mood
It's been a while. We had a great time in Victoria doing nothing much except reading, looking and buying in book stores, eating in various restaurants,(although it looks as if we ate at The Blethering Place several times!) and some museum-looking and the usual touristy things. It was blustery while we were there, but didn't rain much. Really too cold to do much walking, although we did do some. Bill, as usual, got some good pictures of the harbour (notice the British spelling, please!)
We picked up grandson, Caymon, on our way home and had him here for three days. Dave and Candy joined us on New Year's Day, and the three of them journeyed home on the 2nd. That visit was special in many ways. Unfortunately it rained the whole time, so Caymon and Bill weren't able to do much outside work. They just had fun!
On the 3rd I started feeling a sore throat coming on. And for the rest of the week I've been sick with a coughing cold - courtesy of Caymon! It's finally beginning to leave, and I'm feeling more like writing in the blog. It has been a productive week for reading, however, as I've done nothing much more than that! Finished three books, and am halfway through the fourth.
So - Happy New Year!
We picked up grandson, Caymon, on our way home and had him here for three days. Dave and Candy joined us on New Year's Day, and the three of them journeyed home on the 2nd. That visit was special in many ways. Unfortunately it rained the whole time, so Caymon and Bill weren't able to do much outside work. They just had fun!
On the 3rd I started feeling a sore throat coming on. And for the rest of the week I've been sick with a coughing cold - courtesy of Caymon! It's finally beginning to leave, and I'm feeling more like writing in the blog. It has been a productive week for reading, however, as I've done nothing much more than that! Finished three books, and am halfway through the fourth.
So - Happy New Year!
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