Dryer Drama

Last Friday Steve's dad's dryer quit working.  Apparently the belts fell off or something (I have since learned that the dryer was 40+ years old, so it would seem that it was due for some belt-falling-off).  Anyhow, it was deemed that it was time for a new dryer.

I volunteered to take charge of this project, because it seemed fairly simple.  I could look online at a popular household-type store, let's call it "Blows" and order one to be delivered to him.  However, after thinking about it for a minute (my usual thinking timespan), I decided perhaps the easier thing would be to call the local store in his town and complete the transaction with a real person via telephone.

I called the store, chatted with Bubba, who filled out the form and then transferred me to Customer Service and I talked with Beatrice, who completed the order.  One of them took down the delivery address (although when Beatrice pulled up the order, she did ask me if my name was Rosa Mendoza or something - I should have heeded this red flag).  Anyhow, Bubba said that the dryer would be delivered on Saturday, although he didn't know when, but the delivery dudes would call.  Of course did I ask for a purchase order number or for the purchase order be emailed to me?  Of course not!!

Saturday arrived and I expected a call saying the dryer had been installed.  Steve's dad's birthday party was going on at his house, so I knew somebody would be there.  By the end of the day (and the party), however, no dryer had been delivered.  Steve's sister made a few calls and they eventually found the order - but under a different name (but with the correct address).  Again, did I heed the even redder flag?  Of course not!

Sunday came and went with no dryer.  I called Blows HQ and talked with Tinamarie, who couldn't pull up jack squat on her computer.  I assured her that I could clearly see that my Visa had been charged for a dryer, which apparently at this point had become a phantom dryer.  She then connected me with the local store and I chatted a few minutes with Ricky Bobby, who put me on hold while he talked with Joe Don, and then got back on the phone to tell me that the store was closed, the 'puters were shut down, and I would need to call back tomorrow.

So now we are at Monday with no dryer.  I called the store and talked with Operator Olive, who transferred me back to appliances.  Rita Mae was working (guess it was Bubba's day off) and after searching (and putting me on hold), she said she didn't have any record of any dryer.  She then transferred me to delivery, who answered the phone and then apparently put the phone in a barrel, as I was still connected but could hear nothing.

So I disconnected and called the store back and asked to chat with delivery again.  Marty answered and actually had the full story.  Apparently they delivered the dryer on Saturday.  To what address, I do not know.  However, when they got to the mystery address, the lady who answered the door said that she did not order a dryer and that the credit card had been stolen.  To which I told Marty that the credit card had indeed not been stolen, as I could plainly see that I had been charged for the dryer.  To which he said that when they called the store to report the no-dryer-ordered/stolen-credit-card dilemma, the store people told him to bring the dryer back to the store.  He then connected me back to customer service.

I then told this whole story to Yolanda, who said that I needed to talk to the manager and she would connect me.  After five minutes of being on hold, then being told that the manager was out on the floor and would need to be paged, and then holding some more, and then being told that the manager was on another call, Yolanda took my name and phone number and said the manager would call me back.  She didn't but Yolanda did and told me that the dryer was brought back and my credit card was refunded the money.  I told her I didn't see it on my online credit card information, and she said it would take three to five days to show up.

So Steve's dad had no dryer (and I would suppose a lot of wet clothes).  Yolanda said I would need to do the order all over, and connected me back to appliances and Rita Mae, who was not so thrilled about taking my order.  When I requested the dryer that I had ordered on Friday, she told me that they didn't stock that dryer anymore (I guess a lot happened over the weekend).  To which I replied (very nicely, I might add) that this whole process had been a mess, and thank you very much, but I was going elsewhere for my dryer needs.

Thirty minutes later, after calling a local appliance store in town, I had a dryer headed for GDizzle's house.  And Dizzle would have dry clothes by suppertime!! 

Now to go check my Visa statement ...

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Today was a great day because:  breakfast with Marilyn, Eddie, KB, and Molly; hemming Everley's curtains and removing closet door; A1 Appliance people and getting GDiz a dryer