"Fourth time is the charm!" Wait, that's not how that goes?
So, I was a Prisoner of the Fridge again this afternoon, waiting for the
"senior tech who can diagnose the issue once and for all." I was so happy when I got a call from the nice, straight-talking young man of the many tattoos, saying he'd arrive shortly. In all of this mess, he has been consistently competent and straightforward with his assessment of the situation, but he wasn't sent out to make the initial diagnosis, and the first guy didn't bother to check the freon - and let's remember, they are sent as minions of Absolutely Horrible Service. They do what they are authorized to do, and now, on VISIT FOUR, they were told to just figure it out and get it fixed. So, today he arrived ready to test/replace the freon.
Freon, young ones, is a coolant not used in refrigerators in this century, because it, um, eats the ozone layer and does other bad things when it gets out. But there are plenty of older refrigerators in service that still need to be refilled with it. This is an older, late 80s/early 90s era fridge, and indeed, it was low on freon. The first guy who came out way back before Thanksgiving apparently never bothered to check this basic thing. My straight talking tattooed hero came loaded for bear, er, freon, and said if that doesn't work he's out of solutions and it needs to be put out of our misery - he's all for dragging it to the golf course to let frustrated golfers have their way with it.
So he left, and a couple of hours later per his advice I lowered the arm on the icemaker, and waited to see what happened. At first, nothing, but then: "Kachunk...clatter!" We have ice! I am cautiously optimistic - the patient lives - I will feel around in the freezer later to see if those cubes are still individuals and not melding into an iceberg, but somehow, I think this very obvious solution that should have been identified on the first visit may turn out to be the fix. And boy, I'm going to share THAT with the CEO of Absolutely Horrible Service - because remember, I didn't PICK this repair company, they did, and the approximately 16 hours of my time and unknown dollars of spoiled food is not covered by their self-serving service agreement.
Hurray for tattooed heros! Fingers & toes crossed for individual ice cubes in the a.m. :D
ReplyDeleteHow can the service company be so slack as not to THINK that a fridge of that generation just MIGHT be worth checking for gas?
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for our 'system' of rugged individualists here in Oz. The repairman has to do the job to my satisfaction, or he knows that not only will I not call him again, he will lose that priceless resource, word of mouth recommendations to my friends.
Time, wasted food, frustration (and do not forget Murphy's medical condition) I hope YOU are loaded for bear when you write that letter...... your word processer will sizzle.
Gae, in Callala Bay
Gae, I could have gone that route and hired my own service company outside the warranty, or just gone and bought a new fridge, but given the age of the fridge it was a calculated risk to ask the warranty company to fix it or replace it. It's not ancient and is immaculate, and if it keeps working two more years it's worth it to go this route. But the execution has been awful, and if the freon doesn't fix it, next stop is a new fridge. And for sure I am going to tell the CEO about my delightful experience, and also make sure that the tattooed hero isn't lumped in with the rest of his company. He's the one who came out to do the first fix after the diagnosis, with the "part that might work," and cocked an eyebrow and asked me why his co-worker thought this was the answer, and called the warranty company to tell them his opinion. But we are all doing it via the warranty company procedure. It's still cheaper (so far) than buying a new fridge myself.
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